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Article ON THE CAUSES OF THE HIGH PRICE OF CORN. ← Page 2 of 3 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Causes Of The High Price Of Corn.
must be shut up , and tbe people sent to seek their bread in some other country , while those that remain must be eat up by taxes and poor ' s rates . " The great declension of trade in the market towns , oceasioned by the decrease of the consumption of our manufactures , is become a subject of universal complaint , and must , in a few years , greatly afflict the revenue ; and there is such a connection between trade and the landed interest ( whatever some gentlemen may think )
that the one cannot suffer long , but the other will inevitably feel it in a very sensible manner , notwithstanding all the temporary expedients that may be thought of to prevent it . It is a truth too well , known in the counties , of Suffolk and Norfolk , and , it is to be feared , is too much the case jn several other counties , that there are great numbers of parishesin whichthirty years sincethere were
four-, , , teen , fifteen , or . sixteen fanners in a parish , who occupied from 50 to 100 or 120 I . per ann . who weekly supplied the market towns with all sorts of provision , and returned home with each some small portion of the manufactures of their country ; where there are now not more than two , or three at most , and , in some places , but one ; so that the country villages are in a manner depopulated : forexcepting twoor
, , , very rarely , three ' large farm-houses , nothing is now to be seen but a few wretched cottages , and as wretched inhabitants , without furniture , and almost without clothes , who are slaves to these all-grasping farmers , who can now lay in their port wine by the pipe , and send their daughters to boarding-schools , to make as genteel an appearance as those of their landlords .
But there is another evil attending this " practice of monopolizing farms , and that is , the putting it too much in . the power of these great growers , in a time of scarcity , to distress the country , by withholding their corn from market , and thereby to occasion an artificial famine . This we know has been the case lately , and would have been . at . tended with the most dreadful consequences , if the parliament had not made the most speedy provision against itby prohibiting the
ex-, portation , and giving leave for the free importation of grain from abroad , and also putting a stop to the distillery : and , notwithstanding such w ise precautions , these merciless withholders of their corn kept up the price at such ar . exorbitant rate , that the poor in most parts of the kingdom were almost starved . The like may again happen , when , perhaps , we can have no relief from abroad , and under such
circumstances , that many of the poor may be hanged , for taking , whilst others are starved for want of'i that corn , which there may be no law then in being , to oblige them to bring to market . It has pleased God to bless this nation , this year , with as large a crop of almost all sorts of com , as has been known for many years past ; and , yet , how is the price kept up , beyond eveiy man ' s
expectation ? Why , truly , our great growers thrash otu little , or none ; hoping that the price may be still farther advanced . But ( God be thanked ) we may safely vest this in the wisdom of the present ministry and parliament , who have , by some late salutary laws , shewn , that they have a greater regard to the health and lives of his majesty ' s subjects , than to any private interest whatsoever , or even the revenue VOL . vn , N
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Causes Of The High Price Of Corn.
must be shut up , and tbe people sent to seek their bread in some other country , while those that remain must be eat up by taxes and poor ' s rates . " The great declension of trade in the market towns , oceasioned by the decrease of the consumption of our manufactures , is become a subject of universal complaint , and must , in a few years , greatly afflict the revenue ; and there is such a connection between trade and the landed interest ( whatever some gentlemen may think )
that the one cannot suffer long , but the other will inevitably feel it in a very sensible manner , notwithstanding all the temporary expedients that may be thought of to prevent it . It is a truth too well , known in the counties , of Suffolk and Norfolk , and , it is to be feared , is too much the case jn several other counties , that there are great numbers of parishesin whichthirty years sincethere were
four-, , , teen , fifteen , or . sixteen fanners in a parish , who occupied from 50 to 100 or 120 I . per ann . who weekly supplied the market towns with all sorts of provision , and returned home with each some small portion of the manufactures of their country ; where there are now not more than two , or three at most , and , in some places , but one ; so that the country villages are in a manner depopulated : forexcepting twoor
, , , very rarely , three ' large farm-houses , nothing is now to be seen but a few wretched cottages , and as wretched inhabitants , without furniture , and almost without clothes , who are slaves to these all-grasping farmers , who can now lay in their port wine by the pipe , and send their daughters to boarding-schools , to make as genteel an appearance as those of their landlords .
But there is another evil attending this " practice of monopolizing farms , and that is , the putting it too much in . the power of these great growers , in a time of scarcity , to distress the country , by withholding their corn from market , and thereby to occasion an artificial famine . This we know has been the case lately , and would have been . at . tended with the most dreadful consequences , if the parliament had not made the most speedy provision against itby prohibiting the
ex-, portation , and giving leave for the free importation of grain from abroad , and also putting a stop to the distillery : and , notwithstanding such w ise precautions , these merciless withholders of their corn kept up the price at such ar . exorbitant rate , that the poor in most parts of the kingdom were almost starved . The like may again happen , when , perhaps , we can have no relief from abroad , and under such
circumstances , that many of the poor may be hanged , for taking , whilst others are starved for want of'i that corn , which there may be no law then in being , to oblige them to bring to market . It has pleased God to bless this nation , this year , with as large a crop of almost all sorts of com , as has been known for many years past ; and , yet , how is the price kept up , beyond eveiy man ' s
expectation ? Why , truly , our great growers thrash otu little , or none ; hoping that the price may be still farther advanced . But ( God be thanked ) we may safely vest this in the wisdom of the present ministry and parliament , who have , by some late salutary laws , shewn , that they have a greater regard to the health and lives of his majesty ' s subjects , than to any private interest whatsoever , or even the revenue VOL . vn , N