OCR Text |
Show 254 OF 'fHE 'V AGES OF LABOUR. ( CH. IV. that, instead of an increase of population exclusively, a considerable portion of their increased real vva'ges \Vas expended in a n1arked improven1ent of the quality of the food consumed, and a decided elevation in the standard of their comforts and conveniences. During the san1e period, the resources of Scotland do not appear to have increased so fast as those of England; but since the 1niddle of the century, the former country has perhaps n1ade a 1nore rapid progress than the latter ; an~ the consequence has been, that, from the san1e causes, these ,increased resources have not produced, exclusively, increase of population, but a great alteration for the better in the food, dress, and houses of the lovver classes of society. The general change frotn bread of a very inferior quality to the best wheaten bread, seen1s to have been peculiar to the southern and n1idland counties of England, and may perhaps have been aided by . adventitious circumstances. The state of the foreign tnarkets as opened by the bounty, together with the irnprovino· cultivation of the country, appears to have diminished in some .districts, ~he usual difference in the price; of the different k1nds of grain. Though barley was largely grown and largely exported, it did not fall in price so Inuch as wheat. On an averao·e of the twenty years ending with 1705, compared5 with an average of t\venty years ~nding with 1745, the quarte~ of wheat fell from Il. I6s. 3d. to Il. 9s. 1 Od. but malt during the san1e period ren1ained at the SEC. II.J ·OF THE WAGES OF LAB.OUR. ~55 san1e price, or, if any thing, rather rose ;• and as barley is supposed to be not a cheaper food than wheat, unless it can be purchased at t of the pric1e,t such a relative difference would have a strong tendency to promote the change. · Frotn the small quantity of rye exported, cotnpared with wheat and barley, it ~1ay be. inferred that it did not find a ready vent 1n fore1gn markets; and this circutnstance, together vvith the in1proving state of the land, din1inished its cultivation and use. With re<Yard to oats, the prohibitory ·laws and b ' the bounty were not so favourable to them as to the other grains, and n1ore \lvere imported than exported. This would naturally tend to check their cultivation in the districts which were capable of oTowi no· the sort of oTain most certain of a n1arket; b b b while the' 1\.ct of Charles II. respecting the buying up of corn to sell again, thre\v greater obstacles in the way of the distribution of oats than of any other grain. By this Act, wheat n1ight be bought .up and stored for future sale when the price did not exceed 48s. ; barley, vvhen the /price did not exceed 28s.; and oats, when the price did not exceed 13s. 4d. The limited rates of wheat and barley 'vere considerably above their ordinary and average rat~s at that period, and therefore did not often in- * Eden's State of the Poor. Table, Vol. III. p. 79. In this table, a deduction is made of% for the quarter of middling wheat of eight bushels, -which is . too much. t Tracts on the Corn Trade> Supp. p. 199. |