1 84 Variation in the Price and Supply of Wheat. 
history, owing to the general improvement of agriculture 
and the large addition to the number of acres under cul- 
tivation ; nearly three million acres of land having been en- 
closed under numerous Acts of Parliament from the beginning 
of George Third's reign to 1707; while in the three preceding 
reigns the area of the enclosures had been less than 340,000 
acres. This was a period of commercial and agricultural pro- 
gress, of free trade in corn and of moderate prices, the general 
price of wheat being between 40s. and 50s. a quarter, and the 
extreme prices 26a\ {)d. in 1761, and 81s. Qd. in 1795. 
It was at this period that the governing class destroyed the 
principles of free trade in corn, which had been long maintained 
in England. In 1791 the first measures of restriction were passed, 
and for the next thirty-five years the corn-laws were the subject 
of incessant legislation, always with a view to the protection of 
British agriculture and raising the price of wheat. There were, 
however, one or two bills of indemnity to Ministers who had 
been compelled, as in 182G, to let in a little foreign grain, under 
Orders in Council, to avert a famine. During the war the price 
of wheat was enormous : for the ten years ending 1805 the 
average price per quarter was 81s. 2^d.; and in the ten years 
ending 1815 the average had risen to 97s. Qd. Under the influ- 
ence of deficient crops and depreciation of the currency, the 
average prices of the years 1812 and 1813 were respectively 
128s. and 120s. per quarter. At the close of the war a ruinous 
reaction took place, and with it agricultural distress, parlia- 
mentary inquiry, and a great amount of evidence and reporting 
on the state of the corn-trade, with examination of eminent 
agriculturists. These witnesses were unanimous that, at the then 
present prices (70s. to 80s. per quarter), the poor land broken 
up during the war must go out of cultivation. They differed as 
to the lowest limit at which foreign wheat might be admitted 
free of duty : some thinking it could not be safely admitted 
while the home price was under 120s., while others put the 
limit at 80s. to 90s., and some ventured as low as 70s. In 1815, 
Mr. Robinson passed a bill excluding foreign wheat when the 
price was below 80s. per quarter ; but the price continued to 
fall, and in 1821. there was more distress, followed by more 
inquiry and the reduction of the limit of importation to 70s. a 
quarter. In 182G came a drought, and a rise in prices from 
natural causes. Deficient crops in 1829 and 1830 caused large 
importations, with an average price of 65s. a quarter. Then 
came six abundant harvests, with a cessation «of importations 
and a reduction of price in 1835 to an average for the year of 
39s. 4rf. per quarter. The occasional agitation of the industrial 
classes on the subject of the corn-laws was now hushed for a 
