Ch. xii. Restrictions upon Importation. 195 



reals vellon the fanega, and in 1792 the lowest 

 was only 16 reals vellon the fanega. In the market 

 of Medina del Rio Seco, a town of the kingdom of 

 Leon, surrounded by a very fine corn country, the 

 price of the load of four fanegas of wheat was, in 

 May, 1800, 100 reals vellon, and in May, 1804, 

 600 reals vellon, and these were both what are 

 called loui prices, as compared with the highest 

 prices of the year. The difference would be 

 greater if the high prices were compared with the 

 low prices. Thus, in 1799, the low price of the 

 four fanegas was 88 reals vellon, and in 1804 the 

 high price of the four fanegas was 640 reals vel- 

 lon, — a difference of above seven times in so short 

 a period as six years.* 



In Spain, foreign corn is freely admitted ; yet 

 the variation of price, in the towns of Andalusia, 

 a province adjoining the sea, and penetrated by 

 the river Guadalquiver, though not so great as 

 those just mentioned, seem to shew that the 

 coasts of the Mediterranean by no means furnish 

 very steady supplies. It is known, indeed, that 

 Spain is the principal competitor of England in 

 the purchase of grain in the Baltic ; and as it is 

 quite certain that what may be called the growing 

 or usual price of corn in Spain is much lower than 

 in England, it follows, that the difference between 

 the prices of plentiful and scarce years must be 

 very considerable. 



I have not the means of ascertaining the varia- 



* Bullion Report. Appendix, p. 185. 



o2 



