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,[757] 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.[758]

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.[759]

FOOTNOTES: 

[757] McPherson, Annals of Commerce, iii. 198.

[758] Ibid. iii. 674; iv. 216, 532.

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

APPENDIX III

AVERAGE PRICES PER IMPERIAL QUARTER OF BRITISH CORN IN ENGLAND AND WALES, IN EACH YEAR FROM 1771 TO 1907 INCLUSIVE, ACCORDING TO THE RETURNS OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE

YEARS.    WHEAT.    BARLEY.     OATS.
s. d.     s. d.     s. d.

1771 48 7 26 5 17 2 1772 52 3 26 1 16 8 1773 52 7 29 2 17 8 1774 54 3 29 4 18 4 1775 49 10 26 9 17 0

1776 39 4 20 9 15 5 1777 46 11 21 1 16 1 1778 43 3 23 4 15 7 1779 34 8 20 1 14 5 1780 36 9 17 6 13 2

1781 46 0 17 8 14 1 1782 49 3 23 2 15 7 1783 54 3