War Department for the Army Distributed at the Stations below. IX.-Table of Strength of French Army, including all Ranks, showing War Establishment. Horses. Men, all Ranks. Men, all Ranks. X.-Table showing the Amounts actually Disbursed in each Year by the Departments of War and Marine of France. XI.-Table showing Yearly Expenditure as Certified to by Commissioners for Auditing Public Accounts, on account of Army, Militia, Commissariat, Ordnance, and Navy. I.-The Imports of Grain before and after the Repeal of the Corn Laws. 458 A PAPER upon this subject was read before Section F of the British Association in 1864 by the Editor; a breviate of that communication is given below, and a short series of tables upon which the paper was based is appended. The custom house returns disclose figures which, to those who are not familiar with statistical and economic research, look like fabulous amounts. For example, in the four years ended with 1844 (these were the last years of the celebrated and mischievous "sliding scale"), 1,791,000 quarters was the average yearly quantity of wheat imported; the price of British wheat being in those years 648. 4d., 578. 3d., 50s. 1d., and 518. 3d., taking them chronologically. But in the four years ended with 1863, the average imports were 6,970,000 quarters, while our home prices ranged between 448. 9d. and 558. 5d. The imports in quantity were, in the last mentioned years, nearly fourfold what we obtained in 1841-44; at the same time the price was much lower. Under "grain" are classed wheat, wheaten flour and meal, barley, oats, rye, maize, peas and beans, &c., and it appears, with regard to the value of these commodities, that the whole of the imports during the decade ended with 1863 amounted to 250,202,000l.; nearly all the vast quantity of grain and flour which this money value represents has been consumed in the United Kingdom, about three million's worth only having been exported in the ten years. The annual average home consumption of foreign corn, flour and meal for 1852-63, was 11,865,000 quarters, valued at 25,000,000l. very nearly. Three periods of four years each are taken to show the imports, according to population, of grain and flour of every description. 1842-45 '52-55 'Average Annual Quantity 0.8 of a bushel. 44 "" So that the quantity taken with reference to the population was precisely five and a half times greater in 1860-63 than it was eighteen years before. The different parts of the United Kingdom appeared to participate equally in the imports of grain properly so called, but Ireland received a much smaller quantity of wheat flour Grain and meal than either England or Scotland, e.g., the following are the proportions in each division of the kingdom for 1861: The year of maximum imports was 1862, when 18,441,000 quarters of grain, meal, and flour of all sorts, valued at 37,772,000l., were received into the ports of the United Kingdom. Mr. McCulloch computed that, for human food and for the subsistence of inferior animals, this country required 49,000,000 quarters of grain, flour, and meal annually. This estimate was made five or six years ago; more recently, Mr. Caird has computed the annual quantity of wheat required for the consumption of Great Britain at 18,700,000 quarters. England yields to other nations but little corn or flour. The average annual value of grain, wheat flour, and meal of every description exported during the ten years ended with 1863, was only 903,800l.; one-third was foreign produce, and two-thirds British. The largest shipments occurred in 1861, namely, 2,223,000l., or ten times the amount, measured pecuniarily, that we sent abroad in the previous year. To the tables which follow a supplemental statement is added, bringing the statistics down to end of 1865. In September, 1864, the customs commenced keeping the account of the imports of grain by weight and not by measure of capacity as theretofore. The custom house authorities found, from a variety of trials, that an imperial quarter of grain was equivalent to the respective weights stated below, viz.: According to the House of Commons' Paper No. 387, Sess. 1864, wheat, meal, and flour were converted from hundredweights into imperial quarters, at the rates of 3 cwts. per quarter. The subjoined tables, with the exception of the last, were compiled for the original paper. A. Shows for each year the quantity of grain and flour imported from 1841 to 1863. B. Shows the total quantity of flour and grain of every description imported in the same years, and estimated value thereof since 1854. C. Shows the quantity of wheat imported, and its estimated value for each of the twenty-three years ended with 1863. D. Shows the average quantity per head of grain and flour imported into the three kingdoms. E. Shows as a supplemental table the quantity and value of grain and flour imported during the three years cnded with 1865. F. P. A.-Quantity and Value, so far as known, of every description of Grain, Flour, and Meal Imported into the United Kingdom during the Twentythree Years ended with 1863, with the Average Price of Corn in the Home Markets. Note. During the four or five first years of the table, the " was in force. The duty on wheat was 48. per quarter during 1846-48. In 1849 it was reduced to one shilling per quarter. |