er kilo (4s. 7d. per cwt.). By a law of
July 1889, as amended by laws of August 1891 and July 1899, importation
is prohibited except in the event of the home-grown crop being
insufficient, and even then permission is confined to millers. The duty,
in the event of permission to import being accorded, is to be charged on
a sliding scale intended to keep the cost of wheat to the millers,
including the duty, at 60 reis (3-1/4d.) per kilo (2.2 lbs.). Maize is
subject to a duty of 4s. 1-1/2d. per cwt., and rye, oats and barley to
one of 3s. 8d. per cwt. By laws of July 1889 and August 1891 the
importation of flour was prohibited except in the event of a strike of
the mill-hands, and the duty was fixed at 6s. 2d. per cwt. Export and
import of grain in France were prohibited down to the period of the
repeal of the British corn laws, save when prices were below certain
limits in the one case and above certain other limits in the other. But
export of grain and flour from France has long been free of duty. On the
other hand, import duties have varied considerably. By a law of 1881,
the duty on wheat was fixed at 3d. per cwt.; this duty was raised in
1885 to 1s. 2-3/4d. per cwt. and again in 1887 to 2s. 0-1/2d. By a law
of 1894 the duty was fixed at 2s. 10-1/4d. per cwt. In 1898, owing to
the sudden rise in the price of corn occasioned by the war between Spain
and the United States, the duty was temporarily (the 4th of May to the
30th of June) suspended. By a law of 1873 free importation of rye,
barley, maize and oats was permitted, but by a law of 1885 a duty was
fixed at 7-1/4d. per cwt., and this was subsequently (1887) increased to
1s. 2-3/4d. In 1881 the duty on imported flour was as low as 5-3/4d. per
cwt., but this was increased successively by laws of 1885, 1887, 1891
and 1892, and in 1894 was fixed at 4s. 5-3/4d. per cwt. at the rate of
extraction of 70% and over; 5s. 5-3/4d. at 70 to 60%; and 6s. 6d. at 60%
and under. In Belgium both the export and import of wheat, rye, barley
and maize are free of duty; so also were oats and flour. Since 1895,
however, there has been a duty of 1s. 2-1/2d. on oats, and of 9-3/4d. on
flour. The policy of the Netherlands was, owing to the advantages
possessed by its ports, long favourable to the import and export of
grain. But for some years prior to 1845 there was a moderate sliding
scale of import duties, and this gave place, on the ravages of the
potato disease, to a low fixed duty; since