National debt and revenue.

Population.

We have seen that the national debt, at the end of the American War in 1783, amounted to £244,118,635, the annual charge being £9,302,328.1 On the 1st of February 1803, after the Peace of Amiens, the debt amounted to £520,207,101, and the annual charge to £18,643,725,2 exclusive of two loans amounting together to £6,220,000 (with an annual charge of £458,931) raised for the Emperor of Germany, and which the British government had eventually to pay, both principal and interest. This enormous increase in the debt was caused partly by the unavoidable expenses of the war, and partly by subsidies to Austria and the other continental states, to assist them in opposing the armies of France; but every effort which they made ended in disaster, whilst the abstraction of so much capital could not fail to operate injuriously upon the productive resources of this country. Yet the revenue levied by the State continued to increase, having risen from £17,656,418 in 1793, at the commencement of the French War, to £35,415,096 at its brief cessation in 1802.

3

The first census was taken in 1801, when the returns for England and Wales exhibited a population of 9,172,980. Twenty years previously we have assumed that it amounted to little short of 8,000,000,* and it had gone on steadily increasing from the Revolution in 1688. A continually increasing population would naturally require increased means of subsistence and communication, and we accordingly find that in the thirty years between 1769 and 1799, upwards of two millions and a half acres of land were brought into cultivation, and that between 1785 and 1801 no less than 1874 Acts were passed for making 1 Ante, p. 78.

2 See Pictorial History of the Reign of George III., book ii. p. 626.

3 In the nine years including 1794 and 1802 the enormous amount of £200,734,743 was raised by loan. See M'Culloch's British Empire, vol. ii. p. 432. Ante, p. 78.

4

canals, harbours, roads, and bridges, and for draining, paving, and other local improvements.

corn and

The variableness of the seasons, and the consequent Prices of fluctuations in the price of corn and the other neces- provisions. saries of life, during the first fifteen years of George the Third's reign, have already been noticed.1 Similar fluctuations continued down to 1795, in which year the cold was so severe in the month of June, as to kill great numbers of sheep which had been newly shorn, and the price of wheat rose in the spring of 1796 to above 100s. a quarter. Importation was encouraged by large bounties, and neutral vessels laden with corn were seized and compelled to sell their cargoes. The scarcity continued during the four succeeding years, and in 1799 and 1800 the harvest was so very deficient, as to cause wheat to reach the price of 134s. a quarter in June of the latter year, and the almost famine price of 156s. 2d. a quarter in the spring of 1801. Proclamations were issued enjoining strict economy in the use of flour and bread. Large bounties on importation were granted. Distillation from grain was prohibited, and the cultivation of the potato was greatly extended. "The sufferings of the bulk of the community under this severe visitation of dearth were very great. The expression of them broke out in tumultuous meetings and riotous proceedings in different parts of the kingdom in the autumn of 1800, and the peace of the metropolis was with difficulty preserved." Happily, however, the next harvest proved abundant, and by the end of the year the price of wheat fell to 75s. 6d.

The frequent occurrence of bad seasons and deficient crops, caused a general tendency to a rise in price; and we accordingly find the pivot or turning-price below which exporters were entitled to a 5s. bounty, and

Rate of wages.

above which importation was permitted free of the 6d.
a quarter duty, successively raised from 44s. to 48s.
and 54s. The average price of the quarter of wheat
between 1785 and 1794 was about 49s. 9d., and
between the latter year and 1801 it was 87s., or very
nearly double.
Yet Arthur Young represents the
average price of wheat in the seventeenth century to
have been 38s. 2d. a quarter, and in the eighteenth
century 38s. 7d. a quarter,' a very trifling difference
between the entire periods; but we nevertheless see
that the occasional advances which had taken place,
some of which were excessive, gave rise at the begin-
ning of the nineteenth century to a general upward
tendency, as is manifested by the successive raising of
the price by which the law of import and export was
governed.

Assuming the price of corn to be an index to the
prices of all other articles necessary for human sub-
sistence, it follows that the rise of price which had
taken place, and more especially in the latter years of
the eighteenth century, must have caused great priva-
tion and suffering to the labouring classes, unless it
had been met by a corresponding rise in the rate of
wages; and even then the rise would not go beyond
what the average range of prices might warrant,
whilst the extreme elevations would necessarily still
bear hard upon the labourers. We have seen that in
the case of the London tailors, a considerable advance
did take place in 1768, under the sanction of a legis-
lative enactment, and there is reason to believe that
there was likewise an advance in all other trades and
handicrafts more or less proportionate to the advance
in the price of provisions. With respect to agricultural
and other day labourers, there must have been also an
advance in some shape or other, either as wages, or as
an allowance from the parish in aid of wages, since
1 See Tooke's History of Prices, vol. i. p. 83.
2 Ante, p. 71.

2

without an advance of some kind the people could not have subsisted, and might have been driven by their necessities to break the law and prey upon the community.

Berkshire

scale, or

land Act.

In 1795 a meeting of the Berkshire justices and 1795. "other discreet persons," assembled by public adver- breadtisement, for the purpose of rating husbandry wages, Speenhamand declared it to be their unanimous opinion that the state of the poor required further assistance than had been generally given them. They also declared it to be their unanimous opinion that it was not expedient for the magistrates to grant that assistance by regulating wages according to the statutes of Elizabeth and James, but that the magistrates should earnestly recommend to the farmers and others throughout the county to increase the pay of their labourers in proportion to the present price of provisions. The magistrates then present accordingly resolved "that they will in their several divisions make the following calculations and allowances for the relief of all poor and industrious men and their families who, to the satisfaction of the justices of their parish, shall endeavour (as far as they can) for their own support and maintenance, that is to say—

"When the gallon loaf of second flour weighing 8 lb. 11 oz. shall cost 1s., then every poor and industrious man shall have for his own support 3s. weekly, either produced by his own or his family's labour or an allowance from the poor-rates, and for the support of his wife and every other of his family 1s. 6d.

"When the gallon loaf shall cost 1s. 4d., then every poor and industrious man shall have 4s. weekly for his own, and 1s. 10d. for the support of every other of his family.

"And so in proportion as the price of bread rises or falls (that is to say), 3d. to the man and 1d. to every other of the family, on every penny which the loaf rises above a shilling."

At the same meeting the overseers were recommended to cultivate land for potatoes, giving the poor who worked it one-fourth of the crop, and selling the remainder at 1s. per bushel; also to purchase fuel" and retail the same at a loss"; and the justices promised that, where this plan was adopted, they would, in making allowances for relief and punishing persons for stealing wood, take these circumstances into consideration, and give them their due weight. A meeting held on the same day at Basingstoke, declared it to be their opinion, that the most eligible method of regulating the rate of wages is by reference to the price of wheat; but that in no case ought an able-bodied labourer to have less than 8s. per week.1

The above is the famous Berkshire bread-scale, locally known as the "Speenhamland Act of Parliament," and it was extensively adopted in other counties. The effect of a scale of wages graduated according to the price of bread and the size of families, would be to enable the labouring classes, who necessarily constitute the great bulk of every people, to obtain the same quantity of food in a scarce and dear season, as in an abundant and cheap one. This is contrary to the ruling of providence, would aggravate the evils of dearth, and go far to neutralise the blessings of abundance. That there must, and that there ought to be, a certain proportion between the general wages of labour and the general cost of subsistence, it is impossible to deny ; but this must be a proportion admitting of considerable latitude, according to times and circumstances. It would be vain, and as mischievous as vain, to attempt to fix the wages, or in other words to determine the nature and quantity of food, which each individual should be entitled to receive in return for his daily

1 The above particulars are copied from The Reading Mercury of Monday, May 11, 1795. The Speenhamland meeting took place on Wednesday the 6th of May in that year.