A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



the fine went to London, but the dealers tried to keep the same prices in 

 both markets. In 1770 the justices of St. Albans even tied the bread prices 

 together. The assize of bread was to be regulated by the London assize, 

 the wheaten peck loaf being id. less in St. Albans than in London and other 

 loaves in proportion." London was drawing supplies always from more 

 distant counties. Nevertheless this stimulus made the corn trade and corn- 

 growing for the market the employment on which the county depended. 



The golden age of the Hertfordshire corn dealer began about 1750. 

 Prices were rising. The quartern wheaten loaf, which was ^\d. at St. Albans 

 in 175 1, was "jd. in 1768 and the household loaf had risen 2^." in 1772, 

 when wheat was js. a bushel. ^^ When the great rise came in the local 

 buyers were outbid. Scarcity began to approach famine. In September 

 1795 crowds besieged the bakers' shops at Baldock, demanding that bread 

 should be lower. One baker told them from a window that he could not 

 lower it without consulting the other bakers." But the remedy did not lie 

 in their hands, for bread could not be cheaper until the London corn 

 market was glutted for some time. The shortage prompted the justices to 

 reduce their household consumption of wheat by one-third until the bushel 

 had come down to 8j.'* They were binding themselves, without knowing 

 it, for twenty years. The allowances to prisoners had to be increased and 

 the misery of the debtors induced the justices to grant them bread at the 

 felons' rate." But year after year prices remained up. In 1801 the quartern 

 loaf was I J. '^\d. in October and rose steadily to \s. 8^d. in the following 

 January." It sank id. in February, but reached is. lod. by the end of 

 March. By the end of May it had come down to is. /\.\d., the price until 

 the end of July." The harvest must have been good, for in 1803, in the 

 Easter quarter, the loaf was but 8^d. to 8|^." The next year's prices were 

 also low," j^d. to 8d'. in July and i i^d. at Michaelmas ; afterwards, while 

 they ran up to is. \d. at Christmas 1805,'° they never dropped below is. 

 until after the harvest. They hovered about is. for the rest of 1806"' and 

 this cheapness seems to have lasted till the end of 1808. From 1809 to 

 1 8 12 the rise is perceptible. In June 18 13 the loaf was is. j%d.^^ The 

 quality of the grain was often poor. In 181 5 the rent of the tolls of 

 St. Albans market was reduced because of its inferiority " ; but the price of 

 the loaf did not fall. The average price of the bushel from 1799 to 1 820 was 

 los. 2^d.^* But the war time and war prices were over and the price of corn 

 came down. In 1830 the average for the country was ys. 6d. a bushel.^' 



The corn trade was flourishing in the 17th century and with it the 

 malt trade with London expanded. 



Malting was an ancient occupation, but it now began to be of 

 commercial importance in the whole area of the Lea Valley and up to the 

 borders of Cambridge. The change was accomplished about the end of 

 the 1 6th century.^' 



10 A. E. Gibbs, Hisf. Rec. of St. Albans, 137. " Ibid. 126, 136. ^ Sen. R. (Herts. Co. Rec), ii, 23. 



" Ibid. 179. " Ibid. 183. " Ibid. 195, 243. " Ibid. 196, aoo. " Ibid. 



18 Ibid. 251. 1^ Ibid. 204. ^ Ibid. 206-7. ^' Ih'id. 273. ^^ Ibid. 220, 233-4, ^39- 



23 Gibbs, op. cit. 166. 54 5^^^ ji (Herts. Co. Rec), ii, 259, 281. 26 ibid. 330. 



28 cf. W. Harrison, Descr. of Britain (1587). 'Our malt is made all the year long in some great 

 towns, but in yeomen's and gentlemen's houses the winter half is thought the best. They make sufficient 

 for their own expense only.' 



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