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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 56

Consumption of Articles of Imported Food per Head of the Population

Consumption of Articles of Imported Food per Head of the Population

Under Protection, 1840.
Baeon & Hams, a small fraction of 1 lb.
Butter 1 lb.
Cheese nearly 1 lb.
Wheat and Wheat Flour 42½ 1 lbs.
Eggs 3½ in number.
Rice. nearly 1 lb.
Sugar, raw 15 lbs.
Tea nearly 1¼ lb.
Under Free Trade, 1883
Bacon and Hams nearly 1¼ lb.
Butter above 7 lb.
Cheese above 5½ lbs.
Wheat and Wheat Flour nearly 251 lb.
Eggs above 26 in number
Rice nearly 12½ lbs.
Sugar, raw nearly 62 lbs.
Tea above 4¼ lbs.
Protection Prices, 1841.
Tea 5s. per lb.
Coffee 2s. per lb.
Sugar 9d. per lb.
Free Trade Prices, 1884.
Tea 2s. per lb.
Coffee 1s. per lb.
Sugar 2d. per lb.
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To proceed to the consideration of the price of the staff of life—Bread.—Under Protection, the best wheaten Loaf of 4 lbs. frequently stood at One Shilling, and sometimes higher. Under Free Trade it has rarely exceeded Eightpence; for a long time it was Sixpence, and is now Fivepenee-halfpenny. Nor was this the worst feature of the case. By the operation of the Corn Laws the consumption of Foreign Corn was prohibited, except at famine prices. In 1845, the year of the Irish Famine, there were imported, to meet the failure of the harvest and the potato crop, only 4,723,000 cwts. of wheat and wheat flour. In 1884 our imports of the same articles were 62,217,516 cwts.

What would have been the Price of Bread and the state of the Nation during the recent deficient harvests if the Corn Laws had not been Repealed?

The present high price of butchers' meat, which seems to be an exception to the favourable results of Free Trade, really proves—first, that the consumption and the ability to purchase are both greater than under Protection; and, secondly, that were it not for the free import of foreign provisions and cattle we should at this moment be labouring under a dearth of animal food. Up to the year 1842 the importation of live Animals and of dead Meat was prohibited, except Bacon and Hams, and Salt Beef and Pork, upon which heavy Protective duties were imposed, and of which we imported in 1840 to the value of £132,537. In 1884 we imported live and dead Meat to the value of £25,514,929.