Chapter II: Sphere of Government (5)

1. GAWAIN, included in the continuation to Chretien's _Perceval_ by Wauchier de Denain, and attributed to Bleheris the Welshman, who is probably identical with the Bledhericus of Giraldus Cambrensis, and considerably earlier than Chretien de Troyes. Here the Grail is a food-providing, self-acting talisman, the precise nature of which is not specified; it is designated as the "rich" Grail, and serves the king and his court _sans serjant et sans seneschal_, the butlers providing the guests with wine. In another version, given at an earlier point of the same continuation, but apparently deriving from a later source, the Grail is borne in procession by a weeping maiden, and is called the "holy" Grail, but no details as to its history or character are given. In a third version, that of _Diu Crone_, a long and confused romance, the origin of which has not been determined, the Grail appears as a reliquary, in which the Host is presented to the king, who once a year partakes alike of it and of the blood which flows from the lance. Another account is given in the prose _Lancelot_, but here Gawain has been deposed from his post as first hero of the court, and, as is to be expected from the treatment meted out to him in this romance, the visit ends in his complete discomfiture. The Grail is here surrounded with the atmosphere of awe and reverence familiar to us through the _Quete_, and is regarded as the chalice of the Last Supper. These are the _Gawain_ versions.

2. PERCEVAL.--The most important _Perceval_ text is the _Conte del Grael_, or _Perceval le Galois_ of Chretien de Troyes. Here the Grail is wrought of gold richly set with precious stones; it is carried in solemn procession, and the light issuing from it extinguishes that of the candles. What it is is not explained, but inasmuch as it is the vehicle in which is conveyed the Host on which the father of the Fisher king depends for nutriment, it seems not improbable that here, as in _Diu Crone_, it is to be understood as a reliquary. In the _Parzival_ of Wolfram von Eschenbach, the ultimate source of which is identical with that of Chretien, on the contrary, the Grail is represented as a precious stone, brought to earth by angels, and committed to the guardianship of the Grail king and his descendants. It is guarded by a body of chosen knights, or templars, and acts alike as a life and youth preserving talisman--no man may die within eight days of beholding it, and the maiden who bears it retains perennial youth--and an oracle choosing its own servants, and indicating whom the Grail king shall wed. The sole link with the Christian tradition is the statement that its virtue is renewed every Good Friday by the agency of a dove from heaven. The discrepancy between this and the other Grail romances is most startling.

In the short prose romance known as the "Didot" _Perceval_ we have, for the first time, the whole history of the relic logically set forth. The _Perceval_ forms the third and concluding section of a group of short romances, the two preceding being the _Joseph of Arimathea_ and the _Merlin_. In the first we have the precise history of the Grail, how it was the dish of the Last Supper, confided by our Lord to the care of Joseph, whom he miraculously visited in the prison to which he had been committed by the Jews. It was subsequently given by Joseph to his brother-in-law Brons, whose grandson Perceval is destined to be the final winner and guardian of the relic. The _Merlin_ forms the connecting thread between this definitely ecclesiastical romance and the chivalric atmosphere of Arthur's court; and finally, in the _Perceval_, the hero, son of Alain and grandson to Brons, is warned by Merlin of the quest which awaits him and which he achieves after various adventures.

In the _Perlesvaus_ the Grail is the same, but the working out of the scheme is much more complex; a son of Joseph of Arimathea, Josephe, is introduced, and we find a spiritual knighthood similar to that used so effectively in the _Parzival_.

3. GALAHAD.--The _Quete du Saint Graal_, the only romance of which Galahad is the hero, is dependent on and a completion of the _Lancelot_ development of the Arthurian cycle. Lancelot, as lover of Guinevere, could not be permitted to achieve so spiritual an emprise, yet as leading knight of Arthur's court it was impossible to allow him to be surpassed by another. Hence the invention of Galahad, son to Lancelot by the Grail king's daughter; predestined by his lineage to achieve the quest, foredoomed, the quest achieved, to vanish, a sacrifice to his father's fame, which, enhanced by connexion with the Grail-winner, could not risk eclipse by his presence. Here the Grail, the chalice of the Last Supper, is at the same time, as in the _Gawain_ stories, self-acting and food-supplying.

The last three romances unite, it will be seen, the quest and the early history. Introductory to the Galahad quest, and dealing only with the early history, is the _Grand Saint Graal_, a work of interminable length, based upon the _Joseph of Arimathea_, which has undergone numerous revisions and amplifications: its precise relation to the _Lancelot_, with which it has now much matter in common, is not easy to determine.

To be classed also under the head of early history are certain interpolations in the MSS. of the _Perceval_, where we find the _Joseph_ tradition, but in a somewhat different form, e.g. he is said to have caused the Grail to be made for the purpose of receiving the holy blood. With this account is also connected the legend of the _Volto Santo_ of Lucca, a crucifix said to have been carved by Nicodemus. In the conclusion to Chretien's poem, composed by Manessier some fifty years later, the Grail is said to have _followed_ Joseph to Britain, how, is not explained. Another continuation by Gerbert, interpolated between those of Wauchier and Manessier, relates how the Grail was brought to Britain by Perceval's mother in the companionship of Joseph.

It will be seen that with the exception of the _Grand Saint Graal_, which has now been practically converted into an introduction to the _Quete_, no two versions agree with each other; indeed, with the exception of the oldest _Gawain-Grail_ visit, that due to Bleheris, they do not agree with themselves, but all show, more or less, the influence of different and discordant versions. Why should the vessel of the Last Supper, jealously guarded at Castle Corbenic, visit Arthur's court independently? Why does a sacred relic provide purely material food? What connexion can there be between a precious stone, a _baetylus_, as Dr Hagen has convincingly shown, and Good Friday? These, and such questions as these, suggest themselves at every turn.

Numerous attempts have been made to solve these problems, and to construct a theory of the origin of the Grail story, but so far the difficulty has been to find an hypothesis which would admit of the practically simultaneous existence of apparently contradictory features. At one time considered as an introduction from the East, the theory of the Grail as an Oriental talisman has now been discarded, and the expert opinion of the day may be said to fall into two groups: (1) those who hold the Grail to have been from the first a purely Christian vessel which has accidentally, and in a manner never clearly explained, acquired certain folk-lore characteristics; and (2) those who hold, on the contrary, that the Grail is _aborigine_ folk-lore and Celtic, and that the Christian development is a later and accidental rather than an essential feature of the story. The first view is set forth in the work of Professor Birch-Hirschfeld, the second in that of Mr Alfred Nutt, the two constituting the only _travaux d'ensemble_ which have yet appeared on the subject. It now seems probable that both are in a measure correct, and that the ultimate solution will be recognized to lie in a blending of two originally independent streams of tradition. The researches of Professor Mannhardt in Germany and of J. G. Frazer in England have amply demonstrated the enduring influence exercised on popular thought and custom by certain primitive forms of vegetation worship, of which the most noteworthy example is the so-called mysteries of Adonis. Here the ordinary processes of nature and progression of the seasons were symbolized under the figure of the death and resuscitation of the god. These rites are found all over the world, and in his monumental work, _The Golden Bough_, Dr Frazer has traced a host of extant beliefs and practices to this source. The earliest form of the Grail story, the _Gawain_-Bleheris version, exhibits a marked affinity with the characteristic features of the Adonis or Tammuz worship; we have a castle on the sea-shore, a dead body on a bier, the identity of which is never revealed, mourned over with solemn rites; a wasted country, whose desolation is mysteriously connected with the dead man, and which is restored to fruitfulness when the quester asks the meaning of the marvels he beholds (the two features of the weeping women and the wasted land being retained in versions where they have no significance); finally the mysterious food-providing, self-acting talisman of a common feast--one and all of these features may be explained as survivals of the Adonis ritual. Professor Martin long since suggested that a key to the problems of the Arthurian cycle was to be found in a nature myth: Professor Rhys regards Arthur as an agricultural hero; Dr Lewis Mott has pointed out the correspondence between the so-called Round Table sites and the ritual of nature worship; but it is only with the discovery of the existence of Bleheris as reputed authority for Arthurian tradition, and the consequent recognition that the Grail story connected with his name is the earliest form of the legend, that we have secured a solid basis for such theories.

With regard to the religious form of the story, recent research has again aided us--we know now that a legend similar in all respects to the Joseph of Arimathea Grail story was widely current at least a century before our earliest Grail texts. The story with Nicodemus as protagonist is told of the _Saint-Sang_ relic at Fecamp; and, as stated already, a similar origin is ascribed to the _Volto Santo_ at Lucca. In this latter case the legend professes to date from the 8th century, and scholars who have examined the texts in their present form consider that there may be solid ground for this attribution. It is thus demonstrable that the material for our Grail legend, in its present form, existed long anterior to any extant text, and there is no improbability in holding that a confused tradition of pagan mysteries which had assumed the form of a popular folk-tale, became finally Christianized by combination with an equally popular ecclesiastical legend, the point of contact being the vessel of the common ritual feast. Nor can there be much doubt that in this process of combination the Fecamp legend played an important role. The best and fullest of the _Perceval_ MSS. refer to a book written at Fecamp as source for certain _Perceval_ adventures. What this book was we do not know, but in face of the fact that certain special Fecamp relics, silver knives, appear in the Grail procession of the _Parzival_, it seems most probable that it was a _Perceval_-Grail story. The relations between the famous Benedictine abbey and the English court both before and after the Conquest were of an intimate character. Legends of the part played by Joseph of Arimathea in the conversion of Britain are closely connected with Glastonbury, the monks of which foundation showed, in the 12th century, considerable literary activity, and it seems a by no means improbable hypothesis that the present form of the Grail legend may be due to a monk of Glastonbury elaborating ideas borrowed from Fecamp. This much is certain, that between the _Saint-Sang_ of Fecamp, the _Volto Santo_ of Lucca, and the Grail tradition, there exists a connecting link, the precise nature of which has yet to be determined. The two former were popular objects of pilgrimage; was the third originally intended to serve the same purpose by attracting attention to the reputed burial-place of the apostle of the Grail, Joseph of Arimathea?

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--For the Gawain Grail visits see the Potvin edition of
the _Perceval_, which, however, only gives the Bleheris version; the
second visit is found in the best and most complete MSS., such as
12,576 and 12,577 (_Fonds francais_) of the Paris library. _Diu
Crone_, edited by Scholl (Stuttgart, 1852). vol. vi. of _Arthurian
Romances_ (Nutt), gives a translation of the Bleheris, _Diu Crone_ and
_Prose Lancelot_ visits.

The _Conte del Graal_, or _Perceval_, is only accessible in the
edition of M. Potvin (6 vols., 1866-1871). The Mons MS., from which
this has been printed, has proved to be an exceedingly poor and
untrustworthy text. _Parzival_, by Wolfram von Eschenbach, has been
frequently and well edited; the edition by Bartsch (1875-1877), in
_Deutsche Classiker des Mittelalters_, contains full notes and a
glossary. Suitable for the more advanced student are those by K.
Lachmann (1891), Leitzmann (1902-1903) and E. Martin (1903). There are
modern German translations by Simrock (very close to the original) and
Hertz (excellent notes). English translation with notes and appendices
by J. L. Weston. "Didot" _Perceval_, ed. Hucher, _Le Saint Graal_
(1875-1878), vol. i. _Perlesvaus_ was printed by Potvin, under the
title of _Perceval le Gallois_, in vol. i. of the edition above
referred to; a Welsh version from the Hengwert MS. was published with
translation by Canon R. Williams (2 vols., 1876-1892). Under the title
of _The High History of the Holy Grail_ a fine version was published
by Dr Sebastian Evans in the Temple Classics (2 vols., 1898). The
_Grand Saint Graal_ was published by Hucher as given above; this
edition includes the _Joseph of Arimathea_. A 15th century metrical
English adaptation by one Henry Lovelich, was printed by Dr Furnivall
for the Roxburghe Club 1861-1863; a new edition was undertaken for the
Early English Text Society. _Quete du Saint Graal_ can best be studied
in Malory's somewhat abridged translation, books xiii.-xviii. of the
_Morte Arthur_. It has also been printed by Dr Furnivall for the
Roxburghe Club, from a MS. in the British Museum. Neither of these
texts is, however, very good, and the student who can decipher old
Dutch would do well to read it in the metrical translation published
by Joenckbloet, _Roman van Lanceloet_, as the original here was
considerably fuller.

For general treatment of the subject see _Legend of Sir Perceval_, by
J. L. Weston, Grimm Library, vol. xvii. (1906); _Studies on the Legend
of the Holy Grail_, by A. Nutt (1888), and a more concise treatment of
the subject by the same writer in No. 14 of _Popular Studies_ (1902);
Professor Birch-Hirschfeld's _Die Sage vom Gral_ (1877). The late
Professor Heinzel's _Die alt-franzosischen Gral-Romane_ contains a
mass of valuable matter, but is very confused and ill-arranged. For
the Fecamp legend see Leroux de Lincey's _Essai sur l'abbaye de
Fescamp_ (1840); for the _Volto Santo_ and kindred legends, Ernest von
Dobschutz, _Christus-Bilder_ (Leipzig, 1899). (J. L. W.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The etymology of the O. Fr. _graal_ or _greal_, of which "grail"
is an adaptation, has been much discussed. The Low Lat. original,
_gradale_ or _grasale_, a flat dish or platter, has generally been
taken to represent a diminutive _cratella_ of _crater_, bowl, or a
lost _cratale_, formed from the same word (see W. W. Skeat, Preface
to _Joseph of Arimathie_, Early Eng. Text Soc).--ED.

GRAIN (derived through the French from Lat. _granum_, seed, from an Aryan root meaning "to wear down," which also appears in the common Teutonic word "corn"), a word particularly applied to the seed, in botanical language the "fruit," of cereals, and hence applied, as a collective term to cereal plants generally, to which, in English, the term "corn" is also applied (see GRAIN TRADE). Apart from this, the chief meaning, the word is used of the malt refuse of brewing and distilling, and of many hard rounded small particles, resembling the seeds of plants, such as "grains" of sand, salt, gold, gunpowder, &c. "Grain" is also the name of the smallest unit of weight, both in the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Its origin is supposed to be the weight of a grain of wheat, dried and gathered from the middle of the ear. The troy grain = 1/5760 of a lb., the avoirdupois grain = 1/7000 of a lb. In diamond weighing the grain = 1/4 of the carat, = .7925 of the troy grain. The word "grains" was early used, as also in French, of the small seed-like insects supposed formerly to be the berries of trees, from which a scarlet dye was extracted (see COCHINEAL and KERMES). From the Fr. _en graine_, literally in dye, comes the French verb _engrainer_, Eng. "engrain" or "ingrain," meaning to dye in any fast colour. From the further use of "grain" for the texture of substances, such as wood, meat, &c., "engrained" or "ingrained" means ineradicable, impregnated, dyed through and through. The "grain" of leather is the side of a skin showing the fibre after the hair has been removed. The imitating in paint of the grain of different kinds of woods is known as "graining" (see PAINTER-WORK). "Grain," or more commonly in the plural "grains," construed as a singular, is the name of an instrument with two or more barbed prongs, used for spearing fish. This word is Scandinavian in origin, and is connected with Dan. _green_, Swed. _gren_, branch, and means the fork of a tree, of the body, or the prongs of a fork, &c. It is not connected with "groin," the inguinal parts of the body, which in its earliest forms appears as _grynde_.

GRAINS OF PARADISE, GUINEA GRAINS, or MELEGUETA PEPPER (Ger. _Paradieskorner_, Fr. _graines de Paradis_, _maniguette_), the seeds of _Amomum Melegueta_, a reed-like plant of the natural order _Zingiberaceae_. It is a native of tropical western Africa, and of Prince's and St Thomas's islands in the Gulf of Guinea, is cultivated in other tropical countries, and may with ease be grown in hothouses in temperate climates. The plant has a branched horizontal rhizome; smooth, nearly sessile, narrowly lanceolate-oblong alternate leaves; large, white, pale pink or purplish flowers; and an ovate-oblong fruit, ensheathed in bracts, which is of a scarlet colour when fresh, and reaches under cultivation a length of 5 in. The seeds are contained in the acid pulp of the fruit, are commonly wedge-shaped and bluntly angular, are about 1-1/4 lines in diameter and have a glossy dark-brown husk, with a conical light-coloured membranous caruncle at the base and a white kernel. They contain, according to Fluckiger and Hanbury, 0.3% of a faintly yellowish neutral essential oil, having an aromatic, not acrid taste, and a specific gravity at 15.5 deg. C of 0.825, and giving on analysis the formula C20H32O, or C10H16 + C10H16O; also 5.83% of an intensely pungent, viscid, brown resin.

Grains of paradise were formerly officinal in British pharmacopoeias, and in the 13th and succeeding centuries were used as a drug and a spice, the wine known as hippocras being flavoured with them and with ginger and cinnamon. In 1629 they were employed among the ingredients of the twenty-four herring pies which were the ancient fee-favour of the city of Norwich, ordained to be carried to court by the lord of the manor of Carleton (Johnston and Church, _Chem. of Common Life_, p. 355, 1879). Grains of paradise were anciently brought overland from West Africa to the Mediterranean ports of the Barbary states, to be shipped for Italy. They are now exported almost exclusively from the Gold Coast. Grains of paradise are to some extent used illegally to give a fictitious strength to malt liquors, gin and cordials. By 56 Geo. III. c. 58, no brewer or dealer in beer shall have in his possession or use grains of paradise, under a penalty of L200 for each offence; and no druggist shall sell the same to a brewer under a penalty of L500. They are, however, devoid of any injurious physiological action, and are much esteemed as a spice by the natives of Guinea.

See Bentley and Trimen, _Medicinal Plants_, tab. 268; Lanessan, _Hist.
des Drogues_, pp. 456-460 (1878).

GRAIN TRADE. The complexity of the conditions of life in the 20th century may be well illustrated from the grain trade of the world. The ordinary bread sold in Great Britain represents, for example, produce of nearly every country in the world outside the tropics.

General considerations.

Wheat has been cultivated from remote antiquity. In a wild state it is practically unknown. It is alleged to have been found growing wild between the Euphrates and the Tigris; but the discovery has never been authenticated, and, unless the plant be sedulously cared for, the species dies out in a surprisingly short space of time. Modern experiments in cross-fertilization in Lancashire by the Garton Brothers have evolved the most extraordinary "sports," showing, it is claimed, that the plant has probably passed through stages of which until the present day there had been no conception. The tales that grains of wheat found in the cerements of Egyptian mummies have been planted and come to maturity are no longer credited, for the vital principle in the wheat berry is extremely evanescent; indeed, it is doubtful whether wheat twenty years old is capable of reproduction. The Garton artificial fertilization experiments have shown endless deviations from the ordinary type, ranging from minute seeds with a closely adhering husk to big berries almost as large as sloes and about as worthless. It is conjectured that the wheat plant, as now known, is a degenerate form of something much finer which flourished thousands of years ago, and that possibly it may be restored to its pristine excellence, yielding an increase twice or thrice as large as it now does, thus postponing to a distant period the famine doom prophesied by Sir W. Crookes in his presidential address to the British Association in 1898. Wheat well repays careful attention; contrast the produce of a carelessly tilled Russian or Indian field and the bountiful yield on a good Lincolnshire farm, the former with its average yield of 8 bushels, the latter with its 50 bushels per acre; or compare the quality, as regards the quantity and flavour of the flour from a fine sample of British wheat, such as is on sale at almost every agricultural show in Great Britain, with the produce of an Egyptian or Syrian field; the difference is so great as to cause one to doubt whether the berries are of the same species.

It may be stated roundly that an average quartern loaf in Great Britain is made from wheat grown in the following countries in the proportions named:--

+------+-----+-------+------+-------+-------+---------+------+----------+
|U.S.A.| U.K.|Russia.|Argen-|British|Canada.|Rumania- |Austr-| Other |
| | | | tina.|India. | |Bulgaria.| alia.|Countries.|
+------+-----+-------+------+-------+-------+---------+------+----------+
| Oz. | Oz. | Oz. | Oz. | Oz. | Oz. | Oz. | Oz. | Oz. |
| 26 | 13 9 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Or expressed in percentages as follows:-- |
| 40 | 20 | 14 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
+------+-----+-------+------+-------+-------+---------+------+----------+

For details connected with grain and its handling see AGRICULTURE, CORN LAWS, GRANARIES, FLOUR, BAKING, WHEAT, &c.

Wheat occupies of all cereals the widest region of any food-stuff. Rice, which shares with millet the distinction of being the principal food-stuff of the greatest number of human beings, is not grown nearly as widely as is wheat, the staple food of the white races. Wheat grows as far south as Patagonia, and as far north as the edge of the Arctic Circle; it flourishes throughout Europe, and across the whole of northern Asia and in Japan; it is cultivated in Persia, and raised largely in India, as far south as the Nizam's dominions. It is grown over nearly the whole of North America. In Canada a very fine wheat crop was raised in the autumn of 1898 as far north as the mission at Fort Providence, on the Mackenzie river, in a latitude above 62 deg.--or less than 200 m. south of the latitude of Dawson City--the period between seed-time and harvest having been ninety-one days. In Africa it was an article of commerce in the days of Jacob, whose son Joseph may be said to have run the first and only successful "corner" in wheat. For many centuries Egypt was famous as a wheat raiser; it was a cargo of wheat from Alexandria which St Paul helped to jettison on one of his shipwrecks, as was also, in all probability, that of the "ship of Alexandria whose sign was Castor and Pollux," named in the same narrative. General Gordon is quoted as having stated that the Sudan if properly settled would be capable of feeding the whole of Europe. Along the north coast of Africa are areas which, if properly irrigated, as was done in the days of Carthage, could produce enough wheat to feed half of the Caucasian race. For instance, the vilayet of Tripoli, with an area of 400,000 sq. m., or three times the extent of Great Britain and Ireland, according to the opinion of a British consul, could raise millions of acres of wheat. The cereal flourishes on all the high plateaus of South Africa, from Cape Town to the Zambezi. Land is being extensively put under wheat in the pampas of South America and in the prairies of Siberia.

In the raising of the standard of farming to an English level the volume of the world's crop would be trebled, another fact which Sir William Crookes seems to have overlooked. The experiments of the late Sir J. B. Lawes in Hertfordshire have proved that the natural fruitfulness of the wheat plant can be increased threefold by the application of the proper fertilizer. The results of these experiments will be found in a compendium issued from the Rothamsted Agricultural Experimental Station.

It is by no means, however, the wheat which yields the greatest number of bushels per acre which is the most valuable from a miller's standpoint, for the thinness of the bran and the fineness and strength of the flour are with him important considerations, too often overlooked by the farmer when buying his seed. Nevertheless it is the deficient quantity of the wheat raised in the British Islands, and not the quality of the grain, which has been the cause of so much anxiety to economists and statesmen.

Freight rates.

Sir J. Caird, writing in the year 1880, expressed the opinion that arable land in Great Britain would always command a substantial rent of at least 30s. per acre. His figures were based on the assumption that wheat was imported duty free. He calculated that the cost of carriage from abroad of wheat, or the equivalent of the product of an acre of good wheat land in Great Britain, would not be less than 30s. per ton. But freights had come down by 1900 to half the rates predicated by Caird; indeed, during a portion of the interval they ruled very close to zero, as far as steamer freights from America were concerned. In 1900 an all-round freight rate for wheat might be taken at 15s. _per ton_ (a ton representing approximately the produce of an acre of good wheat land in England), say from 10s. for Atlantic American and Russian, to 30s. for Pacific American and Australian; about midway between these two extremes we find Indian and Argentine, the greatest bulk coming at about the 15s. rate. Inferior land bearing less than 4-1/2 quarters per acre would not be protected to the same extent, and moreover, seeing that a portion of the British wheat crop has to stand a charge as heavy for land carriage across a county as that borne by foreign wheat across a continent or an ocean, the protection is not nearly so substantial as Caird would make out. The compilation showing the changes in the rates of charges for the railway and other transportation services issued by the Division of Statistics, Department of Agriculture, U.S.A. (Miscellaneous series, Bulletin No. 15, 1898), is a valuable reference book. From its pages are culled the following facts relating to the changes in the rates of freight up to the year 1897.[1] In Table 3 the average rates per ton per mile in cents are shown since 1846. For the Fitchburg Railroad the rate for that year was 4.523 cents per ton per mile, since when a great and almost continuous fall has been taking place, until in 1897, the latest year given, the rate had declined to .870 of a cent per ton per mile. The railway which shows the greatest fall is the Chesapeake & Ohio, for the charge has fallen from over 7 cents in 1862 and 1863 to .419 of a cent in 1897, whereas the Erie rates have fallen only from 1.948 in 1852 to .609 in 1897. Putting the rates of the twelve returning railways together, we find the average freight in the two years 1859-1860 was 3.006 cents per ton per mile, and that in 1896-1897 the average rate had fallen to .797 of a cent per ton per mile. This difference is very large compared with the smallness of the unit. Coming to the rates on grain, we find (in Table 23) a record for the forty years 1858-1897 of the charge on wheat from Chicago to New York, via all rail from 1858, and via lake and rail since 1868, the authority being the secretary of the Chicago Board of Trade. From 1858 to 1862 the rate varied between 42.37 and 34.80 cents per bushel for the whole trip of roundly 1000 m., the average rate in the quinquennium being 38.43. In the five years immediately prior to the time at which Sir J. Caird expressed the opinion that the cost of carriage from abroad would always protect the British grower, the average all-rail freight from Chicago to New York was 17.76 cents, while the summer rate (partly by water) was 13.17 cents. These rates in 1897, the last year shown on the table, had fallen to 12.50 and 7.42 respectively. The rates have been as follows in quinquennial periods, via all rail:--

_Chicago to New York in Cents per Bushel._

+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
| 1858- | 1863- | 1868- | 1873- | 1878- | 1883- | 1888- | 1893- |
| 1862. | 1867. | 1872. | 1877. | 1882. | 1887. | 1892. | 1897. |
+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
| 38.43 | 31.42 | 27.91 | 21.29 | 16.77 | 14.67 | 14.52 | 12.88 |
+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+

Calculating roundly a cent as equal to a halfpenny, and eight bushels to the quarter, the above would appear in English currency as follows:--

_Chicago to New York in Shillings and Pence per Quarter._

+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+--------+-------+-------+
| 1858- | 1863- | 1868- | 1873- | 1878- | 1883- | 1888- | 1893- |
| 1862. | 1867. | 1872. | 1877. | 1882. | 1887. | 1892. | 1897. |
+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+--------+-------+-------+
| s. d. | s. d. | s. d. | s. d. | s. d. |s. d. | s. d. | s. d. |
| 12 8 | 10 6 | 9 3 | 7 1 | 5 7 |4 10-1/2| 4 10 | 4 3 |
+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+--------+-------+-------+

Another table (No. 38) shows the average rates from Chicago to New York by lakes, canal and river. These in their quinquennial periods are given for the season as follows:--

_In Cents per Bushel of_ 60 lb.

+----------+----------+----------+
|1857-1861.|1876-1880.|1893-1897.|
+----------+----------+----------+
| 22.15 | 10.47 | 4.92 |
+----------+----------+----------+

_In Shillings and Pence per Quarter of_ 480 lb.

+----------+----------+----------+
|1857-1861.|1876-1880.|1893-1897.|
+----------+----------+----------+
| s. d. | s. d. | s. d. |
| 7 4 | 3 6 | 1 7 |
+----------+----------+----------+

_In Shillings and Pence per Ton of_ 2240 lb.

+----------+----------+----------+
|1857-1861.|1876-1880.|1893-1897.|
+----------+----------+----------+
| s. d. | s. d. | s. d. |
| 34 6 | 16 6 | 7 6 |
+----------+----------+----------+

This latter mode is the cheapest by which grain can be carried to the eastern seaboard from the American prairies, and it can now be done at a cost of 7s. 6d. per ton. The ocean freight has to be added before the grain can be delivered free on the quay at Liverpool. A rate from New York to Liverpool of 2-1/2d. per bushel, or 7s. 10d. per ton, a low rate, reached in Dec. 1900, is yet sufficiently high, it is claimed, to leave a profit; indeed, there have frequently been times when the rate was as low as 1d. per bushel, or 3s. 1d. per ton; and in periods of great trade depression wheat is carried from New York to Liverpool as ballast, being paid for by the ship-owner. Another route worked more cheaply than formerly is that by river, from the centre of the winter wheat belt, say at St Louis, to New Orleans, and thence by steamer to Liverpool. The river rate has fallen below five cents per bushel, or 7s. per ton, 2240 lb. In Table No. 71 the cost of transportation is compared year by year with the export price of the two leading cereals in the States as follows:--

_Wheat and Corn--Export Prices and Transportation Rates compared._

+------+----------------------------------+----------------------------------+
| | Wheat. | Corn. |
| +---------+-------------+----------+---------+-------------+----------+
| | | | Number | | | Number |
| | |Rate, Chicago|of Bushels| |Rate, Chicago|of Bushels|
| Year.| Export | to New York | carried | Export | to New York | carried |
| |Price per| by Lake | for Price|Price per| by Lake | for Price|
| | Bushel. | and Canal, | of One | Bushel. | and Canal, | of One |
| | | per Bushel. | Bushel. | | per Bushel. | Bushel. |
+------+---------+-------------+----------+---------+-------------+----------+
| | | Cents. | | | Cents. | |
| 1867 | $0.92 | 15.95 | 5.77 |$0.72 | 14.58 | 4.94 |
| 1868 | 1.36 | 16.23 | 8.38 | .84.1 | 13.57 | 6.20 |
| 1869 | 1.05 | 17.20 | 6.10 | .72.8 | 14.98 | 4.86 |
| 1870 | 1.12 | 14.85 | 7.54 | .80.5 | 13.78 | 5.84 |
| 1871 | 1.18 | 17.75 | 6.65 | .67.9 | 16.53 | 4.11 |
| 1872 | 1.31 | 21.55 | 6.08 | .61.8 | 19.62 | 3.15 |
| 1873 | 1.15 | 16.89 | 6.81 | .54.3 | 15.39 | 3.53 |
| 1874 | 1.29 | 12.75 | 10.12 | .64.7 | 11.29 | 5.73 |
| 1875 | .97 | 9.90 | 9.80 | .73.8 | 8.93 | 8.26 |
| 1876 | 1.11 | 8.63 | 12.86 | .60.3 | 7.93 | 7.60 |
| 1877 | 1.12 | 10.76 | 10.41 | .56.0 | 9.41 | 5.95 |
| 1878 | 1.33 | 9.10 | 14.62 | .55.8 | 8.27 | 6.75 |
| 1879 | 1.07 | 11.60 | 9.22 | .47.1 | 10.43 | 4.52 |
| 1880 | 1.25 | 12.27 | 10.19 | .54.3 | 11.14 | 4.87 |
| 1881 | 1.11 | 8.19 | 13.55 | .55.2 | 7.26 | 7.60 |
| 1882 | 1.19 | 7.89 | 15.08 | .66.8 | 7.23 | 9.24 |
| 1883 | 1.13 | 8.37 | 13.50 | .68.4 | 7.66 | 8.93 |
| 1884 | 1.07 | 6.31 | 16.96 | .61.1 | 5.64 | 10.83 |
| 1885 | .86 | 5.87 | 14.65 | .54.0 | 5.38 | 10.04 |
| 1886 | .87 | 8.71 | 9.99 | .49.8 | 7.98 | 6.24 |
| 1887 | .89 | 8.51 | 10.46 | .47.9 | 7.88 | 6.08 |
| 1888 | .85 | 5.93 | 14.33 | .55.0 | 5.41 | 10.17 |
| 1889 | .90 | 6.89 | 13.06 | .47.4 | 6.19 | 7.66 |
| 1890 | .83 | 5.86 | 14.16 | .41.8 | 5.10 | 8.20 |
| 1891 | .93 | 5.96 | 15.60 | .57.4 | 5.36 | 10.71 |
| 1892 | 1.03 | 5.61 | 18.36 | .55 | 5.03 | 10.93 |
| 1893 | .80 | 6.31 | 12.68 | .53 | 5.71 | 9.28 |
| 1894 | .67 | 4.44 | 15.09 | .46 | 3.99 | 11.53 |
| 1895 | .58 | 4.11 | 14.11 | .53 | 3.71 | 14.29 |
| 1896 | .65 | 5.38 | 12.08 | .38 | 4.94 | 7.69 |
| 1897 | .75 | 4.35 | 17.24 | .31 | 3.79 | 8.18 |
+------+---------+-------------+----------+---------+-------------+----------+

The farmers of the United States have now to meet a greatly increased output from Canada--the cost of transport from that country to England being much the same as from the United States. So much improved is the position of the farmer in North America compared with what it was about 1870, that the transport companies in 1901 carried 17-1/4 bushels of his grain to the seaboard in exchange for the value of one bushel, whereas in 1867 he had to give up one bushel in every six in return for the service. As regards the British farmer, it does not appear as if he had improved his position; for he has to send his wheat to greater distances, owing to the collapse of many country millers or their removal to the seaboard, while railway rates have fallen only to a very small extent; again the farmer's wheat is worth only half of what it was formerly; it may be said that the British farmer has to give up one bushel in nine to the railway company for the purpose of transportation, whereas in the 'seventies he gave up one in eighteen only. Enough has been said to prove that the advantage of position claimed for the British farmer by Caird was somewhat illusory. Speaking broadly, the Kansas or Minnesota farmer's wheat does not have to pay for carriage to Liverpool more than 2s. 6d. to 7s. 6d. per ton in excess of the rate paid by a Yorkshire farmer; this, it will be admitted, does not go very far towards enabling the latter to pay rent, tithes and rates and taxes.

The subject of the rates of ocean carriage at different periods requires consideration if a proper understanding of the working of the foreign grain trade is to be obtained. Only a very small proportion of the decline in the price of wheat since 1880 is due to cheapened transport rates; for while the mileage rate has been falling, the length of haulage has been extending, until in 1900 the principal wheat fields of America were 2000 m. farther from the eastern seaboard than was the case in 1870, and consequently, notwithstanding the fall in the mileage rate of 50 to 75%, it still costs the United Kingdom nearly as much to have its quota of foreign wheat fetched from abroad as it did then. The difference in the cost of the operation is shown in the following tabular statement, both the cost in the aggregate on a year's imports and the cost per quarter:--

_Quantity of Wheat and Wheaten Flour (as wheat) imported into the United Kingdom from various sources during the calendar year 1900, together with the average rate of freight._

1900.

+----------------------+-------------+---------------+------------+
| | | Ocean Freight | Total Cost |
| Countries of Origin. | Quantities. | to United | of Ocean |
| | Qrs. 480 lb.| Kingdom. | Carriage. |
| | | Per 480 lb. | |
+----------------------+-------------+---------------+------------+
| | | s. d. | L |
| Atlantic America | 11,171,100 | 2 3 | 1,257,100 |
| South Russia | 569,000 | 2 2 | 62,000 |
| Pacific America | 2,389,900 | 8 1 | 966,000 |
| Canada | 1,877,100 | 2 8 | 250,000 |
| Rumania | 176,400 | 2 6 | 22,000 |
| Argentina and Uruguay| 4,322,300 | 4 10 | 1,045,000 |
| France | 251,900 | 1 3 | 16,000 |
| Bulgaria and Rumelia | 30,600 | 2 6 | 4,000 |
| India | 2,200 | 4 0 | 400 |
| Austria-Hungary | 389,300 | 1 9 | 34,000 |
| Chile | 600 | .. | .. |
| North Russia | 462,700 | 1 6 | 35,000 |
| Germany | 438,700 | 1 6 | 33,000 |
| Australasia | 883,900 | 6 5 | 284,000 |
| Minor Countries | 225,100 | 2 6 | 28,000 |
| +-------------+---------------+------------+
| Total | 23,190,800 |Average 3s. 6d.| L4,036,500 |
+----------------------+-------------+---------------+------------+

Comparing these figures with a similar statement for the year 1872, the most remote year for which similar facts are available, it will be found that the actual total cost per quarter for ocean carriage has not much decreased.

_Quantity of Wheat and Wheaten Flour (as wheat) imported into the United Kingdom from various sources during the calendar year 1872, together with the average rate of freight._

1872.

+-----------------------+-----------+---------------+------------+
| | | Ocean Freight | |
| Countries of Origin. |Quantities.| to United | Total Cost |
| | Qrs. | Kingdom. |of Carriage.|
| | | Per qr. | |
+-----------------------+-----------+---------------+------------+
| | | s. d. | L |
| South Russia | 3,678,000 | 8 6 | 1,563,000 |
| United States | 2,030,000 | 6 6 | 659,000 |
| Germany | 910,000 | 2 0 | 91,000 |
| France | 660,000 | 3 0 | 99,000 |
| Egypt | 536,000 | 4 6 | 120,000 |
| North Russia | 490,000 | 2 0 | 49,000 |
| Canada | 400,000 | 7 6 | 150,000 |
| Chile | 330,000 | 12 0 | 198,000 |
| Turkey | 195,000 | 7 6 | 72,000 |
| Spain | 130,000 | 3 6 | 23,000 |
| Scandinavia | 160,000 | 2 0 | 16,000 |
| +-----------+---------------+------------+
| Total, Chief Countries| 9,519,000 |Average 6s. 5d.| L3,040,000 |
+-----------------------+-----------+---------------+------------+

_N.B._--A trifling quantity of Californian and Australian wheat was imported in the period in question, but the Board of Trade records do not distinguish the quantities, therefore they cannot be given. The freight in that year from those countries averaged about 13s. per quarter.

The exact difference between the average freight for the years 1872 and 1900 amounts to about 2s. 11d. per quarter (480 lb.), a trifle in comparison with the actual fall in the price of wheat during the same years.

The following data bearing upon the subject, for selected periods, are partly taken from the _Corn Trade Year-Book_:--

+------+----------------+-------------+--------------+
| | United Kingdom |Ocean Freight| |
| Year.| Annual Imports.| to United |Aggregate Cost|
| |Wheat and Flour.| Kingdom. | of Carriage. |
| | Qrs. | Per qr. | |
+------+----------------+-------------+--------------+
| | | s. d. | L |
| 1872 | 9,469,000 | 6 5 | 3,040,000 |
| 1882 | 14,850,000 | 7 4 | 5,420,000 |
| 1894 | 16,229,000 | 3 9 | 3,041,000 |
| 1895 | 25,197,000 | 3 0 | 3,825,000 |
| 1896 | 23,431,000 | 2 9 | 3,258,000 |
| 1900 | 23,196,000 | 3 6 | 4,036,000 |
+------+----------------+-------------+--------------+

In passing, it may be pointed out that for a period of four years, from 1871 to 1874, the price of wheat averaged 56s. per quarter (or 7s. per bushel), with the charge for ocean carriage at 6s. 5d. per quarter, whereas in 1901 wheat was sold in England at 28s. (or 3s. 6d. per bushel), and the charge for ocean carriage was 3s. 6d. per quarter; the ocean transport companies carried eight bushels of wheat across the seas in 1901 for the value of one bushel, or exactly at the same ratio as in 1872.

The contrast between the case of railway freight and ocean freight is to be explained by the greater length of the present ocean voyage, which now extends to 10,000 miles in the case of Europe's importation of white wheat from the Pacific Coast of the United States and Australia, in contrast with the short voyage from the Black Sea or across the English Channel or German Ocean. It is largely due to the overlooking of this phase of the question that an American statistician has fallen into the error of stating that about 16s. per quarter of the fall in the price of wheat, which happened between 1880 and 1894, is attributable to the lessened cost of transport.

WHEAT PRICES

The following figures show the fluctuations from year to year of
English wheat, chiefly according to a record published by Mr T. Smith,
Melford, the period covered being from 1656 to 1905:

_Price per Quarter_

+------+-------++------+-------++------+-------++------+-------++------+-------+
| | s. d.|| | s. d.|| | s. d.|| | s. d.|| | s. d.|
| 1656 | 38 2 || 1706 | 23 1 || 1756 | 40 1 || 1806 | 79 1 || 1856 | 69 2 |
| 1657 | 41 5 || 1707 | 25 4 || 1757 | 53 4 || 1807 | 75 4 || 1857 | 56 4 |
| 1658 | 57 9 || 1708 | 36 10 || 1758 | 44 5 || 1808 | 84 4 || 1858 | 44 2 |
| 1659 | 58 8 || 1709 | 69 9 || 1759 | 35 3 || 1809 | 97 4 || 1859 | 43 9 |
| 1660 | 50 2 || 1710 | 69 4 || 1760 | 32 5 || 1810 |106 5 || 1860 | 53 3 |
| 1661 | 62 2 || 1711 | 48 0 || 1761 | 26 9 || 1811 | 95 3 || 1861 | 55 4 |
| 1662 | 65 9 || 1712 | 41 2 || 1762 | 34 8 || 1812 |126 6 || 1862 | 55 5 |
| 1663 | 50 8 || 1713 | 45 4 || 1763 | 36 1 || 1813 |109 9 || 1863 | 44 9 |
| 1664 | 36 0 || 1714 | 44 9 || 1764 | 41 5 || 1814 | 74 4 || 1864 | 40 2 |
| 1665 | 43 10 || 1715 | 38 2 || 1765 | 48 0 || 1815 | 65 7 || 1865 | 41 10 |
| 1666 | 32 0 || 1716 | 42 8 || 1766 | 43 1 || 1816 | 78 6 || 1866 | 49 11 |
| 1667 | 32 0 || 1717 | 40 7 || 1767 | 57 4 || 1817 | 96 11 || 1867 | 64 5 |
| 1668 | 35 6 || 1718 | 34 6 || 1768 | 53 9 || 1818 | 86 3 || 1868 | 63 9 |
| 1669 | 39 5 || 1719 | 31 1 || 1769 | 40 7 || 1819 | 74 6 || 1869 | 48 2 |
| 1670 | 37 0 || 1720 | 32 10 || 1770 | 43 6 || 1820 | 67 10 || 1870 | 46 11 |
| 1671 | 37 4 || 1721 | 33 4 || 1771 | 47 2 || 1821 | 56 1 || 1871 | 56 8 |
| 1672 | 36 5 || 1722 | 32 0 || 1772 | 50 8 || 1822 | 44 7 || 1872 | 57 0 |
| 1673 | 41 5 || 1723 | 30 10 || 1773 | 51 0 || 1823 | 53 4 || 1873 | 58 8 |
| 1674 | 61 0 || 1724 | 32 10 || 1774 | 52 8 || 1824 | 63 11 || 1874 | 55 9 |
| 1675 | 57 5 || 1725 | 43 1 || 1775 | 48 4 || 1825 | 68 6 || 1875 | 45 2 |
| 1676 | 33 9 || 1726 | 40 10 || 1776 | 38 2 || 1826 | 58 8 || 1876 | 46 2 |
| 1677 | 37 4 || 1727 | 37 4 || 1777 | 45 6 || 1827 | 60 6 || 1877 | 56 9 |
| 1678 | 52 5 || 1728 | 48 5 || 1778 | 42 0 || 1828 | 60 5 || 1878 | 46 5 |
| 1679 | 53 4 || 1729 | 41 7 || 1779 | 33 8 || 1829 | 66 3 || 1879 | 43 10 |
| 1680 | 40 0 || 1730 | 32 5 || 1780 | 35 8 || 1830 | 64 3 || 1880 | 44 4 |
| 1681 | 41 5 || 1731 | 29 2 || 1781 | 44 8 || 1831 | 66 4 || 1881 | 45 4 |
| 1682 | 39 1 || 1732 | 23 8 || 1782 | 47 10 || 1832 | 58 8 || 1882 | 45 1 |
| 1683 | 35 6 || 1733 | 25 2 || 1783 | 52 8 || 1833 | 52 11 || 1883 | 41 7 |
| 1684 | 39 1 || 1734 | 34 6 || 1784 | 48 10 || 1834 | 46 2 || 1884 | 35 8 |
| 1685 | 41 5 || 1735 | 38 2 || 1785 | 51 10 || 1835 | 49 4 || 1885 | 32 10 |
| 1686 | 30 2 || 1736 | 35 10 || 1786 | 38 10 || 1836 | 48 6 || 1886 | 31 0 |
| 1687 | 22 4 || 1737 | 33 9 || 1787 | 41 2 || 1837 | 55 0 || 1887 | 32 6 |
| 1688 | 40 10 || 1738 | 31 6 || 1788 | 45 0 || 1838 | 64 7 || 1888 | 31 10 |
| 1689 | 26 8 || 1739 | 34 2 || 1789 | 51 2 || 1839 | 70 8 || 1889 | 29 9 |
| 1690 | 30 9 || 1740 | 45 1 || 1790 | 54 9 || 1840 | 66 4 || 1890 | 31 11 |
| 1691 | 30 2 || 1741 | 41 5 || 1791 | 48 7 || 1841 | 64 4 || 1891 | 37 0 |
| 1692 | 41 5 || 1742 | 30 2 || 1792 | 43 0 || 1842 | 57 3 || 1892 | 30 3 |
| 1693 | 60 1 || 1743 | 22 1 || 1793 | 49 3 || 1843 | 50 1 || 1893 | 26 4 |
| 1694 | 56 10 || 1744 | 22 1 || 1794 | 52 3 || 1844 | 51 3 || 1894 | 22 10 |
| 1695 | 47 1 || 1745 | 24 5 || 1795 | 75 2 || 1845 | 50 10 || 1895 | 23 1 |
| 1696 | 63 1 || 1746 | 34 8 || 1796 | 78 7 || 1846 | 54 8 || 1896 | 26 2 |
| 1697 | 53 4 || 1747 | 30 11 || 1797 | 53 9 || 1847 | 69 9 || 1897 | 30 2 |
| 1698 | 60 9 || 1748 | 32 10 || 1798 | 51 10 || 1848 | 50 6 || 1898 | 34 0 |
| 1699 | 56 10 || 1749 | 32 10 || 1799 | 69 0 || 1849 | 44 3 || 1899 | 25 8 |
| 1700 | 35 6 || 1750 | 28 10 || 1800 |113 10 || 1850 | 40 3 || 1900 | 26 11 |
| 1701 | 33 5 || 1751 | 34 2 || 1801 |119 6 || 1851 | 38 6 || 1901 | 26 9 |
| 1702 | 26 2 || 1752 | 37 2 || 1802 | 69 10 || 1852 | 40 9 || 1902 | 28 1 |
| 1703 | 32 0 || 1753 | 39 8 || 1803 | 58 10 || 1853 | 53 3 || 1903 | 26 9 |
| 1704 | 41 4 || 1754 | 30 9 || 1804 | 62 3 || 1854 | 72 5 || 1904 | 28 4 |
| 1705 | 26 8 || 1755 | 30 1 || 1805 | 89 9 || 1855 | 74 8 || 1905 | 29 8 |
+------+-------++------+-------++------+-------++------+-------++------+-------+
|Average || || || || |
| 50 42 10 || 36 0 || 51 9 || 65 10 || *42 7 |
| years || || || || |
+--------------++--------------++--------------++--------------++--------------+
* Average for 46 years only.