Excerpt from Inquiry: Into the Causes and Remedies of the Late and Present Scarcity and High Price of Provisions, in a Letter to the Right Hon. Earl Spencer, K. G 3. The want 'of internal and foreign com merce.-it appears, from the records of the times, that there was no method of equalizing the confumption of different feafons; for, in the fame, year, the'prices of corn, at different times, would vary not a third or a fourth, not three or four times, but eight or' nine times, as will ap pear by infpeeting the tables that have been con {trueted of the annual pricesfif of wheat, from the year 1202, till the year 1764, It appears from the fame tables, that the plenty of one year. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Inquiry Into the Causes and Remedies of the Late and Present Scarcity and High Price of Provisions, in a Letter to the Right Hon. Earl Spencer, First Lord of the Admiralty, &C. &C., Dated 8th November, 1800, Vol. 9: With Observations on the Distresses of Agriculture and Commerce Which Have Prevailed for the Last Three Years What then are the changes that have taken place since the middle of the 15th century, which have ever since thattime prevented sarcity and dearth from amouhting to famine? The more immediate causes seem to have been the freedom of internal commerce, which began to take place about the above-mentioned period, and importation from foreign parts, the mention of which is first met with in his. Tory a little later. Not long afterwards, civilization and commerce began to make rapid advances, under the Princes of the House of: Tudor, and have continued to flourish and extend themselves ever since, so as in the course of three centuries to raise this country to its present state of unequalled prosperity and grandeur. The improved state of agriculture, and its becoming more honorable, together with the introduction of potatoes, have been additional resources in later times.' And it is-certainly none of the least advantages concomitant on wealth and industry, that they have been instrumental in preventing such grievous calamities as fas mine, for however deplorable the evils of the present day may be, how far short are they of what would have occurred in those periods from short.crops in two consecutive years, such as the last and the present (1800) Such an occurrence would then have been productive of famine, and probably of its usual concomitant pestilence: the state of society and manners in those days being such that the stock of food produced and imported, bore a much smaller proportion to the population than in'our times; and the prejudices of the age were such as not to allow middle men to apportion and equalize the consumption of different seasons of the year, nor of different districts, as is now so happily exemplified. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.