Appendix Ii

TABLE SHOWING EXPORTS AND IMPORTS OF WHEAT AND FLOUR FROM AND INTO ENGLAND, UNIMPORTANT YEARS OMITTED

Exports. Imports. Quarters. Quarters.

England. 1697 14,699 400 1703 166,615 50 1717 22,954 none 1728 3,817 74,574 1733 427,199 7 1750 947,602 279

Great Britain. 1757 11,545 141,562 1758 9,234 20,353 1761 441,956 none 1767 5,071 497,905 1770 75,449 34 1775 91,037 560,988 1776 210,664 20,578 1780 224,059 3,915 1786 205,466 51,463 1787 120,536 59,339 1789 140,014 112,656 1791 70,626 469,056 1796 24,679 879,200 1801 28,406 1,424,765 1808 98,005 84,889 1810 75,785 1,567,126 1815 227,947 384,475 1825 38,796 787,606 1837 308,420 1,109,492 1839 42,512 3,110,729 1842 68,047 3,111,290

The above figures are taken from McCulloch's Commercial Dictionary, 1847, p. 438, and agree roughly with those given by McPherson, Annals of Commerce, iii. 674, and iv. 216 and 532.

After 1842, exports played a very small part, and imports continued to increase; in 1847, 4,612,110 quarters of wheat and flour came in; and the following figures show their growth in recent times:--

AVERAGE OF ANNUAL IMPORTS OF WHEAT AND FLOUR IN CWTS.

1861-5 34,651,549 1866-70 37,273,678 1871-5 50,495,127 1876-80 63,309,874 1881-5 77,285,881 1886-90 77,794,380 1891-5 96,582,863 1896-1900 95,956,376 1901-5 111,638,817

With regard to the exports and imports of all kinds of corn, large quantities were exported in the first half of the eighteenth century. In 1733, 800,000 quarters were sent to France, Portugal, Spain, and Italy, and exports reached their maximum in 1750 with 1,667,778 quarters, but by 1760 had decreased to 600,000, and after that fell considerably; in 1771, for instance, the first year of the corn register, they only amounted to 81,665 quarters, whereas imports were 203,122. The figures of the imports were swollen by the large quantities of oats which came into England at this time. The following years are typical of the fluctuations in the trade:--

Exports. Imports. 1774 47,961 803,844 1776 376,249 444,121 1780 400,408 219,093 1782 278,955 133,663 1783 104,274 852,389 1784-8 large excess of imports, mainly oats 1789 652,764 478,426

the last year when exports of all kinds of corn exceeded imports.

To sum up, according to these figures, England's exports of wheat regularly exceeded her imports from 1697 until 1757, with the exception of the years 1728-9; then they fluctuated till 1789, the last year in which exports of wheat exceeded imports, and as the same year is the last time when our exports of all kinds of corn exceeded our imports, England at that date ceased to be an exporting country.

FOOTNOTES:

McPherson, Annals of Commerce, iii. 198.

Ibid. iii. 674; iv. 216, 532.

The excess of exports of wheat in 1808 was accidentally due to the requirements of the army in Spain.