[7] Viz. 5-1/2 per cent on all advances on cash or current accounts, and
1/2 per cent commission on all sums overdrawn.
[8] Table showing the quantity of grain, including flour and meal,
entered for home consumption, from 5th July 1846, to 5th February 1847,
from the _London Gazette_ official returns:--
Quarters of grain (including flour and meal) entered for qrs.
home consumption, in the months from 5th July to 5th
January as reported, 1st February, 5,148,449
Quantity duty paid in month ending 5th Feb. 539,418
Do. do. flour and meal, 427,036 cwts. 142,345
_______ 681,763
_________
Quantity duty paid up to 5th January, 5,830,212
In bond, 5th February, 68,939
Do. do. flour and meal, 318,240 cwts. 106,080
_______ 175,019
_______
Quantity in qrs. of duty paid and presently in bond,} 6,005,231
from month ending 5th July to 5th Feb.} _________
[9]
1844. 1845. 1846.
Imports, total official value, L75,441,555 L85,281,958
Sugar, cwts. " 4,139,983 4,880,780 5,231,818
Tea, lbs. " 41,369,351 44,195,321 46,728,208
Coffee, lbs. " 31,391,297 34,318,121 36,781,391
Butter, cwts. " 180,965 240,118 255,130
Cheese, cwts. " 212,286 258,246 327,490
Live animals, No. " 8,007 34,426 140,752
Brandy, " 1,033,650 1,058,777 1,515,954
Geneva, " 14,937 15,536 40,266
Rum, " 2,198,870 2,469,485 2,683,515
[10] In 1840, the total amount was estimated at L180,000,000, of which
L47,000,000, at that period, was for exportation, and L133,000,000 for
the home market. As this L47,000,000 had swelled, in 1846, to
L53,000,000, it is reasonable to suppose that those for the home market
had undergone a similar increase, and are now about L200,000
annually.--See _Speckman's Stat. Tables for_ 1842, p. 45.
[11]
_Table of Average Prices of Wheat in Prussia and in England, from 1816
to 1837._
|Average prices |Average prices|Average |Difference |Foreign Wheat |
|in Prussia |in Brandenburg|prices per|between English|and Flour |
|Proper including|and Pomerania |London |Prices and Mean|consumed in |
|Dantzig and | |Gazette. |of Prussian |Great Britain.|
|Konigsburg. | | |Prices. | |
----+----------------+--------------+----------+---------------+--------------+
| s. d. | s. d. | s. d. | s. d. | Qrs. |
1816| 36 9 | 44 6 | 76 2 | 35 6 | 225,263 |
1817| 52 7 | 60 9 | 94 0 | 37 8 | 1,020,949 |
1818| 49 6 | 53 5 | 83 8 | 32 2 | 1,593,518 |
1819| 34 3 | 37 6 | 72 3 | 36 4 | 122,133 |
1820| 27 3 | 30 0 | 65 10 | 37 2 | 34,274 |
1821| 25 6 | 28 9 | 54 5 | 27 3 | 2 |
1822| 26 0 | 26 8 | 43 3 | 16 11 | ---- |
1823| 24 2 | 26 9 | 51 9 | 26 5 | 12,137 |
1824| 18 6 | 20 0 | 62 0 | 43 3 | 15,777 |
1825| 17 3 | 17 9 | 66 6 | 49 0 | 525,231 |
1826| 18 6 | 21 0 | 56 11 | 37 2 | 315,892 |
1827| 22 3 | 25 9 | 56 9 | 32 9 | 572,733 |
1828| 27 2 | 28 9 | 60 5 | 32 5 | 842,050 |
1829| 32 3 | 35 0 | 66 3 | 32 7 | 1,364,220 |
1830| 29 6 | 34 0 | 64 3 | 32 6 | 1,701,885 |
1831| 39 6 | 39 0 | 66 4 | 27 1 | 1,491,631 |
1832| 34 0 | 33 6 | 58 8 | 24 11 | 325,435 |
1833| 25 0 | 23 6 | 52 11 | 28 8 | 82,346 |
1834| 23 9 | 23 0 | 46 2 | 21 10 | 64,653 |
1835| 23 0 | 24 0 | 39 4 | 15 10 | 28,483 |
1836| 21 0 | 23 0 | 48 6 | 26 6 | 30,046 |
1837| 22 6 | 26 0 | 56 10 | 32 7 | 244,085 |
[12] "The excessive consumption of these and other articles has,
however, only led to a drain of bullion to the extent of three millions
and a half, while, upon a moderate computation, they would appear to
call for three times that amount. This is to be accounted for by two
facts--The first being that we have not imported, and paid for as much
as we have consumed, since, conjointly with our importations, we have
been steadily eating up former reserves, so that our stock of all
kinds--coffee, sugar, rice, &c., are low; and, next, because we have
diminished our importations of raw material in a remarkable degree, and
hence, while paying for provisions, have lessened our usual payments on
this score. Here, too, in like manner, _we have been drawing upon our
reserves_. Our manufactures have been carried on with hemp, flax, and
cotton, which had been paid for in former years, and we have left
ourselves at the present moment short of all these articles, the stock
of the latter alone, on the 1st of January last, as compared with the
preceding year, being 545,790 against 1,060,560 bales. We are not only
poorer, therefore, by all the bullion we have lost, but by all the stock
we have thus consumed.
"This _process cannot go on any longer_. We have now no accumulations to
eat into, and must, consequently, _pay for what we use_. Concurrently,
therefore, with our importations of corn and other provisions, (which
are now going on at a much greater rate, and at much higher prices than
in 1846,) and just in proportion as they beget a demand for our
manufactures, we must have importations of raw material. Large purchases
of hemp and flax are alleged to have been made in the north of Europe,
for spring shipment, and cotton from the United States is only delayed
by the want of ships. Wool from Spain, and the Mediterranean, saltpetre,
oil-seeds, &c., from India, and a host of minor articles, have also been
kept back by the same cause, and will pour in upon us to make up our
deficiencies directly any relaxation shall take place (if such could be
foreseen) of the universal influx of grain. In this way, just as one
cause of demand diminishes the other will increase, and the balance will
be kept up against us for a period to which at present it is impossible
to fix a limit.
"_We thus see that no call that can possibly arise for our manufactures
can have the effect of preventing a continuous drain of bullion_. That a
large trade will occur no one can doubt, but at present it is scarcely
even in prospect. From India and China each account comes less
favourable than before; from Russia we are told that 'no great demand
can be expected for British goods under the present high duties' in that
country; while even from the United States, the point from whence relief
will most rapidly come, we hear of a shrewd conviction that we are
approaching _a period of low prices_, and that, consequently, for the
present 'the less they order from us the better.'"--_Times_, March 10,
1847.
[13] _England in 1815 and 1845_, pp. v-vii. Preface to third edition,
published in _June_ 1846.