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.