Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

I.

BOOK In the fixty-four years of the present century accordingly, the average price of the quarter of nine bushels of the beft wheat at Windfor market, appears, by the accounts of Eton College, to have been 21. os. 6+d., which is about ten fhillings and fixpence, or more than five-and-twenty per cent. cheaper than it had been during the fixty-four last years of the last century; and about nine fhillings and fixpence cheaper than it had been during the fixteen years preceding 1636, when the difcovery of the abundant mines of America may be fuppofed to have produced its full effect; and about one fhilling cheaper than it had been in the twentyfix years preceding 1620, before that discovery can well be fuppofed to have produced its full effect. According to this account, the average price of middle wheat, during these fixty-four firft years of the prefent century, comes out to have been about thirty-two fhillings the quarter of eight bufhels.

The value of filver, therefore, feems to have rifen fomewhat in proportion to that of coru during the courfe of the prefent century, and it had probably begun to do fo even fome time before the end of the laft.

In 1687, the price of the quarter of nine bufhels of the beft wheat at Windfor market was Il. 58. 2d. the lowest price at which it had ever been from 1595.

In 1688, Mr. Gregory King, a man famous for his knowledge in matters of this kind, eftimated the average price of wheat in years of moderate

XI.

moderate plenty to be to the grower 3s. 6d. the CHA P. bufhel, or eight-and-twenty fhillings the quarter. The grower's price I understand to be the fame with what is fometimes called the contract price, or the price at which a farmer contracts for a certain number of years to deliver a certain quantity of corn to a dealer. As a contract of this kind faves the farmer the expence and trouble of marketing, the contract price is generally lower than what is fuppofed to be the ave rage market price. Mr. King had judged eightand-twenty fhillings the quarter to be at that time the ordinary contract price in years of moderate plenty. Before the scarcity occafioned by the late extraordinary course of bad seasons, it was, I have been affured, the ordinary contract price in all common years.

In 1688 was granted the parliamentary bounty upon the exportation of corn. The country gentlemen, who then compofed a still greater proportion of the legislature than they do at prefent, had felt that the money price of corn was falling. The bounty was an expedient to raise it artificially to the high price at which it had frequently been fold in the times of Charles I. and 11. It was to take place, therefore, till wheat was fo high as forty-eight fhillings the quarter; that is twenty fhillings, or 4ths dearer than Mr. King had in that very year estimated. the grower's price to be in times of moderate plenty. If his calculations deferve any part of the reputation which they have obtained very univerfally, eight-and-forty fhillings the quarter

[blocks in formation]

BOOK was a price which, without fome fuch expedient I. as the bounty, could not at that time be expect.

ed, except in years of extraordinary scarcity. But the government of King William was not then fully fettled. It was in no condition to refufe any thing to the country gentlemen, from whom it was at that very time foliciting the first establishment of the annual land-tax.

The value of filver, therefore, in proportion to that of corn, had probably rifen fomewhat before the end of the last century; and it seems to have continued to do fo during the course of the greater part of the prefent; though the neceffary operation of the bounty must have hindered that rife from being fo fenfible as it otherwife would have been in the actual ftate of tillage.

In plentiful years the bounty, by occafioning an extraordinary exportation, neceffarily raifes the price of corn above what it otherwife would be in thofe years. To encourage tillage, by keeping up the price of corn even in the most plentiful years, was the avowed end of the inftitution.

In years of great fcarcity, indeed, the bounty has generally been fufpended. It muft, however, have had fome effect upon the prices of many of thofe years. By the extraordinary exportation which it occafions in years of plenty, it must frequently hinder the plenty of one year from compenfating the fcarcity of another.

Both in years of plenty and in years of scarcity, therefore, the bounty raifes the price of corn above what it naturally would be in the

actual

XI.

actual state of tillage. If, during the fixty-four CHA P. firft years of the prefent century, therefore, the average price has been lower than during the fixty-four last years of the laft century, it muft, in the fame ftate of tillage, have been much more fo, had it not been for this operation of the bounty.

But without the bounty, it may be faid, the ftate of tillage would not have been the fame. What may have been the effects of this inftitu tion upon the agriculture of the country, I fhall endeavour to explain hereafter, when I come to treat particularly of bounties. I fhall only obferve at prefent, that this rife in the value of filver, in proportion to that of corn, has not been peculiar to England. It has been obferved to have taken place in France during the fame period, and nearly in the fame proportion too, by three very faithful, diligent, and laborious collectors of the prices of corn, Mr. Duprè de St. Maur, Mr. Meffance, and the author of the Effay on the Police of Grain. But in France, till 1764, the exportation of grain was by law prohibited; and it is fomewhat difficult to fuppofe, that nearly the fame diminution of price which took place in one country, notwithstanding this prohibition, fhould in another be owing to the extraordinary encouragement given to exportation.

It would be more proper, perhaps, to confider this variation in the average money price of corn as the effect rather of fome gradual rife in the real value of filver in the European market,

[blocks in formation]

BOOK than of any fall in the real average value of corn. 1. Corn, it has already been obferved, is at diftant

periods of time a more accurate measure of value than either filver, or perhaps any other commodity. When, after the discovery of the abundant mines of America, corn rofe to three and four times its former money price, this change was univerfally afcribed, not to any rife in the real value of corn, but to a fall in the real value of filver. If during the fixty-four firft years of the prefent century, therefore, the average money price of corn has fallen fomewhat below what it had been during the greater part of the last century, we should in the fame manner impute this change, not to any fall in the real value of corn, but to fome rife in the real value of filver in the European market.

The high price of corn during these ten or twelve years paft, indeed, has occafioned a fus picion that the real value of filver ftill continues to fall in the European market. This high price of corn, however, feems evidently to have been the effect of the extraordinary unfavourableness of the feafons, and ought therefore to be regarded, not as a permanent, but as a transitory and occafional event. The feafons for thefe ten or twelve years past have been unfavourable through the greater part of Europe; and the diforders of Poland have very much increased the scarcity in all those countries, which, in dear years, used to be fupplied from that market. So long a courfe of bad feafons, though not a very common event, is by no means a fingular one; and whoever

has

« AnteriorContinuar »