3. The impolicy, if not injuftice, of reftraining, by compulfive means, the fale of an article, which, however indifpenfable in itself, has as fair a claim as any other article of trade to a free and voluntary mode of fale; efpecially an article of which the growth is optional on the part of the feller. 4. The abfolute impoffibility of fecuring a conftant uniform fupply on every market day, fufficient for the confumption of the district dependant on that market, till the next market day. The above are my doubts as to the practicability or even the poflibility of carrying a plan of this kind into effect. My opinion is, that it can do but little good, and may do a great deal of harm; and I take the liberty of fupporting that opinion by the following reafons. The prefent, and indeed every fcarcity of corn, arifes chiefly from a failure of crops. That failure must be compenfated to the grower (who is obliged to pay the fame rent in all feafons) by an increafed price.-That price is always regulated by the demand. -The great defideratum is to keep the demand and the fupply as nearly regular as poffible. The propofal now made to the committee has that end for its object. I have, with all deference, to prove that it is inadequate. I live in a fituation moft likely to furnish me with the means of in formation; viz. at the junction of the country which produces corn, with the country which confumes it, within five miles of the great corn market of Warminster. From Warmintier, for near forty miles eastward, through Wilts and Hants, is a country which does not confume one fourth part of the corn it grows-From Warminster, for near forty miles weftward, through a great part of Somersetfhire, and including Bath and Briftol, is a country which does not produce one fourth part of the corn it confumes. The other three-fourths of corn confumed in the latter diftrict is brought chiefly from the former (for the increafed population of the north has deprived Briftol of the refource it once had down the Severn). Warminster and Devizes are the principal markets by which this quantity is fupplied. From thefe towns, to Bristol and Bridge. water, there is not a market where corn is expofed for fale in bulk. But would it be politic to compel the growers of this one-fourth part of the confumption of Somersetfhire to bring it to Warminster or Devizes, or to Bridgewater or Briftol, to fell it, to be carried back again to be confumed by the manufacturing towns of Frome or Shepton Mallett, poffibly within a few miles of the place of its growth, at an advanced price, occafioned by this useless carriage. I may be The propofal made in the committee, of obliging farmers to bring at least a fack of corn to market as a fample, or even a bufhel is objectionable; the latter quantity, fmall as it is, cannot be brought ten miles under an expence of two fhillings, and nobody could buy it at that additional expence, unless they alfo contracted to take a greater quantity with it to cover that expence: the poor, for whom it is intended, could never buy it. Befides, in all manufacturing countries the poor feldom buy wheat at market, or would if they could; the labourers in agriculture in the villages buy it of the farmers for whom they work: the manufacturers live from hand to mouth, and buy bread ready baked. Befides, it is feldom reckoned how much a poor man lofes in time and expences in going. to market to buy corn, even if he could buy it. Ff VOL. XXXVIII. afked, asked, why cannot markets be held at thefe towns ?-I anfwer the eftablishments of markets are not the work of a day; - and fuppofe they were established, ftill that would not increase the quantity of corn grown in that country. The dealers must ftill go catiward for three-fourths of their supply, to the neglect of their own trifling markets, which of courfe would foon come to nothing again. The avowed object of the plan before the committee is, doubtlefs, to defeat a fuppofed combination between buyers and fellers of corn to keep up its price, and to lay the markets open to a fair competition; and a very laudable object it is. I have already stated my doubts as to the poffibility of carrying this plan into execution, or indeed any plan that would defeat this kind of combination; but I have very great doubts in my own mind as to the exiftence of combination to the extent we frequently hear of, and ftill greater as to the magnitude of the injury fuppofed to be done thereby to the public. I am fenfible I am taking the unpopular fide of the argument. I think you will agree with me in fome parts of it at leaft; and if you do not, I am fure you will not be offended at my giving my opinion. That a combination fhould exit among farmers is impoffible ;they are too numerous, and many of them too neceflitous, ever to act in concert. Rich farmers may undoubtedly (and this year they have done it) keep their wheat from market. In times of fcarcity, like the laft months of June and July, it is well they did, we fhould otherwife have been quite ftarved in Auguft. The fhortness of the fupply then produced a faving in the confumption, and thereby the ftock in hand lafted out. Suppole we had had a wet harveft; in that cafe the new corn could not have been ground without an addition of old. The rich farmers who had wheat left would then have been useful men. The fact speaks for itfelf. If these men As to jobbers of corn, these men may con.bine together; their numberis but few, comparatively speak ing; but how do they combine? not to raise the price of corn, but to fink it! Warminster market, though a fack market, and not a fample market, is in a great meafure governed by these men ;-and were it not for them, Bath and Briftol must be fed much dearer than they are now. cannot get corn at one market they go to another, and if there is not enough at market they go to farm houfes. But when they get to the places of confumption, there the combination ends, and competition begins;-lefs profit will fuffice thefe men than the expence that would be incurred by ten times the numbers of bakers and malfiers, coming twenty or twenty-five miles to market. In fact, had it not been for men of this defcription, Briftol would have been starved laft fummer.-There were inftances, more than once, of that city being without a fortnight's fupply of corn. These men knew it, and ranfacked the country for more.-They did it for their own fakes, and thereby ferved the community. But even admitting a combination between farmers and jobbers to exift in any particular country; the moment corn gets above the price at which it would bear the additional expence of carriage ten miles farther, there is an end of the combination; and if it was poffible the whole kingdom could combine, an importation from any country where it could be got cheaper would inftantly knock it up. In fact, thefe very men, though dealing at all times under fufpicions, and this year frequently in danger of their lives, are the very hands that transfer the plenty of one country to relieve the diftreffes of another; and though at former periods, as well as now, they have, in times of dearth, been pointed at as the caufe of it, they have to my knowledge this year more than once faved whole towns from famine. In fact, times of fcarcity are favourable to this fet of men. They are then (against their will, I allow) particularly ufeful to all countries who do not grow corn enough for their confumption. In times of plenty they cannot exift to answer their own purpose-in thofe times they are not wanted. wheat; a few farmers, who happen to have extraordinary good wheat, make a point of adding two or three quarts to the measure. This fack of corn, fo much better and bigger than the average of the market, will frequently fell for one fifth more than inferior fanples of fair measure in the fame market. This high price, and which it is the intereft of the buyer to give, forms a ftandard of price of bread and flour for the enfuing week-No exifting laws are adequate to the remedy of this evi), for as neither buyer nor felfer complain, who is to re-measure this corn, though fold in a public market? Befides, there is fo much art in meafuring corn, that two people may make feveral quarts difference in a fack, and yet both appear to measure fair.-If any remedy can be applied to this evil, it must be a compulfion to fell corn by weight;-this is done by choice at Manchefter and Liverpool, and in this country the buyer always aiks the weight, though he does not buy by it:-in fact, weight determines the quality as well as the quantity. If weight was adopted, the price would be nearly equal, and it would then be poffible to frame a fair aflize table, which in my opinion is impoffible to do from meature, efpecially in fuch a year as this, when the difference in the price of good and bad wheat is full one third. But the great evil which we in this country feel, and which our great corn markets rather encourage than prevent, is the inequality of meafures by which corn, and particularly wheat, is fold; I do not fpeak of the various provincial measures. It is immaterial to a country whether eight, nine, or twelve gallons are fold for a bufhel, provided all parties understand what the measure is. But in this country, in all villages and finall towns where there is no affize of bread, the baker fells his bread and his flour at his own price, for which he always quores the higheft market price of Copy of a letter from Sir Francis Baffet, Upper Grosvenor-ftreet, SIR, Dec. 22, 1795. MANY complaints having been made in different parts of England, of the hardships fuffered by the poor from the prefent mode of payment for grinding corn, and alfo of the difficulty of obtaining redrefs, whenever there is a fufpicion that frauds are practifed by the millers; I beg leave, through you, to fubmit to the corn committee a plan for remedying those fuppofed grievances. I would propofe, in the firft place, to alter the prefent cuftom of taking toll, into a uniform payment in money, to be fettled by the juftices, with respect to all mills where fuch alterations would not interfere with peculiar rights, established by the courts of law. I further propofe to enable thofe perfons who may in future think themielves aggrieved by millers, to obtain redress by a fummary proceeding before two juftices of the peace, inftead of being obliged to have recourse to fo expenfive and fo tedious a procefs as an indictment. As the law ftands at prefent, the proprietor of an old mill may take his accustomed toll; but as that toll is known only to himfelf (for it is rarely avowed to his cuftomer) this gives him a confiderable latitude, and is a conftant and never-failing fource of jealoufy to thofe who employ him. I have juft faid that the customer seldom knows what he pays; but in the few cafes which have come to my knowledge, where the miller profeffes to take a fixed toll, it varies from three to fix pounds per Winchefter bufhel, befides the allowance from a pound to a pound and the miller, by uniform cuftom, half for waftage. In taking toll, confifts of the best and fineft flour. helps himself from the top, which It appears then, that the proprie tor of an old mill may take fuch toll as is juftified by custom; but the owner of a new mill may take what toll he chufes, according to the opinion of lord Holt, in the cafe of the king and Burdett: this, probably, is the only exifting cafe fixes the price of his own labour, in which a tradefman arbitrarily what his terms are. without acquainting his employer take a fair price for their labour, much refpecting the preference have over an indiament. An indictment is attended with a great certain expence, with confiderable delay, is liable to much evation and uncertainty as to the iffue; the expence of an indictment, if traverfed, amounts to at leaft feven pounds this circumftance alone, would make it impoffible for a poor man to have recourfe to it; and, indeed, would render it imprudence even for a wealthy perfon, as in moft cafes he would find the remedy worse than the disease. But the delay is another main objection to proceeding by indictment, for if traversed, it cannot be tried till the feffions after it is laid; but, after all, if neither expence nor delay are confidered as fufficient objections, it must be observed, that when the cause is brought to iffue, though the complainant may prove that the miller has taken exorbitant toll, the indictment muft fall to the ground, provided it appears that the predeceffors of the miller have taken the fame toll, or that he is the proprietor of a new mill. The measure I have in view, contains fome other regulations, but they are chiefly fubordinate, and connected with the two objects I have ftated. If the plan I propofe fhould be adopted, I think few difputes could hereafter arife between millers and those who employ them, as the chief fubjects of their ufual differences, namely, the exorbitancy and uncertainty of the toll, would no longer remain. But if, contrary to my expectation, there fhould be any complaints in future, they would be fettled at a fmall expence, and without any delay, before two juftices of the peace, probably well known to both the contending parties. I propofe that the decifion of the juftices should be final, for the purpose of avoiding expence and delay; but if this power is thought too great to be lodged in the hands of these magiftrates, an appeal may be allowed to the quarter feffions. I beg pardon for taking up fo much of your time on this fubject which really appears to me important, and therefore to deserve the ferious confideration of the corn ́ommittee. I have the honour to be, &c. 1. That it is the opinion of this committee, that it is expedient that magiftrates fhould, in times of fcarcity and high price of corn, have power to make certain regulations relative to the manufacture and fale of certain forts of meal and bread; which they do not now by law poffefs. 2. That it is the opinion of this committee, that whenever the average price of middling British wheat fhall be above a certain fum, magiftrates, at their general quarter feffions, or at any feffions to be fpecially appointed for that purpose, fhall be empowered, within their refpective jurifdictions, to prohibit, for a limited time, the feparation at the mill of more than five pounds of bran from every fixty pounds of wheat; and alfo to probibit the fale of any wheaten meal from which a greater proportion of bran fhall have been feparated. 3. That it is the opinion of this Ff3 committee, |
