and it is in fact only a mitigated evil. | One hundred and thirty-eight new towns were added by 5 Vict. c. 14, to the one hundred and fifty which returned the average prices under the act of 1828. The average duty for six weeks regulates importation as under the previous

act.

From April 29th, 1842, to 5th January, 1844, the quantity of foreign wheat entered for consumption was 3,464,618 quarters; foreign wheat-flour 554,559. The lowest rate of duty was 8s. per quarter, at which 2,105,484 quarters of wheat and 427,579 cwts. of wheat-flour were entered: 740,149 quarters of wheat were entered at a duty of 14s. In 1844 the quantity of wheat and wheat-flour entered was 1,026,976 quarters, and of barley 1,029,021 quarters. The duty on foreign and colonial corn and grain in 1843 was 758,2951., and in 1844 was 1,098,333.

Since the passing of 5 Vict. c. 14, another change has been made in the corn law. Under the act of 1828 the duties on colonial wheat were 5s. when the price here was under 67s., and 6d. when at or above 67s. the quarter. The act 5 Vict. c. 14, fixed the duties on colonial wheat as follows:-When the price here was under 55s. the quarter, the duty was 5s.; 55s. and under 56s. 56s.

57s.

57s. 58s.

duty 4s.

3s.

28.

18.

The above are still the rates of duty charged on wheat imported from all other colonies, except Eastern and Western Canada; but the Canadian legislature having, at the suggestion of the home government, agreed to impose a duty of 3s. on all wheat imported into Canada, an act was passed (6 & 7 Vict. c. 29) in 1843, and came into operation 10th Oct., under which wheat from Canada, or flour manufactured there, will be at all times admissible into the United Kingdom at a fixed duty of 1s. per quarter charged here. For the five years ending January, 1843, the rate of duty on Canadian wheat averaged 28. 1d. per quarter. The largest quantity of wheat and wheat-flour imported from Canada in any one year

previous to this act was 259,600 quarters, in 1841, of which above two-thirds was in the shape of flour. The largest quantity in any one year from 1831 to 1840 was 193,985 quarters in 1832, and the average price of wheat in this country for that year was 58s. 8d.: the smallest quantity imported during the above nine years was 12,742 quarters in 1839, and the average price in England for the year was 708. 8d. The importations of the last three years, and the average price of wheat in England, have been as follows:

The quantity of wheat imported from the United States into Canada, at the 3s. duty, was 31,265 quarters, from 11th Oct., 1843, to 31st July, 1844.

There are now, it will be seen, three different regulations for the importation of corn-1. The foreign sliding scale; 2. The colonial sliding scale; 3. The fixed duty for corn and flour from Canada. There is not the slightest reasonable pretext for denying to other and more distant colonies the advantages which Canada enjoys. Wheat can be grown in South Australia at 2s. 6d. or 2s. 9d. per bushel, and in Van Diemen's Land at 3s. 9d.; its quality in both colonies is of very superior quality, and the small quantities which have reached this country commanded a high price. It is packed in bags, while corn from Canada is stowed in bulk, and the expenses of transit from Australia to England are at least 20s. the quarter. To subject corn, the produce of countries at the antipodes, to the uncertainties of a scale of duty here, which fluctuates from ls. to 5s., is to stifle the trade. In most of

the British colonies the population are ge nerally all too much engaged in producing the same commodities to permit of any great activity in the exchange of the products of their industry amongst themselves. This keeps them in a languishing condition, and even lowers their ge neral civilization. The agriculturist who emigrates from England to one of the colonies finds that his industry will not

obtain for him the conveniences and moderate luxuries which are not only a reward for toil, but are essential even to prevent his falling into a state of semibarbarism. To open a market for his produce is one of the first means of improving his condition both materially and morally; and though by rendering the trade in corn with all the colonies perfectly free the quantity which could be exported would be insignificant to the mother country, to the colonists it would be of the greatest benefit. In 1844 a motion to admit corn from the Australian colonies at a small fixed duty was opposed by the government on the ground that it would produce an agricultural panic in England. New South Wales is an importing country, and requires on an average about 24,000 quarters of wheat annually, about a third of which is supplied by Van Diemen's Land. In a year or two South Australia might be able to export 100,000 quarters of wheat to England, and the capabilities of Van Diemen's Land for the production of wheat are very great, but as there is no steady market the surplus which is raised is necessarily small; and New South Wales receives a less supply from Van Diemen's Land than from Valparaiso. From some parts of British India wheat of good quality could be exported to England if the duties were abolished or fixed at a nominal amount. The question of placing the colonial corn trade on a more favourable footing has been urged by the governors of Van Diemen's Land, South Australia, Western Australia; and a petition from the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India has just been presented (April, 1845), urging the same prayer. So reasonable a demand cannot be long with held.

The quantity of corn, grain, meal, and flour imported into Great Britain from Ireland has sometimes exceeded 3,000,000 quarters. In 1844 the importations were -Wheat and wheat-flour 440,153 qrs.; oats and oatmeal 2,242,310 quarters; barley 90,655; and smaller quantities of other grain.

For some notice of the Corn Trade of antiquity, see CORN TRADE, ANCIENT, and CORN TRADE, ROMAN.

CORN-RENT is a money rent varying in amount according to the fluctuations of the price of corn. In some countries rent is paid in the produce of the land itself [METAYER RENTS]; but in no part of the United Kingdom does this primitive custom exist. Some landlords in Ireland, indeed, for the accommodation of their tenants, agree to accept corn in payment of their rent, at the price of the nearest market, and ship it to England for sale; but the rent is calculated in money. (See Appendix F to First Report of Poor Laws (Ireland) Commissioners, 1836, p. 221.)

A corn-rent is founded upon the principle that a farm being assumed to grow, upon an average, a certain quantity of produce, the value of such proportion of that produce as may be agreed upon, shall be paid to the landlord as rent. But as the prices of all produce are liable to considerable variation, and as the profits arising from the land must generally be mainly dependent upon the prices for which the produce is sold, it is supposed to be equitable to the farmer, that the money value of that portion of the produce which he pays as rent should be calculated so as to vary with prices, instead of being determined by any arbitrary or unvarying standard. And it is undeniable, that with long leases a cornrent is a security against the growth of any serious disproportion between the rent originally agreed upon and the actual value of the produce of the land. If the farmer, under the security of a long lease, lay out capital upon the land and thus increase the quantity of produce, he derives the entire benefit arising from increased production, as the quantity to be paid as rent has already been agreed upon; and he is secured against loss caused by a fall in prices, as the amount of his rent is governed by prices.

For the purpose of assessing a cornrent the average price of wheat alone, or of wheat and other grain, is taken-sometimes for the last year, and sometimes for a certain number of years. If the price for one year only be taken, the results to the farmer may be thus stated. When prices are low from a limited demand for produce, his rent is reduced; and when

they are low from increased production, his rent is still reduced, although he has more produce than usual to sell. When prices are high from an increased demand, he has more rent to pay, but the remunerative prices enable him to pay it easily; but when an advance of prices is caused by scarcity, his rent is raised, while the high prices may be counterbalanced by the diminished quantity of produce which he has to sell. Thus in three cases out of four a corn-rent is favourable to the farmer; and even in the fourth case he is secured from loss by its favourable operation in other years. In some leases, also, a further advantage is given to him by fixing a maximum price: and thus if prices should happen to rise beyond that point, he derives the whole profit accruing from the difference. Under this system of annual averages, so advantageous to the farmer, there is a certain degree of unfairness to the landlord, which is sometimes corrected by assessing rent upon the average price of different kinds of produce for a certain number of years; by which means a just proportion is maintained between the money-rent and the average annual value realized from the land. It is upon this principle that the tithe rent-charges are calculated, from the average price of grain for seven years [TITHES]; and corn-rents are sometimes regulated by the scale of average prices published annually for the purposes of the Tithe Commutation Act. In Wiltshire some farms are let in this manner, but their number is inconsiderable. The rent of grazing and dairy farms cannot be regulated by the ordinary system of corn-averages; but in some of the dairy-farms of Cheshire the rent is determined by the average price of wheat and of cheese. In many parts of the south of Scotland corn-rents are paid according to the fiar prices of corn, as determined in each county by a jury summoned by the sheriff for that purpose.

The principle of a corn-rent is by no means of recent origin; for by an act 18 Elizabeth, § 6, it was required that in all future leases granted by the colleges in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and by the colleges of Winchester

and Eton, one-third part, at least, of the old rent shall be reserved and paid in good wheat at 6s. 8d. the quarter or under, and good malt at 5s. the quarter or under: or shall be paid in ready money after the rate of the best wheat and malt sold at the nearest market. (Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, vol. v. p. 84, 177; see also Index to Report on Agricultural Distress, 1836.)

The

CORN-TRADE, ANCIENT. production of corn, one of the chief necessaries of life, and its commercial exchange, have been a subject of the first importance in all ages. It is proposed here to state briefly the general nature of the trade in corn among two of the states of antiquity to whom we are mainly indebted for our knowledge of the economical condition of antient times. There are few important political questions at the present day to which we cannot find something similar in former times; and the blunders of antient legislation may still be instructive to modern statesmen.

The small and comparatively barren territory of Attica did not produce sufficient corn for the consumption of the inhabitants. Corn was brought into the Piraeus, the port of Athens, from the countries bordering on the Black Sea, Syria, Egypt, and other parts of Africa, and from Sicily. Demosthenes asserted (B.C. 355) that the Athenians imported more grain than any other people. (Against Leptines, c. 9.) But the trade in corn between Greece and the Black Sea was of some magnitude at a much earlier date. In B.C. 480, Xerxes, while at Abydos on his way to the invasion of Greece, saw the corn-ships that were sailing from the Black Sea and through the Dardanelles and carrying corn to Peloponnesus and Ægina. (Herodotus, vii. 147.) Some parts of the country on the coast of the Black Sea now export grain, and probably have exported grain ever since the time of Xerxes.

The importation of grain into Attica was a matter that was protected and regulated by the state; and instances are mentioned of armed ships convoying the cornvessels from the Black Sea to the Piraeus. The exportation of corn from Attica was forbidden; and only one-third of the

foreign corn that was imported into the Piraeus could be re-exported to other countries: this law as to importation was enforced by the overseers of the harbour. The law interfered with the trade in corn in other ways also, with the intention apparently of keeping prices low; but with what success it is easy to conjecture. Engrossing or the buying-up of corn was a serious offence: a man could not purchase more than fifty loads (called popμol). The amount of these loads cannot be exactly ascertained, nor is it material: the principle is clearly shown by the limitation. The penalty for violating this law was death. Boeckh (Public Economy of Athens, Eng. transl.) states the law thus: "in order to prevent the accumulation and hoarding of corn, engrossing was very much restricted; it was not permitted to buy at one time more than fifty such loads as a man could carry." According to this a man might buy fifty loads as often as he pleased at different times. But the meaning of the passage of Lysias appears to be that a man must not buy up corn so as to have on hand more than fifty loads at a time. This interpretation is consistent with the Greek, and the other is not; and it is not open to the same kind of objection that Boeckh's interpretation is.

The absurdity of the Athenian legislation on the trade in corn appears from a speech of Lysias against the corn-dealers (KATà TWV ZITOTWλwv). The corn-dealers were generally aliens, and their business made them objects of popular detestation: it was alleged that they bought up corn and refused to sell it when it was wanted, and thus compelled the buyers to pay them their own price. Yet it is stated by Lysias that the law was, that a dealer must sell his corn only one obolus dearer (the medimnus?) than he bought it. Thus the law attempted to fix the maximum profit of the dealers. But they evaded the law according to the same authority by selling it a drachma (six oboli) higher on the same day; the meaning of the orator here is not quite clear. The orator states that the hope of great gain made the dealers run the risk of the extreme penalty of the law. He urges the court which was then sitting for the trial

of some of the corn-dealers whom he was prosecuting, to enforce the penalty against them, and so make them mend their manners; and he represents both the consumers and the importers of corn as suffering from the combinations of the dealers. A more signal instance of absurdity and commercial ignorance is not extant than this oration.

To carry the laws as to the sale of corn into effect, the Athenians had Corn Wardens (σTоpúλakes) who kept an account of the corn that was imported, inspected flour and bread, and saw that they were sold of the weight and at the price fixed by law.

Various enactments were made with a view of securing a supply of corn; such as that no money should be lent on a vessel which did not bring back to Athens a return cargo of goods, among which corn was mentioned; and that no person living in Attica should import corn to any place except the port of Athens. The interests of individuals, and ultimately the real interests of the community, were thus set in opposition to the supposed interests of the state, and evasions of the laws are often spoken of. Individuals attempted what they will always do, to sell their grain at the dearest market. (Xenophon, Econom., c. 20.)

There were public corn-warehouses at Athens, in which corn was lodged that had been purchased at the expense of the State, and sometimes as it appears, by private contributions. There were officers appointed to purchase the corn (corn-buyers, σir@vai) and persons to give or measure it out (άmodékтα). Corn so purchased was probably sold to the people at a low price, and sometimes also there were gratuitous distributions of it, as at Rome; and occasionally, as at Rome also, presents of grain were received from foreign princes or rich persons, and distributed among the people gratis.

This subject has been investigated by Boeckh, Public Economy of Athens, translated by G. C. Lewis, 2nd edition, revised, 1842; and these remarks are mainly founded on what is said there. The subject is curious, but unfortunately, as we must collect our information mainly from