APPENDIX II
Reading edition
TABLE SHOWING EXPORTS AND IMPORTS OF WHEAT AND FLOUR FROM AND INTO ENGLAND, UNIMPORTANT YEARS OMITTED
Exports. Quarters.Imports. Quarters.
England.
169714,699400
1703166,61550
171722,954none
17283,81774,574
1733427,1997
1750947,602279
Great Britain.
175711,545141,562
17589,23420,353
1761441,956none
17675,071497,905
177075,44934
177591,037560,988
1776210,66420,578
1780224,0593,915
1786205,46651,463
1787120,53659,339
1789140,014112,656
179170,626469,056
179624,679879,200
180128,4061,424,765
180898,00584,889
181075,7851,567,126
1815227,947384,475
182538,796787,606
1837308,4201,109,492
183942,5123,110,729
184268,0473,111,290
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.
1861-534,651,549
1866-7037,273,678
1871-550,495,127
1876-8063,309,874
1881-577,285,881
1886-9077,794,380
1891-596,582,863
1896-190095,956,376
1901-5111,638,817
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.
177447,961 803,844
1776376,249 444,121
1780400,408 219,093
1782278,955 133,663
1783104,274 852,389
1784-8large excess of imports, mainly oats
1789652,764478,426
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]