The Wealth of Nations

nor selling the same in the same market within three months.” Under 5 and 6 Ed. VI, c. 14, a person buying and selling again “in any fair or market holden or kept in the same place or in any other fair or market within four miles” was a regrator, while a forestaller was one who bought or contracted to buy things on their way to market, or made any motion for enhancing the price of such things or preventing them going to market. ↩

12 Geo. III, c. 71, repeals 5 and 6 Ed. VI, c. 14, but does not mention 15 Car. II, c. 7, which is purely permissive. If 15 Car. II, c. 7, remained of any force in this respect it must have been merely in consequence of the common law being unfavourable to forestalling. ↩

Eds. 1 and 2 read “attends.” ↩

Charles Smith, Three Tracts on the Corn Trade and Corn Laws, 2nd ed., 1766, p. 145. The figures have been already quoted above, here. ↩

“The export is bare one thirty-second part of the consumption, one thirty-third part of the growth exclusive of seed, one thirty-sixth part of the growth including the seed.”

—⁠Three Tracts on the Corn Trade and Corn Laws

, p. 144; quoted above, here. ↩

This was not the first law of its kind. 3 Ed. IV, c. 2, was enacted because “the labourers and occupiers of husbandry within this realm of England be daily grievously endamaged by bringing of corn out of other lands and parts into this realm of England when corn of the growing of this realm is at a low price,” and forbids importation of wheat when not over 6s. 8d., rye when not over 4s. and barley when not over 3s. the quarter. This Act was repealed by 21 Jac. I, c. 28, and 15 Car. II, c. 7, imposed a duty of 5s. 4d. on imported wheat, 4s. on rye, 2s. 8d. on barley, 2s. on buckwheat, 1s. 4d. on oats and 4s. on peas and beans, when the prices at the port of importation did not exceed for wheat, 48s.; barley and buckwheat, 28s.; oats, 13s. 4d.; rye, peas and beans, 32s. per quarter. ↩

Ed. 1 reads “restrained by duties proportionably.” ↩

Before the 13th of the present king, the following were the duties payable upon the importation of the different sorts of grain:

Grain		Duties				Duties		Duties
Beans to	28s. per qr.	19s.	10d.	after till	40s.	16s.	8d.	then	12d.
Barley to	28s.	19s.	10d.		32s.	16s.			12d.
Malt is prohibited by the annual Malt-tax Bill.
Oats to	16s.	5s.	10d.	after					9½d.
Peas to	40s.	16s.	0d.	after					9¾d.
Rye to	36s.	19s.	10d.	till	40s.	16s.	8d.	then	12d.
Wheat to	44s.	21s.	9d.	till	53s. 4d.	17s.		then	8s.
till 41. and after that about 1s. 4d.
Buck wheat to 32s. per qr. to pay 16s.

These different duties were imposed, partly by the 22nd of Charles II in place of the Old Subsidy, partly by the New Subsidy, by the One-third and Two-thirds Subsidy, and by the Subsidy 1747.

—⁠Smith

The table of duties in this note is an exact copy of that in Charles Smith, Three Tracts on the Corn Trade 2nd ed., 1766, p. 83. That author professes to have taken the figures from “Mr. Saxby, in his Book of Rates” (i.e., Henry Saxby, The British Customs, Containing an Historical and Practical Account of Each Branch of That Revenue, 1757, pp. 111⁠–⁠114), but besides rounding off Saxby’s fractions of a penny in an inaccurate and inconsistent manner, he has miscopied the second duty on barley, the first on peas and the third on wheat. The “Old Subsidy” consisted of the 5 percent or 1s. poundage imposed by 12 Car. II, c. 4, on the values attributed to the various goods by the “Book of Rates” annexed to the Act. According to this, imported beans, barley and malt were to be rated at 26s. 8d. the quarter when the actual price at the place of importation did not exceed 28s. When the actual price was higher than that they were to be rated at 5s. the quarter. Oats and peas were to be rated at 4s. the quarter. Rye when not over 36s. was to be rated at 26s. 8d., and when over that price at 5s. Wheat when not over 44s. was to be rated at 40s., and when over that price at 6s. 8d.

So under the Old Subsidy:⁠—

• Beans, barley and malt at prices up to 28s. were to pay 1s. 4d., and when above that price 3d.

• Oats and peas to pay 2·4d.

• Rye up to 36s. to pay 1s. 4d., and when above, 3d.

• Wheat up to 44s. to pay 2s., and when above, 4d.

The Act 22 Car. II, c. 13, took off these duties and substituted the following scheme:⁠—

• Beans to 40s. to pay 16s., and above that price, 3d.

• Barley and malt to 32s. to pay 16s., and above, 3d.

• Oats to 16s. to pay 5s. 4d., and above, 2·4d.

• Peas and rye the same as beans.

• Wheat to 53s. 4d. to pay 16s., then to 80s. to pay 8s., and above that price, 4d.

• Buckwheat to 32s. to pay 16s.

But 9 and 10 Will. III, c. 23, imposed a “New Subsidy” exactly equal to the Old, so that duties equal to those of 12 Car. II, c. 4, were superimposed on those of 22 Car. II, c. 13. By 2 and 3 Ann., c. 9, an additional third, and by 3 and 4 Ann., c. 5, an additional two-thirds of the Old Subsidy were imposed, and by 21 Geo. II, c. 2, another amount equal to the Old Subsidy (“the impost 1747”) was further imposed. So between 1747 and 1773 the duties were those of 22 Car. II, c. 13, plus three times those of 12 Car. II, c. 4. This gives the following scheme:⁠—

• Beans to 28s. pay 20s. and after till 40s. pay 16s. 9d. then 1s.

• Barley to 28s. pays 20s. and after till 32s.