Corn Crises in Britain in the Age of Malthus

Abstract

The decade during which Malthus began his published writing, the 1790s, was one of great turbulence in the British economy. Not only was the industrial and commercial expansion of the late eighteenth century at, or close to, full throttle, but population expanded at hitherto unparalleled rates. Increasingly the primacy of agriculture was undermined by this industrialisation and also by urbanisation, and this, of course, put more rather than less pressure on what was still the leading economic sector of the economy (leading in terms of total employment, fixed capital and contribution to national income). While still basically self-sufficient in food supplies, within tolerably small margins, the country nevertheless clung grimly to that position while an increasing proportion of her population was non-food producing. Inevitably this margin of self-sufficiency was attacked, and viciously so during the 1790s, when the coincidence of poor harvests, the war with France and other factors pushed food prices up and out of the reach of many people. It is during this decade and with respect to this crisis that we see Malthus, both as observer and theoretician of troubled times. A minor industry has emerged in Britain which has investigated the national and regional incidence of corn dearth and distress during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, and principally in the 1790s.² This chapter will measure the frequency and extent of the crises, discuss some of the causes, and finally will investigate what Malthus had to say about them and how his views were sometimes at odds with many of his contemporaries.

My thanks to the Social Science Research Council for a Research Fellowship in Agrarian History in 1978 when most of the research on which this chapter is based was carried out, and to Professor F. M. L. Thompson, Director of the Institute of Historical Research where the Fellowship was held. My thanks also to the staff of the Public Record Office, Kew. Since the Malthus conference was held in May 1980 I have taken the opportunity to present my research findings at seminars in the Universities of Hull, East Anglia and Durham, and at Coleg Harlech. I would like to thank all those people who took part in discussions and generously offered their criticisms.