High price of gold—Scarcity of food—Difference in cost of living
1773-1800—Forestalling and Regrating—Food riots in the country—Riot
in London at the Corn Market—Forestalling in meat.
THE PEOPLE were uneasy. Gold was scarce—so scarce, indeed, that
instead of being the normal £3 17s. 6d. per oz., it had risen to £4
5s., at which price it was a temptation, almost overpowering, to melt
guineas. Food, too, was scarce and dear; and, as very few people starve
in silence, riots were the natural consequence. The Acts against
“Forestalling and Regrating”—or, in other words, anticipating the
market, or purchasing before others, in order to raise the price—were
put in force. Acts were also passed giving bounties on the importation
of oats and rye, and also permitting beer to be made from sugar. The
House of Commons had a Committee on the subject of bread, corn, &c.,
and they reported on the scarcity of corn, but of course could not
point out any practical method of remedying the grievance. The cost
of living, too, had much increased, as will appear from the following
table of expenses of house-keeping between 1773 and 1800, by an
inhabitant of Bury St. Edmunds:[8]
──────────────────────────┬─────────┬──────────┬───────────┬──────────
│ 1773. │ 1793. │ 1799. │ 1800.
──────────────────────────┼─────────┼──────────┼───────────┼──────────
│ │ │ │
│ £ s. d. │ £ s. d. │ £ s. d. │ £ s. d.
Comb of Malt[9] │ 0 12 0 │ 1 3 0 │ 1 3 0 │ 2 0 0
Chaldron of Coals │ 1 11 6 │ 2 0 6 │ 2 6 0 │ 2 11 0
Comb of Oats │ 0 5 0 │ 0 13 0 │ 0 16 0 │ 1 1 0
Load of Hay │ 2 2 0 │ 4 10 0 │ 5 5 0 │ 7 0 0
Meat │ 0 0 4 │ 0 0 5 │ 0 0 7 │ 0 0 9
Butter │ 0 0 6 │ 0 0 11 │ 0 0 11 │ 0 1 4
Sugar (loaf) │ 0 0 8 │ 0 1 0 │ 0 1 3 │ 0 1 4
Soap │ 0 0 6 │ 0 0 8 │ 0 0 9½ │ 0 0 10
Window lights, 30 windows │ 3 10 0 │ 7 10 0 │ 12 12 0 │ 12 12 0
Candles │ 0 0 6 │ 0 0 8 │ 0 0 9½ │ 0 0 10½
Poor’s Rates, per quarter │ 0 1 0 │ 0 2 6 │ 0 3 0 │ 0 5 0
Income Tax on £200 │ ... │ ... │ 20 0 0 │ 20 0 0
──────────────────────────┼─────────┼──────────┼───────────┼───────────
│ 8 4 0 │ 16 2 8 │ 42 9 4 │ 45 14 1½
──────────────────────────┴─────────┴──────────┴───────────┴───────────
With everything advancing at this amazing rate of progression, it is
not to be wondered at that the price of the staff of life was watched
very narrowly, and that if there were any law by which any one who
enhanced it, artificially, could be punished, he would get full benefit
of it, both from judge and jury. Of this there is an instance given in
the _Annual Register_, July 4, 1800:
“This day one Mr. Rusby was tried, in the Court of King’s Bench, on an
indictment against him, as an eminent cornfactor, for having purchased,
by sample, on the 8th of November last, in the Corn Market, Mark Lane,
ninety quarters of oats at 41s. per quarter, and sold thirty of them
again in the same market, on the same day, at 44s. The most material
testimony on the part of the Crown was given by Thomas Smith, a partner
of the defendant’s. After the evidence had been gone through, Lord
Kenyon made an address to the jury, who, almost instantly, found the
defendant guilty. Lord Kenyon—‘You have conferred, by your verdict,
almost the greatest benefit on your country that was ever conferred by
any jury.’ Another indictment against the defendant, for engrossing,
stands over.
“Several other indictments for the same alleged crimes were tried
during this year, which we fear tended to aggravate the evils of
scarcity they were meant to obviate, and no doubt contributed to excite
popular tumults, by rendering a very useful body of men odious in the
eyes of the mob.”
[Illustration: HINTS TO FORESTALLERS; OR, A SURE WAY TO REDUCE THE
PRICE OF GRAIN.]
As will be seen by the accompanying illustration by Isaac Cruikshank,
the mob did occasionally take the punishment of forestallers into their
own hands. (A case at Bishop’s Clyst, Devon, August, 1800.)
A forestaller is being dragged along by the willing arms of a crowd of
country people; the surrounding mob cheer, and an old woman follows,
kicking him, and beating him with the tongs. Some sacks of corn are
marked 25s. The mob inquire, “How much now, farmer?” “How much now, you
rogue in grain?” The poor wretch, half-strangled, calls out piteously,
“Oh, pray let me go, and I’ll let you have it at a guinea. Oh, eighteen
shillings! Oh, I’ll let you have it at fourteen shillings!”
In August and September several riots, on account of the scarcity of
corn, and the high price of provisions, took place in Birmingham,
Oxford, Nottingham, Coventry, Norwich, Stamford, Portsmouth, Sheffield,
Worcester, and many other places. The markets were interrupted, and the
populace compelled the farmers, &c., to sell their provisions, &c., at
a low price.
At last these riots extended to London, beginning in a small way. Late
at night on Saturday, September 13th, or early on Sunday, September
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
exist not a day longer. We are the sovereignty; rise then from your
lethargy. Be at the Corn Market on Monday.”
Small printed handbills to the same effect were stuck about poor
neighbourhoods, and the chance of a cheap loaf, or the love of
mischief, caused a mob of over a thousand to assemble in Mark Lane
by nine in the morning. An hour later, and their number was doubled,
and then they began hissing the mealmen, and cornfactors, who were
going into the market. This, however, was too tame, and so they fell
to hustling, and pelting them with mud. Whenever a Quaker appeared,
he was specially selected for outrage, and rolled in the mud; and,
filling up the time with window breaking, the riot became somewhat
serious—so much so, that the Lord Mayor went to Mark Lane about 11
a.m. with some of his suite. In vain he assured the maddened crowd 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
eighteenpence,” &c. They even hissed the Lord Mayor, and smashed the
windows close by him. This proved more than his lordship could bear, so
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.
No sooner had he gone, than the riots began again, and he had to
return; but, during the daytime, the mob was fairly quiet. It was when
the evening fell, that these unruly spirits again broke out; they
routed the constables, broke the windows of several bakers’ shops,
and, from one of them, procured a quantity of faggots. Here the civic
authorities considered that the riot ought to stop, for, if once the
fire fiend was awoke, there was no telling where the mischief might end.
So the Lord Mayor invoked the aid of the Tower Ward Volunteers—who
had been in readiness all day long, lying _perdu_ in Fishmongers’
Hall—the East India House Volunteers, and part of the London Militia.
The volunteers then blocked both ends of Mark Lane, Fenchurch Street,
and Billiter Lane (as it was then called). In vain did the mob hoot and
yell at them; they stood firm until orders were given them, and then
the mob were charged and dispersed—part down Lombard Street, part down
Fish Street Hill, over London Bridge, into the Borough. Then peace was
once more restored, and the volunteers went unto their own homes.
True, the City was quiet; but the mob, driven into the Borough, had
not yet slaked their thirst for mischief. They broke the windows, not
only of a cheesemonger’s in the Borough, but of a warehouse near the
church. They then went to the house of Mr. Rusby (6, Temple Place,
Blackfriars Road)—a gentleman of whom we have heard before, as having
been tried, and convicted, for forestalling and regrating—clamouring
for him, but he had prudently escaped by the back way into a
neighbour’s house. However, they burst into his house and entered the
room where Mrs. Rusby was. She begged they would spare her children,
and do as they pleased with the house and furniture. They assured her
they would not hurt the children, but they searched the house from
cellar to garret in hopes of getting the speculative Mr. Rusby, with
the kindly intention of hanging him in case he was found. They then
broke open some drawers, took out, and tore some papers, and took away
some money, but did not injure the furniture much. In vain they tried
to find out the address of Mrs. Rusby’s partner, and then, having no
_raison d’être_ for more mischief, they dispersed; after which a party
of Light Horse, and some of the London Militia, came up, only to find a
profound quiet. The next day the riotous population were in a ferment,
but were kept in check by the militia and volunteers.
Whether by reason of fear of the rioters, or from the fact that the
grain markets were really easier, wheat did fall on that eventful
Monday ten and fifteen shillings a quarter; and, if the following
resolutions of the Court of Aldermen are worth anything, it ought to
have fallen still lower:
“COMBE, MAYOR.
“A Court of Lord Mayor and Aldermen held at the Guildhall of the City
of London, on Tuesday, the 16th of September, 1800.
“Resolved unanimously—That it is the opinion of this Court, from the
best information it has been able to procure, that, had not the access
to the Corn Market been, yesterday, impeded, and the transactions
therein interrupted, a fall in the price of Wheat and Flour, much more
considerable than that which actually took place, would have ensued;
and this Court is further of opinion, that no means can so effectually
lead to reduce the present excessive prices of the principal articles
of food, as the holding out full security and indemnification to
such lawful Dealers as shall bring their Corn or other commodities
to market. And this Court does therefore express a determination to
suppress, at once, and by force, if it shall unhappily be necessary,
every attempt to impede, by acts of violence, the regular business of
the markets of the Metropolis.
“RIX.”
A butcher was tried and convicted at the Clerkenwell Sessions,
September 16th, for “forestalling the market of Smithfield on the 6th
of March last, by purchasing of Mr. Eldsworth, a salesman, two cows
and an ox, on their way to the market.” His brother was also similarly
convicted. The chairman postponed passing sentence, and stated that “he
believed there were many persons who did not consider, that, by such a
practice, they were offending against the law; but, on the contrary,
imagined that, when an alteration in the law was made, by the repeal
of the old statutes against forestalling, there was an end of the
offence altogether. It had required the authority of a very high legal
character, to declare to the public that the law was not repealed,
though the statutes were.” He also intimated that whenever sentence was
passed, it would be the lightest possible. Still the populace would
insist on pressing these antiquated prosecutions, and an association
was formed to supply funds for that purpose.
[Illustration]