T920.] Agriculture during Two Great Wars. 



235 



sections of the community were brought to the verge of famine. 

 A rise in wages, and the distribution of funds raised by private 

 individuals for the benefit of the poor, mitigated the misery. 



But it was now that one of the most fatal blunders of the 

 war was committed. The Poor Law was invoked to give relief. 

 The Berkshire magistrates, meeting at Speenhamland, en- 

 deavoured to fix a " fair wage " by using the rates to supplement 

 earnings in proportion to the price of bread and the size of the 

 family. Their action, legalised by Parliament in the following 

 year, was imitated by other counties. It was not till after the 

 proclamation of the peace that the evil consequences of this 

 well-meant action stood revealed. For the moment the fine 

 harvest of 1796 restored abundance, and reduced prices, till 

 in 1798 they fell back to their pre-war level. At subsequent 

 critical stages in the food supply of the country further measures 

 were added. Royal proclamations exhorted the people to 

 economy ; closer milling was adopted ; the sale of bread was 

 prohibited until it was 24 hours old ; distilleries and starch 

 manufactories were suspended ; rice and maize were brought 

 into the country to mix with corn-flour ; potatoes were urged 

 on farmers and their growth encouraged ; bounties for the 

 import of corn were continually raised in amount. It is, 

 perhaps, worth recording that during two years of one of the 

 worst periods of scarcity — 1809-12 — considerable supplies o£ 

 corn were obtained from France with the consent, apparently^ 

 of the French Government. 



Agricultural Prosperity in 1793-1815, — The war period J was 

 for landowners, tithe-owners, and farmers a time of great 

 prosperity. An enormous capital was spent on the erection of 

 farm buildings, houses and cottages, and on the improvement 

 of the land by reclamation, and by the restoration of fertility 

 to impoverished soils. It was now that, at an immense ex- 

 penditure of money, much of the agricultural land of the country- 

 was, for the first time, made. New areas were forced into pro- 

 ductiveness by the sheer weight of the metal poured into them. 

 For the time the expenditure proved remunerative. It is prob- 

 able that, within the 22 years of the war, rents were doubled, 

 though much of the increase really consisted of interest on the 

 new outlay of capital. In spite of liigh rents a new class of 

 tenants — men of intelligence, enterprise, and mone\' — were 

 attracted to the land. Secured by long leases, they themselves 

 carried out costly improvements. Land was marled, limed and 

 drained. Whate\'er the science of the day could teach them 

 was eagerly absorbed. New crops were introduced ; new. 



