The Industrial Revolution

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1027928145

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-159926

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Cunningham, William http://d-nb.info/gnd/128907487

Title:: The Industrial Revolution

Place of publication:: Cambridge

Publisher:: The University Press

Year of publication:: 1922

Scope:: xxii S., S. 404-886

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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A.D. 1689 1776. oho did not benefit hy the high price of 0TH 360 PARLIAMENTARY COLBERTISM but the small farmer did not, generally speaking, devote himself to the production of corn for the market; and if he did, the times were too uncertain for him to steer his course with success. If he were a frecholder, he might of sourse be able to maintain his position, though bad seasons might make it necessary for him to borrow?, and he might sooner or later be forced to sell?, as the only means of escaping the burden of debt. The copyholder, with the obligation to pay occasional fines, and the yearly tenant had a less firm grip on the land, and were less able to compete successfully with the large capitalists. In the last quarter of the eighteenth century England ceased bo be a corn-exporting country; there was no margin of production in ordinary years above the requirements of the country, and as a consequence there were unprecedented fluctuations of price according as the seasons were good or bads. Farming had become a highly speculative business in which poor men could hardly hope to hold their own. The violent changes of price would often give the capitalists, who could hold large stocks of corn, opportunities of making enormous profits. On the other hand, the small farmers, whether they worked in common fields or in separate holdings, were forced to realise their corn immediately after harvest, and suffered immensely. In 1779 in particular, prices were so low that many farmers were ruined’. Somewhat later prices fell again, and there was another great period of t A full discussion of these influences and of the destruction of this class will be found in the Report of the Committee of 1838. RBeports from Select Committee on, Agriculture, 1833, v., Questions 1262 (Wiltshire), 1691 (Worcestershire), 3103 Yorkshire), 4862, 9269 (Somerset), 6056 (Cheshire), 6156 (Shropshire), 6957 ‘Cumberland), 12216 (Nottingham). 2 When they &d so there were no men of their own class fo buy their properties, and these went to large owners. Prothero, Pioneers and Progress, 83. 8 On legislative action in this period see below, p. 723. The season from 1765 to 1774 were specially inclement, and from 1775 onwards they were very irregular; thus in 1779 there was an unusually plentiful crop, while 1782 was a very bad year, which was followed by two others that were distinctly below the average. It thus appears that the inclemency of the seasons does not serve to account for the high range of the average prices; but the irregularity of the seasons had a great effect in producing sudden fluctuations of price. At Lady-Day 1780, the price of wheat was thirty-eight and threepence; at Michaelmas forty- sight shillings; and at Lady-Day 1781, fifty-six and eleven-pence (Tooke, 1. 76). 4 Arthur Young, Annals of Agr. xxv. 460.

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