morable example was given in Pitt's commercial treaty with France,
were overwhelmed in the extraordinary excitement caused by the French
Revolution, and all the old corn law policy was destined to have a
sudden revival. The landowners and farmers complained that an import of
foreign grain at a nominal duty of 6d., when the price of wheat was only
48s., deprived them of the ascending scale of prices when it seemed due;
and on this instigation an act was passed in 1791, whereby the price at
which importation could proceed at the nominal duty of 6d. was raised to
54s., with a duty of 2s. 6d. from 54s. to 50s., and at 50s. and under
50s. a prohibitory duty of 24s. 3d. The bounty on export was maintained
by this act, but exportation was allowed without bounty till the price
reached 46s.; and the permission accorded by the statute of 1773 to
import foreign corn at any price, to be reexported duty free, was
modified by a warehouse duty of 2s. 6d. in addition to the duties on
import payable at the time of sale, when the corn, instead of being
re-exported, happened to be sold for home consumption. The legislative
vigilance in this statute to prevent foreign bread from reaching the
home consumer is remarkable. There were deficient home harvests for some
years after 1791, particularly in 1795 and 1797, and parliament was
forced to the new expedient of granting high bounties on importation. At
this period the country was involved in a great war; all the customary
commercial relations were violently disturbed; freight, insurance and
other charges on import and export were multiplied fivefold; heavier and
heavier taxes were imposed; and the capital resources of the kingdom
were poured with a prodigality without precedent into the war channels.
The consequence was that the price of corn, as of all other commodities,
rose greatly: and the Bank of England having stopped paying in specie
in 1797, this raised nominal prices still more under the liberal use of
bank paper in loans and discounts, and the difference that began to be
established in the actual value of Bank of England notes and their legal
par in bullion.

The average price of British wheat rose to L5: 19: 6 in 1801. So unusual
a value must have led to a large extension of the area under wheat, and
to much corn-growing on land that after great outlay was ill prepared
for it. In the following years there were agricultural complaints; and
in 1804, though in 1803 the average price