The home market was now opened to foreign supplies of corn under much more advantageous terms than before. Import ation was constant and considerable, and prices were steadier on the whole, during the eighteen years from 1775 to 1792— notwithstanding the occurrence of five seasons in which the harvests were de ficient—than they had been in the ten years preceding 1773. In the ten years ending 1769 the excess of exports amounted to 1,384,561 quarters ; but in the next ten years, ending 1779, the ex cess was on the side of the imports to the extent of 431,566 quarters; and in the simi lar ten years ending 1789 there was also an excess amounting to 233,502 quarters. From 1760 to 1780 the number of acres enclosed under local acts was 1,912,350 ; in the ten years ending 1789 the number of acres enclosed had fallen to 450.180. The average price of wheat was 45s. the quarter in the ten years ending 1779, and 45s. 9d. in the ten years ending 1789. The extension of cultivation in the twenty years from 1760 to 1780, together with the improvement of agriculture. sufficed for the increased demands of the country, without breaking up much fresh land.
It was alleged, however, that the act of 1773 had rendered England dependent upon other countries for the supply of corn. The bounty by which the corn growers had formerly profited. and which they were led to anticipate would still be secured to them, had never been obtained under this act.
At the commencement of the present period the average prices of corn were struck four times a-year, at the quarter sessions, and they could not be altered between the interval of one quarter-ses sion and another. In 1774, however, an act was passed (14 Geo. III. c. 64) by which exportation was regulated by the price on the market-day preceding the shipment; thus adopting the real average price at the time, instead of the average which existed three months before.
Six years afterwards, in 1780-1, it was enacted (21 Geo. III. c. 50) that the prices of English corn for the port of London and the ports of Kent and Essex should be determined by the averages taken at the London Corn Exchange. The weekly average was to regulate the exportation; but the importation of fo reign corn and grain was regulated by averages struck only once a quarter. In the session of 1788-9 new regula tions were framed (29 Geo. III. c. 58), applying to all parts of the kingdom, which was divided into twelve districts, and in each a number of the principal market-towns was selected, in which, and at the sea-ports, the price of corn was to be ascertained for each district. Weekly returns were to be made to the receiver in London, who, on the 1st of February, May, August, and November, was to compute from the returns of the six pre ceding weeks the average price of each description of British corn and grain (with the exception of oats, the averages of which were to be computed on the returns of the twelve preceding weeks).
The aggregate average price of the six weeks (and for oats of the twelve weeks) was to be transmitted to the principal officer of the customs in each district, and to regulate the importation at each port of the said district. The export-trade was still regulated by the weekly averages. Under this act each of the twelve mari time districts was treated as distinct in itself, and counties on one side of the kingdom might be exporting their sur plus produce to a foreign market, while those on the other side might be import ing.
1791 to 1804.
In the new corn-law of 1791 it was en acted that the lxmi.ty of 5s. per quarter should be paid when wheat was under 44s., and that, when wheat was at or above 4ts., exportation was to cease. The new scale of import duties was as follows :—For wheat under 50s. per quar ter, the " high duty" of 24s. 3d. was pay able ; at 50s.. but under 54s., the "first low duty" of 2s. 6d.; at or above 54:., the " second low duty" of 6d. was pay able. The duty of 24s. 3d., so long as the price of wheat was under 50s. the quarter, was equivalent to a prohibition.
The thirteen years from 1791 to 1804 form a very eventful period in the history of the Corn Laws. Under the compara tively free system established by the Corn Act of 1773, the excess of imports bad been comparatively trifling; but under an act constructed rather to prevent im portation, the excess of imports in the thirteen years from 1791 to 1803 amount ed to 6,458,901 quarters of wheat and wheat-flour, and enormous sacrifices were made to obtain this quantity.
The harvest of 1793 was below an average, and those of the two follow ing years were still more deficient. The average price of wheat rose from 55s. 7d., in January, 1795, to 108s. 4d. in August. Parliament met in October, when the King's speech alluded to the "very high price of grain" as a subject of "the greatest anxiety." An act was passed, granting a bounty of from 16s. to 208. the quarter, according to the quality, on wheat from the south of Europe, till the quantity should amount to 400,000 quar ters; and from America till it should amount to 500,000 quarters ; and 12s. to 15s. from any other part of Europe till it should amount to the same quantity ; the bounty to be 8s. and 10s. after that quan tity was exceeded. Neutral vessels laden with grain were forcibly seized on the high seas, and the masters compelled to sell their cargoes to the government agents. The members of both houses of parliament bound themselves by a written pledge to observe the utmost frugality in the use of bread in their respective house holds ; and engaged to reduce the con sumption of wheat by at least one-third of the usual quantity consumed in ordi nary times, unless the average price of wheat should be reduced to 8s. the bushel. The hair-powder tax was im posed at this period, as one means of di minishing the consumption of wheat.