Variation in the Price and Supply of IVheat. 
185 
time, and it began to be thought that Improved agriculture had 
permanently raised the rate of production. But this vision, so 
often entertained, was found to be baseless. In 1842 tlic harvest 
was deficient for the sixth time in succession. At the appear- 
ance of the lean kine the Anti-Corn-law League had started up 
in Lancashire, Then came the trial of strength between the 
producers and consumers ; the former were still the most powerful 
party in the legislature, but the numbers out of doors could not 
be refused, and an accidental scarcity of food from the potato- 
disease and failure of the crop in Ireland in 1845 decided the 
struggle. In 1846 Sir Robert Peel carried his measure for Im- 
mediate alteration of the corn-laws with their total repeal, to 
take effect on the 1st of February, 1849. 
The annual consumption of wheat in England and Wales has 
usually been estimated at 1 quarter per head of the population. 
The data on which this estimate was founded were the result of 
many careful investigations, in 1765, by Mr. Charles Smith, 
author of ' Tracts on the Corn Trade,' and these were confirmed 
by inquiries of the Suffolk magistrates in forty-two parishes in 
1795 and 1796. 
In France, M. Paucton's estimate of 10 bushels (reducing 
all corn to the standard of wheat) seemed to confirm our own 
figures ; as the French were known to consume more bread and 
less animal food than their English neighbours, the south of 
France hardly producing any meat. Probably neither of these 
estimates applies now to the better-fed population of the two 
countries. 
Sir F. W. Eden stated that, in 1796, the family of an agri- 
cultural labourer — taking 65 families in different parts of Eng- 
land — consisted of an average of persons, and their yearly 
expenditure was found to be — 
£. s. d. 
27 1 8 .... 74 per cent. 
1 13 3 .. .. 4i „ 
2 10 7 .... 7 
4 18 0 .. .. 13 „ 
0 10 10 .. .. U „ 
36 14 4 100 
In the family of a well-paid mechanic there is always bread 
enough, and the item "provision" Includes less of it and more 
of other articles of diet ; and the consumption of meat increases 
in proportion as wages rise above the sum actually needed for 
mere maintenance. It was very aptly remarked by M. Leonce 
de Lavergne that Arkwrlght and VVatt must precede Bakewell ! 
There are no exact data as to the production and consumption 
Provision 
Kent 
Fuel 
Clothes and washing 
Contingencies 
