Chapter XXVIII: Appendix: II

TABLE SHOWING EXPORTS AND IMPORTS OF
WHEAT AND FLOUR FROM AND INTO ENGLAND,
UNIMPORTANT YEARS OMITTED

Exports. Imports.
Quarters. Quarters.

England.
1697 14,699 400
1703 166,615 50
1717 22,954 none
1728 3,817 74,574
1733 427,199 7
1750 947,602 279

Great Britain.
1757 11,545 141,562
1758 9,234 20,353
1761 441,956 none
1767 5,071 497,905
1770 75,449 34
1775 91,037 560,988
1776 210,664 20,578
1780 224,059 3,915
1786 205,466 51,463
1787 120,536 59,339
1789 140,014 112,656
1791 70,626 469,056
1796 24,679 879,200
1801 28,406 1,424,765
1808 98,005 84,889
1810 75,785 1,567,126
1815 227,947 384,475
1825 38,796 787,606
1837 308,420 1,109,492
1839 42,512 3,110,729
1842 68,047 3,111,290

The above figures are taken from McCulloch's _Commercial Dictionary_, 1847, p. 438, and agree roughly with those given by McPherson, _Annals of Commerce_, iii. 674, and iv. 216 and 532.

After 1842, exports played a very small part, and imports continued to increase; in 1847, 4,612,110 _quarters_ of wheat and flour came in; and the following figures show their growth in recent times:--

AVERAGE OF ANNUAL IMPORTS
OF WHEAT AND FLOUR IN CWTS.

1861-5 34,651,549
1866-70 37,273,678
1871-5 50,495,127
1876-80 63,309,874
1881-5 77,285,881
1886-90 77,794,380
1891-5 96,582,863
1896-1900 95,956,376
1901-5 111,638,817

With regard to the exports and imports of all kinds of corn, large quantities were exported in the first half of the eighteenth century. In 1733, 800,000 quarters were sent to France, Portugal, Spain, and Italy,[757] and exports reached their maximum in 1750 with 1,667,778 quarters, but by 1760 had decreased to 600,000, and after that fell considerably; in 1771, for instance, the first year of the corn register, they only amounted to 81,665 quarters, whereas imports were 203,122. The figures of the imports were swollen by the large quantities of oats which came into England at this time. The following years are typical of the fluctuations in the trade:--

Exports. Imports.
1774 47,961 803,844
1776 376,249 444,121
1780 400,408 219,093
1782 278,955 133,663
1783 104,274 852,389
1784-8 large excess of imports, mainly oats
1789 652,764 478,426

the last year when exports of all kinds of corn exceeded imports.[758]

To sum up, according to these figures, England's exports of wheat regularly exceeded her imports from 1697 until 1757, with the exception of the years 1728-9; then they fluctuated till 1789, the last year in which exports of wheat exceeded imports, and as the same year is the last time when our exports of all kinds of corn exceeded our imports, England at that date ceased to be an exporting country.[759]

FOOTNOTES:

[757] McPherson, _Annals of Commerce_, iii. 198.

[758] Ibid. iii. 674; iv. 216, 532.

[759] The excess of exports of wheat in 1808 was accidentally due to the requirements of the army in Spain.