BREAD RIOTS.
Bread riots are of comparatively modern date. In the olden days people
suffered from scarcity, but they suffered without making senseless
riots. There was no Free Trade in corn, and the people had to depend
upon home-grown cereals; so that in times of drought or failure of
crops they felt the pinch terribly. True, they had a certain amount of
protection against overcharge and combination in the form of the Assize
of Bread, which, while it gave the baker a working profit, gave the
consumer the benefit of a sliding-scale according to the market value
of wheat.
It is not worth while going very far back to write the history of hard
times and how they were met; a hundred years is quite long enough for
retrospect. Suffice it, then, that the years 1795-96 were years of
great scarcity, and all classes, from the peasant to the King, felt it,
and met it like men. To cope with this dearth, the best way seemed to
them to diminish, as far as possible, the use of wheaten flour, and to
provide substitutes therefor. The King set his subjects a good example.
‘His Majesty has given orders for the bread used in his household to
be made of meal and rye mixed. No other sort is permitted to be baked,
and the royal family eat bread of the same quality as their servants
do. It is extremely sweet and palatable.
‘One half flour, and half potatoes, also make a very excellent bread.’
(_Times_, July 22, 1795.)
‘The writer of this paragraph has seen the bread that is eaten at
his Majesty’s table. It consists of two sorts only, the one composed
of wheaten flour and rye mixed; the other is half wheaten flour,
half potato flour. If ever example deserved imitation, it is this.’
(_Times_, July 30, 1795.)
People were requested to discontinue the use of hair powder, which was
made of starch obtained from wheat, and very many did so; in fact, this
movement extended to the Army, for we read in the _Times_, Feb. 10,
1795: ‘In consequence of the scarcity of wheat, arising partly from
such quantities of it being used for hair powder, several regiments
have, very patriotically, discontinued the use of hair powder, which,
in these instances, was generally nothing but flour.’
Potatoes came very much to the fore as a substitute for wheat, and the
Parliamentary Board of Agriculture proposed a premium of one thousand
pounds to the person who would grow the largest breadth of potatoes on
lands never before applied to the culture of that plant.
The City authorities watched the bakers narrowly as to short weight
and amerced them 5_s._ per ounce short, one man having to pay, with
costs, £106 5_s._ on 420 ounces deficient in weight. Wheat in August,
1795, was 13_s._ 6_d._ per bushel, and the price of the quartern loaf
should then have been 1_s._ 6_d._, as it was 1_s._ 3_d._ in January,
1796, when wheat was 11_s._ 6_d._ per bushel. It fell rapidly after
harvest and in December, 1796, was 7_s._ 4_d._ per bushel. It must be
remembered that money then had twice its present value.
In 1800 there was another scarcity, and in February of that year a
Bill passed into law which enacted ‘That it shall not be lawful for
any baker, or other person, or persons, residing within the cities of
London and Westminster, and the Bills of Mortality, and within ten
miles of the Royal Exchange, after the 26th day of February, 1800, or
residing in any part of Great Britain after the 4th day of March, 1800,
to sell, or offer to expose for sale, any bread, until the same shall
have been baked 24 hours at the least.’
The average price of wheat this year was 14_s._ 1_d._ per bushel, and
in July, just before harvest, it rose to 16_s._ 10_d._ or 134_s._ 8_d._
per quarter, and other provisions were very dear. The people were less
patient than in 1795-6, and in August and September several riots took
place at Birmingham, Oxford, Nottingham, Coventry, Norwich, Stamford,
Portsmouth, Sheffield, Worcester, and many other places. The markets
were interrupted, and the populace compelled the farmers, etc., to sell
their provisions at a low price.
At last these riots extended to London, beginning in a very small way.
Late at night on Saturday, September 13, or early on Sunday, the 14th,
two large, written placards were pasted on the Monument, the text of
which was—
‘Bread will be sixpence the quartern, if the people will
assemble at the Corn Market on Monday.
‘FELLOW COUNTRYMEN,
‘How long will ye quietly and cowardly suffer yourselves to be imposed
upon and half-starved by a set of mercenary slaves and Government
hirelings? Can you still suffer them to proceed in their extensive
monopolies while your children are crying for bread? No! let them
not exist a day longer. We are the sovereignty; rise then from your
lethargy. Be at the Corn Market on Monday.’
By means of these placards, and handbills to the same effect, a mob
of over a thousand was collected in Mark Lane by nine a.m., and their
number was doubled in another hour. They hissed and pelted the corn
factors; but, about eleven a.m., when they began to break windows, the
Lord Mayor appeared upon the spot. In vain he assured them that their
behaviour could in no way affect the market. They only yelled at him,
‘Cheap bread!’ ‘Birmingham and Nottingham for ever!’ ‘Three loaves for
eighteen-pence,’ etc. They even hissed the Lord Mayor and smashed the
windows close by him. This was more than he could bear, and he ordered
the Riot Act to be read. The constables charged the mob, who, of
course, fled, and the Lord Mayor returned to the Mansion House.
They only went to other parts of the City, and, when night fell, they
began smashing windows, etc. At last, fear of their firing the City
induced the authorities to invoke the assistance of some Volunteers and
Militia, and by their efforts the mob was driven over London Bridge
into Southwark, where they rendered the night lively by breaking
windows, etc.
For a day or two there was peace; but on the morning and during the
day and night of the 18th of September the mob had it all their own
way, breaking windows and pillaging. A royal proclamation was issued,
calling on the civil authorities to suppress these riots, which was
done at last by means of cavalry and Volunteers, but only after the mob
having two more days’ uncontrolled possession of London. But the people
in the country were not so quickly satisfied; their wages were smaller
than those of their London brethren, and they proportionately felt the
pinch more acutely. In some instances they were put down by force, in
others the price of bread was lowered; but it is impossible at this
time to take up a newspaper and not find some notice of or allusion to
a food riot.
The importation of foreign corn supplied the deficiency of the English
crops, and bread was moderately cheap; but in 1815, probably with a
view to assuage the agricultural distress then prevalent, a measure was
proposed and passed by which foreign corn was to be prohibited, except
when wheat had reached 80_s._ a quarter—a price considered by the great
body of consumers as exorbitant. A resolution was passed ‘That it is
the opinion of the Committee that any sort of foreign corn, meal, or
flour, which may by law be imported into the United Kingdom shall at
all times be allowed to be brought into the United Kingdom, and to be
warehoused there, without payment of any duty whatever.’
The popular feeling was well worked on; and on March 6 groups of people
assembled near the Houses of Parliament, about the usual time of
meeting, hooting or cheering the members, and occasionally stopping a
carriage and making its occupant walk through the crowd, which at last
got so unruly that it was obliged to be dispersed by the military. Yet
the whole night they were parading the streets, breaking windows, and
yelling: ‘No Corn Bill!’ This conduct continued for two nights longer,
until the rioters had almost worn themselves out, when an increase of
military force finally extinguished the rising. But there were riots
all over the country.
In 1828 an Act of Parliament was passed which fixed the duty on foreign
wheat according to a ‘sliding scale,’ whereby it was diminished from
1_l._ 5_s._ 8_d._ per quarter whenever the average price of all England
was under 62_s._, and was gradually reduced, as wheat rose in price,
until the duty stood at 1_s._ when wheat was 73_s._ and upwards.
Great agitation prevailed as to free corn; and on September 18, 1838,
the Anti-Corn Law League, for procuring the repeal of the laws charging
duty upon the importation of corn, was founded at Manchester. This
organisation lectured, harangued, distributed pamphlets, and was
perpetually in evidence—and at last succeeded in its object.
The 5 Vict., c. 14 (April 29, 1842), was a revised sliding scale. When
wheat was under 51_s._ the duty to be 1_l_.; when 73_s._ and over,
1_s._; and this lasted until the Corn Importation Bill (9, 10, Vic.,
c. 22) was passed on June 26, 1846, which reduced the duty on wheat to
4_s._ when imported at or above 53_s._, until Feb. 1, 1849, when 1_s._
duty per quarter only was to be levied on all kinds of imported grain.
This shilling was taken off on June 24, 1869, and there is now no
hindrance of any sort to the importation of foreign corn.
Although there was fierce political contention over the Anti-Corn Law
agitation physical force was not resorted to, and the next bread riots
we hear of were in 1855. They seem to have begun at Liverpool, where,
on Feb. 19, an unruly mob took possession of the city, clamouring for
bread and looting the bakers’ shops. The police were unable to cope
with the riot; therefore, special constables were sworn in and peace
was restored towards evening. Next day about 60 prisoners were brought
before the magistrates; some were committed for trial, others sentenced
to one, two, or three months’ imprisonment.
The riot spread to London, and during the night of Feb. 21 and the
whole day of Feb. 22 the East End and South of London were terrorised
by bands of men perambulating the streets and demanding bread and money
from the inhabitants; some shops were looted, but, thanks to the police
and the distribution of a large quantity of bread, serious consequences
were averted. Several arrests were made and punishment duly meted out.
On September 14, 1855, there were bread riots in Nottingham, where the
mob broke the bakers’ windows and proceeded to such extremities that
special constables were sworn in and peace was restored.
On three successive Sundays, October 14, 21, and 28, 1855, there were
disorderly meetings on account of the dearness of bread held in Hyde
Park; the windows of many houses were smashed, but the disturbances
hardly amounted to riot; and the same occurred on November 4, 11, and
18, but the police prevented the mob from doing much mischief. Since
then we have never known a _bread riot_, although the unemployed,
Anarchists, etc., have at times been troublesome.