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The Past and Present Society

The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century Author(s): E. P. Thompson Source: Past & Present, No. 50 (Feb., 1971), pp. 76-136 Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Past and Present Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/650244 . Accessed: 21/09/2014 13:58 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

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THE MORAL ECONOMY OF THE ENGLISH CROWD IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY* He thatwithholdeth Corn,the People shallcursehim: but Blessingshall be upontheHead ofhimthatsellethit. Proverbsxi. 26.

I WE HAVEBEEN WARNEDIN RECENTYEARS,BY GEORGERUDE AND OTHERS,

of the term"mob". I wish in this againstthe loose employment articleto extendthewarningto theterm"riot",especiallywherethe food riotin eighteenth-century Englandis concerned. This simplefour-letter word can concealwhatmaybe described as a spasmodicviewof popularhistory. Accordingto thisviewthe commonpeople can scarcelybe takenas historicalagentsbeforethe FrenchRevolution. Beforethisperiodtheyintrudeoccasionally and upon the historicalcanvas,in periodsofsuddensocial spasmodically disturbance. These intrusionsare compulsive,ratherthan selfconsciousor self-activating: theyare simpleresponsesto economic in stimuli. It is sufficient to mentiona bad harvestor a down-turn ofhistorical are satisfied. trade,and all requirements explanation even amongthosefewBritishhistorians who have Unfortunately, added to our knowledgeof such popularactions,severalhave lent supportto the spasmodicview. They have reflectedin only a cursoryway upon the materialswhich they themselvesdisclose. Thus Beloffcommentson the food riots of the early eighteenth when unemployment and high prices century:"this resentment, combinedto make conditionsunendurable,venteditselfin attacks upon corn-dealersand millers,attacks which often must have intomereexcusesforcrime".' But we searchhis pages degenerated in vain for evidenceas to the frequencyof this "degeneration". in hisusefulchronicleofdisturbance, allowshimself one Wearmouth,

* This article reportsresearch commenced in 1963 and somewhat retarded in the past fiveyearsby the exigenciesand alarums of workin a new university. An earlierversionwas presentedat a conferenceorganized by the Department of Historyat the State Universityof New York at Buffaloin April 1966. I have also to thankthe NuffieldFoundation fora more recentgrantin aid of research; and to thank Mr. Malcolm Thomas, Miss J. Neeson and Mr. E. E. Dodd for assistance. The originalpaper has been revised and extended at a number of points. 1 M. Beloff, Public Order and Popular Disturbances,r660-.7.4 (Oxford, 1938), P. 75.

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THE ENGLISH CROWD IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

category:"distress".2 Ashton,in his studyoffoodriots explanatory among the colliers,brings the support of the paternalist:"the turbulenceof the colliersis, of course,to be accountedforby somereactionof thanpolitics:it was theinstinctive thingmoreelementary and of the riots were "rebellions The to belly", virility hunger".3 thereis a suggestionthatthisis somehowa comforting explanation. The line of analysisruns: elementary- instinctive- hunger. Charles Wilson continuesthe tradition:"Spasmodic rises in food pricesprovokedkeelmenon the Tyne to riotin 1709,tin minersto plunder granariesat Falmouthin 1727". One spasm led on to another:the outcomewas "plunder".4 For decades systematicsocial historyhas lagged in the rear of in the untilthe presentday,whena qualification economichistory, in second disciplineis assumedto confer,automatically, proficiency has recent that thefirst. One cannottherefore scholarship complain evidencewhichis onlyimperfectly and quantify tendedto sophisticate understood. The dean ofthespasmodicschoolis of courseRostow, whose crude "social tensionchart"was firstput forwardin I948.5 an indexofunemployAccordingto this,we needonlybringtogether mentand one of highfood pricesto be able to chartthe courseof social disturbance. This contains a self-evidenttruth (people protestwhentheyare hungry):and in muchthesame waya "sexual can be tensionchart"would showthatthe onsetof sexual maturity ofsexualactivity. The objection witha greaterfrequency correlated at is thatsuch a chart,if used unwisely,mayconcludeinvestigation theexactpointat whichit becomesofserioussociologicalor cultural interest:beinghungry(or beingsexy),whatdo people do? How is 2 R. F. Wearmouth, Methodismand the CommonPeople of the Eighteenth Century(London, 1945), esp. chaps. I and 2. 3 T. S. Ashton and J. Sykes, The Coal Industryof the EighteenthCentury (Manchester, 1929), p. 131. 4Charles Wilson, England's Apprenticeship,1603-1763 (London, 1965), p. 345. It is true that the Falmouth magistratesreported to the duke of Newcastle (i6 Nov. 1727) that "the unrulytinners"had "broke open and plundered several cellars and granaries of corn". Their report concludes with a comment which suggests that they were no more able than some modern historiansto understandthe rationale of the direct action of the tinners: "the occasion of these outrageswas pretendedby the riotersto be a scarcityof corn in the county, but this suggestion is probably false, as most of those who carried offthe corn gave it away or sold it at quarter price". Public Record Office(hereafterP.R.O.), S.P., 36/4/22. 1 W. W. Rostow, British Economyin theNineteenthCentury(Oxford, 1948), esp. pp. 122-5. Among the more interestingstudies which correlate prices, harvests,and popular disturbanceare: E. J. Hobsbawm, "Economic Fluctuations and Some Social Movements", in Labouring Men (London, 1964) and T. S. Ashton, EconomicFluctuationsin England, 1700-i8oo (Oxford, 1959).

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their behaviourmodifiedby custom,culture,and reason? And (havinggrantedthatthe primarystimulusof "distress"is present) doestheirbehaviourcontribute towardsanymorecomplex,culturallymediatedfunction,whichcannotbe reduced- howeverlong it is stewedoverthe firesof statistical analysis- back to stimulusonce again? Too manyof our growthhistorians are guiltyof a crasseconomic the of motive,behaviour,and reductionism, obliterating complexities function, which,iftheynoteditintheworkoftheirmarxist analogues, would makethemprotest. The weaknesswhichtheseexplanations shareis an abbreviatedviewof economicman. Whatis perhapsan occasion for surpriseis the schizoid intellectualclimate,which to co-exist(in thesameplaces permitsthisquantitative historiography and sometimesin the same minds)witha social anthropology which derivesfromDurkheim,Weber,or Malinowski. We knowall about thedelicatetissueofsocialnormsand reciprocities whichregulatesthe lifeof Trobriandislanders,and the psychicenergiesinvolvedin the cargo cults of Melanesia; but at some pointthisinfinitely-complex social creature,Melanesian man, becomes (in our histories)the eighteenth-century Englishcollierwho claps his hand spasmodically economicstimuli. uponhis stomach,and respondsto elementary To the spasmodicI will oppose myown view.6 It is possibleto detect in almost every eighteenth-century crowd action some notion. By the notionof legitimation I meanthatthe legitimizing men and womenin the crowdwereinformed by the beliefthatthey traditional weredefending rightsorcustoms;and,in general,thatthey were supportedby the wider consensusof the community. On occasionthis popularconsensuswas endorsedby some measureof licenceafforded the consensus by the authorities.More commonly, was so strongthatitoverrodemotivesoffearor deference. The foodriotin eighteenth-century Englandwas a highly-complex formof directpopularaction,disciplinedand withclearobjectives. How fartheseobjectiveswereachieved- thatis, how farthe food riotwas a "successful"formofaction- is too intricate a questionto tacklewithinthelimitsof an article;but the questioncan at leastbe with posed(ratherthan,as is customary, beingdismissedunexamined a negative),and thiscannotbe doneuntilthecrowd'sownobjectives are identified. It is of coursetruethatriotsweretriggered offby soaringprices,by malpracticesamongdealers,or by hunger. But 6 I have foundmost helpfulthe pioneeringstudyby R. B. Rose, "Eighteenth Century Price Riots and Public Policy in England", InternationalReview of Social History,vi (1961); and G. Rud6, The Crowdin History(New York, 1964).

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THE ENGLISH CROWD IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

thesegrievancesoperatedwithina popularconsensusas to whatwere and whatwereillegitimate milling, legitimate practicesin marketing, baking, etc. This in its turn was groundedupon a consistent ofthepropereconomic traditional viewofsocialnormsandobligations, functionsof several partieswithinthe community,which,taken together,can be said to constitutethe moraleconomyof thepoor. An outrageto these moral assumptions,quite as much as actual was theusual occasionfordirectaction. deprivation, While this moraleconomycannotbe describedas "political"in it cannotbe describedas unpolitical anyadvancedsense,nevertheless it since and either, held,notionsofthe supposeddefinite, passionately commonweal - notionswhich,indeed,foundsome supportin the paternalisttraditionof the authorities;notionswhich the people re-echoedso loudlyin theirturnthatthe authorities were,in some measure,the prisonersof the people. Hence this moraleconomy and impingedverygenerallyupon eighteenth-century government thought,and did notonlyintrudeat momentsof disturbance. The word"riot"is too smallto encompassall this. II As we speakofthecash-nexuswhichmergedthrough the industrial so thereis a sensein whichwe can speakoftheeighteenthrevolution, betweenthe countryside and the centurybread-nexus. The conflict town was mediatedby the price of bread. The conflictbetween traditionalism and the new political economyturned upon the CornLaws. Economicclass-conflict in nineteenth-century England found its characteristicexpressionin the matterof wages; in Englandtheworkingpeople were most quickly eighteenth-century inflamedto actionby risingprices. This highly-sensitive consumer-consciousness co-existedwiththe of in the corn belt of the East greatage agricultural improvement, and South. Those yearswhichbroughtEnglishagriculture to a new pitchof excellencewere punctuatedby the riots- or, as contemor "risingsof the porariesoftendescribedthem,the "insurrections" poor"- of 1709, 1740, 1756-7, 1766-7,1773, 1782, and, above all, floatedupon an 1795 and I8OO-I. This buoyantcapitalistindustry irasciblemarketwhichmightat any time dissolveinto marauding withbludgeons,or rose in the bands, who scouredthe countryside to "set the price" of provisionsat the popularlevel. market-place The fortunesof thosemostvigorouscapitalistclassesrested,in the finalanalysis,upon the sale of cereals,meat,wool; and the firsttwo

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to themillionswho mustbe sold,withlittleintermediary processing, ofthemarket-place weretheconsumers. Hence thefriction takesus intoa centralareaofthenation'slife. The labouringpeople in the eighteenth centurydid not live by breadalone,but (as thebudgetscollectedby Eden and David Davies show)manyofthemlivedverylargelyon bread. This breadwas not wheaten,althoughwheatenbread gainedgroundsteadily altogether over othervarietiesuntil the early 1790s. In the 1760s Charles thatofa supposedpopulationofaboutsix millionsin Smithestimated 888,ooo ate rye, England and Wales, 3,750,000were wheat-eaters, 739,000ate barley,and 623,000oats.7 By 1790 we mayjudge that ofthepopulationwereeatingwheat., The pattern at leasttwo-thirds in part,comparative ofconsumption reflected, and, degreesofpoverty, in part,ecologicalconditions. Districtswithpoor soils and upland districts(like the Pennines)wherewheatwill not ripen,were the of othercereals. Still,in the I790s, the Cornishtinners strongholds subsistedlargelyon barleybread. Much oatmealwas consumedin Lancashireand Yorkshire- and not onlyby the poor.9 Accounts butitwouldseemthatNewcastleand fromNorthumberland conflict, pitvillageshad bythengoneoverto wheat, manyofthesurrounding and smallertownssubsistedon oatmeal,rye whilethe countryside bread,maslin,x0or a mixtureofbarleyand "graypease".1' again,whitebreadwas gainingupon darker Throughthe century, which wholemealvarieties. This was partlya matterofstatus-values becameattachedto whitebread,but by no meanswhollyso. The mentioned. problemis mostcomplex,butseveralaspectsmaybe briefly It was to theadvantageofbakersand ofmillersto sell whitebreador fineflour,since the profitwhich mightbe gained fromsuch sales thiswas in parta consequenceof was,in general,larger. (Ironically, the Assize of Bread was since paternalistconsumer-protection, fromthebread intendedto preventthebakersfromtakingtheirprofit 7 C. Smith, ThreeTractson theCorn-Tradeand Corn-Laws,2nd edn. (London, 1766), pp. 14o, 182-5. 8 See Fitzjohn Brand, A Determination of the Average Depressionof Wheat in War belowthatof thePrecedingPeace etc. (London, 18oo), pp. 62-3, 96. 1 These generalizationsare supported by "replies fromtowns as to bread in use", returnedto the PrivyCouncil in 1796 in P.R.O., P.C.I/33/A.87 and A.88. 10For maslin (a mixed bread of several cereals) see Sir William Ashley, The Bread of our Forefathers(Oxford, 1928), pp. 16-19. 11See C. Smith, op. cit., p. 194 (for 1765). But the mayor of Newcastle reported(4 May 1796) that rye bread was "much used by the workmenemployed in the Coal Trade", and a reporterfrom Hexham Abbey said that barley, barley and gray pease, or beans, "is the only bread of the labouring poor and farmers'servantsand even of many farmers",with rye or maslin in the towns: P.R.O., P.C.I/33/A.88.

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THE ENGLISH CROWD IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

of the poor; hence it was in the baker'sinterestto make as little "household"breadas possible,and thatlittlenasty.12) In thecities, darkbreadwassuspect whichwerealertto thedangersofadulteration, as offeringeasy concealmentfor noxious additives. In the last decades of the centurymanymillersadapted theirmachineryand so thattheywerenotin factable to dresstheflourfor bolting-cloths, "household"loaf,producingonlythefinerqualities theintermediary forthewhiteloafand the"offal"fora brownloafwhichone observer found"so musty,griping,and perniciousas to endangertheconstituin times of scarcity,to tion".13 The attemptsof the authorities, of coarsergrades(or,as in 1795,thegeneral imposethemanufacture use ofthe"household"loaf),wereattendedby manydifficulties, and oftenresistanceby bothmillersand bakers.14 By the end of the centuryfeelingsof status were profoundly involvedwhereverwheatenbread prevailed,and was threatenedby a coarsermixture. There is a suggestionthatlabourersaccustomed fromweakness, to wheatenbreadactuallycould notwork- suffered or nausea - if forcedto changeto roughermixtures.16 indigestion, Even in the face of the outrageouspricesof 1795 and 18OO-I,the resistanceof manyof the workingpeoplewas impermeable.16The Guild Stewards of Calne informedthe Privy Council in 1796 that "creditable"people were using the barley-and-wheat mixture 12 Nathaniel Forster, An Enquiry into the Cause of the High Price of Provisions(London, 1767), PP. 144-7. 13 J. S. Girdler, Observationson the PerniciousConsequencesof Forestalling, Regratingand Ingrossing(London, I8oo), p. 88. 14The problemwas discussed lucidly in [Governor] Pownall, Considerations on the Scarcity and High Prices of Bread-cornand Bread (Cambridge, 1795), esp. pp. 25-7. See also Lord John Sheffield,Remarks on the Deficiencyof Grain occasionedby the bad Harvest of 1799 (London, 18oo), esp. pp. 105-6 for the evidence that (1795) "there is no household bread made in London". A Honiton correspondentin 1766 describedhousehold bread as "a base mixture of fermentedBran ground down and bolted, to which is added the worst kind of meal not rang'd": Hist. MSS. Comm., City of Exeter, series lxxiii, p. 255. On this very complex question see furtherS. and B. Webb, "The Assize of Bread", EconomicJi., xiv (1904), esp. pp. 203-6. 11See e.g. Lord Hawkesbury to the duke of Portland, I9 May 1797, in P.R.O., H.O. 42/34. 16 See R. N. Salaman, The Historyand Social Influenceof the Potato (Cambridge, 1949), esp. pp. 493-517. Resistance extended from the wheat-eating south and midlandsto the oatmeal-eatingnorth;a correspondentfromStockport in 1795 noted that "a very liberal subscriptionhas been entered into for the purpose of distributingoatmeal & other provisionsamong the poor at reduced prices - This measure, I am sorryto say, gives littlesatisfactionto the common people, who are still clamorous & insist on having wheaten bread": P.R.O., W.O. I/Io94. See also J. L. and B. Hammond, The Village Labourer(London, 1966 edn.), pp. II9-23.

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and thatthemanufacturing and labouringpoor requiredbyauthority, withlargefamilies

have in general used barley bread alone. The rest, making perhaps something about one-thirdof the poor manufacturersand others, with smaller families(sayingtheycould get nothingbutbread) have, as beforethe scarcity, eat nothingbut baker's bread, made of wheatmeal called seconds.17

The Bailiffof Reigatereportedin similarterms:

... as to the poor labourers who have scarce any sustenance but bread, & from the custom of the neighbourhood have always eaten bread made of wheat only; amongst these I have neither urged nor wished a mixture of to supporttheirlabour. bread, least theyshould not be nourishedsufficiently

Those few labourerswho had tried a mixture"found themselves feeble,hot,& unableto labourwithanydegreeof vigor".18 When, introducedan Act (popularly in December 18oo, the government knownas the BrownBreadAct or "Poison Act") whichprohibited millersfrommakinganyotherthanwholemealflour,theresponseof the people was immediate. At Horsham(Sussex), A number of women ... proceeded to Gosden wind-mill,where, abusing the millerforhaving served them with brown flour,theyseized on the cloth

of the withwhichhe was thendressingmeal accordingto the directions

Bread Act, and cut it into a thousand pieces; threateningat the same time to serve all similar utensils he might in futureattemptto use in the same manner. The amazonian leader of this petticoated cavalcade afterwards regaled her associates with a guinea's worth of liquor at the Crab Tree public-house.

As a resultof such actions,the Act was repealedin less than two months.19

Whenpriceswerehigh,morethanone-halfoftheweeklybudgetof a labourer'sfamilymightbe spent on bread.20 How did these cerealspass, fromthe crops growingin the field,to the labourers' homes? At firstsightit appearssimple. There is the corn: it is threshed,takento market,groundat the mill,baked,and harvested, '7 P.R.O., P.C.I/33/A.88. Compare the returnfrom J. Boucher, vicar of Epsom, 8 Nov. 18oo, in H.O. 42/54: "Our Poor live not only on the finest wheaten bread, but almost on bread alone". "8 P.R.O., P.C.I/33/A.88. 19 P.R.O., P.C.I/33/A.88; Reading Mercury, 16 Feb. ISoi. Hostility to these changes in milling,which were imposed by an Act of I8oo (41 Geo. III, in and Sussex. Surrey Complainants produced c.I6) was especially strong samples of the new bread to a SurreyJ.P.: "They representedit as disagreeable to the taste (as indeed it was), as utterlyincompetentto support them under their daily labour, & as productive of bowelly complaints to them and to their childrenin particular": Thomas Turton to Portland, 7 Feb. 18oi01, H.O. 42/61. The Act was repealed in ISOI: 41 Geo. III, c.2. 20 See especiallythe budgetsin D. Davies, The Case ofLabourersin Husbandry (Bath, 1795); and in Sir FrederickEden, The State of thePoor (London, 1797). Also D. J. V. Jones,"The Corn Riots in Wales, 1793-18o1", WelshHist. Rev., ii (4)(1965), App. I, p. 347.

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THE ENGLISH CROWD IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

eaten. But at everypoint withinthis processthereare radiating aroundwhich forextortion, flash-points opportunities complexities, riots could arise. And it is scarcelypossible to proceed further modelof withoutsketchingout, in a schematicway,the paternalist and manufacturing the marketing platonic process- the traditional ideal appealed to in Statute,pamphlet,or protestmovementagainstwhichthe awkwardrealitiesof commerceand consumption werein friction. modelexistedin an erodedbodyof Statutelaw,as The paternalist wellas commonlawand custom. It wasthemodelwhich,veryoften, in timesof emergency untilthe theactionsof Government informed to local continued to which and many magistrates appeal. 1770s; fromthe shouldbe, so faras possible,direct, In thismodel,marketing shouldbringtheircornin bulk to theconsumer. The farmers farmer to thelocal pitchingmarket;theyshouldnotsell it whilestandingin the field,nor should theywithholdit in the hope of risingprices. The marketsshouldbe controlled;no sales shouldbe made before statedtimes,when a bell would ring; the poor should have the to buy grain,flour,or meal first,in smallparcels,with opportunity weightsand measures. Ata certainhour,whentheir duly-supervised needs were satisfied,a second bell would ring,and largerdealers (duly licensed)mightmaketheirpurchases. Dealers were hedged inscribeduponthemustyparchments aroundwithmanyrestrictions, and engrossing, codifiedin of the laws againstforestalling, regrating mustnot thereignof EdwardVI. They mustnotbuy(and farmers must not nor standing might buy they crops, sell) by sample. They purchaseto sell again(withinthreemonths)in thesame marketat a markets,and so on. Indeed,formostof profit,or in neighbouring the the eighteenth century middlemanremainedlegallysuspect,and his operationswere,in theory,severelyrestricted.21 Millers we passto consumer-protection. Frommarket-supervision and - to a greaterdegree- bakerswereconsideredas servantsofthe community, workingnotfora profitbut fora fairallowance. Many 21 The best general study of eighteenth-century corn marketingremains R. B. Westerfield,Middlemen in English Business, 1660-1760 (New Haven, 1915), ch. 2. Also see N. S. B. Gras, The Evolutionof theEnglishCorn Market from the Twelfthto the EighteenthCentury(Cambridge, Mass., 1915); D. G. Barnes,A HistoryoftheEnglishCornLaws (London, 1930); C. R. Fay, The Corn Laws and Social England (Cambridge, 1932); E. Lipson, EconomicHistoryof England, 6th edn. (London, 1956), ii, pp. 419-48; L. W. Moffitt,England on the Eve of the IndustrialRevolution(London, 1925), ch. 3; G. E. Fussell and C. Goodmen, "Traffic in Farm Produce in Eighteenth Century England", AgriculturalHistory,xii (2)(1938); Janet Blackman, "The Food Supply of an Industrial Town (Sheffield)",BusinessHistoryv (1963).

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ofthepoorwouldbuytheirgraindirectin themarket(or obtainit as to wagesor in gleaning);theywouldtakeit to themillto supplement be ground,wherethe millermightexacta customary toll,and then wouldbaketheirownbread. In Londonandthoselargetownswhere thishad longceasedto be therule,thebaker'sallowanceor profit was calculatedstrictly accordingto the Assize of Bread,wherebyeither thepriceor theweightoftheloafwas orderedin relationto theruling priceof wheat.22 This model, of course, parts companyat many points with realities. Whatis moresurprising is to notehow eighteenth-century farpartsof it were stilloperative. Thus Aikinin 1795 is able to describetheorderlyregulation of Prestonmarket: The weeklymarkets... are extremelywell regulatedto preventforestalling and regrating. None but the town's-people are permittedto buy during the firsthour, which is from eight to nine in the morning: at nine others may purchase: but nothingunsold must be withdrawnfromthe markettill one o'clock, fishexcepted .... 23

In thesameyearinthe South-West(anotherarea notedfortraditionat Exeterattempted to control"hucksters, alism)thecityauthorities retailers" and higlers, by excludingthemfromthe marketbetween 8 a.m. and noon,at whichhoursthe Guildhallbell wouldbe rung.24 The Assize of Bread was still effective the eighteenth throughout in Londonandinmanymarket towns.25 If wefollowthrough century the case of sale by samplewe may observehow dangerousit is to assumeprematurely thedissolution ofthecustomary restrictions. It is oftensupposedthatsale of cornbysamplewas generalby the S. and B. Webb, "The Assize of Bread", EconomicJi., xiv, (1904). Descriptionof theCountryfromthirtytofortyMiles roundManchester(London, 1795), p. 286. One of the best survivingrecords of a wellregulated manorial market in the eighteenthcenturyis that of Manchester. Here market lookers for fish and flech, for corn weights and measures, for white meats, for the Assize of Bread, aletasters,and officersto prevent "engrossing,forestallingand regretting"were appointed throughoutthe century, and finesforshortweightand measure, unmarketablemeat, etc. were frequent until the 1750s; supervision thereafterwas somewhat more perfunctory (although continuing) with a revival of vigilance in the 1790s. Fines were imposed for selling loads of grain before the market bell in 1734, 1737, and 1748 (when William Wyat was fined 20os"for selling beforethe Bell rung and declaring he would sell at any Time of the Day in Spite of eitherLord of the Mannor or any person else"), and again in 1766. The Court Leet Recordsof the Manor of Manchester,ed. J. P. Earwaker (Manchester, 1888/9), vols. vii, viii and ix, passim. For the regulationof forestallingat Manchester, see note 64 below. 24 Proclamation by Exeter Town Clerk, 28 March 1795, in P.R.O., H.O. 42/34. 25 See S. and B. Webb, op. cit.,passim; and J. Burnett,"The Baking Industry in the NineteenthCentury",BusinessHistory,v (1963), PP. 98-9. 22

28 J. Aikin,A

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whenBest describesthe practice middleof the seventeenth century, in East Yorkshire,26and certainlyby 1725, when Defoe gave his famousaccountof the corntrade.27 But,whilemanylargefarmers wereno doubtsellingby samplein mostcountiesbythisdate,theold werestillcommon,and evensurvivedintheenvirons pitchingmarkets describedthedeclineof country of London. In 1718a pamphleteer marketsas havingtakenplace onlyin recentyears: One can see little else besides toy-shopsand stalls for bawbles and knickThe tolls are sunk to nothing; and where, in the memoryof knacks .... many inhabitants,thereus'd to come to town upon a day, one, two, perhaps three,and in some boroughs, four hundred loads of corn, now grass grows in the market-place.

The farmers(he complained)had come to shun the marketand to deal with jobbers and other "interlopers"at theirdoors. Other farmersstill broughtto marketa singleload "to make a show of and to havea Priceset",butthemainbusinesswas donein a market, whichare calledsamples"."8 of "parcels cornin a bag or handkerchief This was, indeed,the driftof things. But manysmallerfarmers continuedto pitchtheirgrainin the marketas before;and the old modelremainedin men's mindsas a sourceof resentment.Again and again the new marketing procedureswere contested. In 1710 a petitionon behalfof the poor people of StonyStratford (Bucks.) complainsthatthe farmersand dealerswere"buyingand sellingin and att theirBarne Doores soo that now the poor the farmyards Inhabitantscannothave a Gristat reasonableratesforour money whichis a GreatCalamity".29 In 1733 severalboroughspetitioned the house of commonsagainstthe practice: Haslemere (Surrey) complainedof millersand mealmenengrossingthe trade - they to "secretlyboughtgreatquantitiesofcornbysmallsamples,refusing buy such as hath been pitch'd in open market".30There is a suggestionof somethingunderhandin the practice,and of a loss of in themarketing procedure. transparency As thecenturyadvancesthecomplaintsdo notdie down,although and westwards. In thedearthof1756 theytendto movenorthwards the Privy Council, in additionto settingin motionthe old laws 26 Rural Economyin Yorkshirein 1641 (Surtees Society, xxxiii, 1857), pP. 99-105. 27 The CompleteEnglish Tradesman(London, 1727), ii, part 2. 28 Anon., An Essay to prove that Regrators, Forestallers,Hawkers, Engrossers, and Jobbersof Corn, Cattle, and other Marketable Goods are Destructiveof to the a Common Nuisance to the and Poor, Kingdomin General Trade, Oppressors 13, 18-20. (London, pp. 1718), 29 Bucks. Rec. Off.,Q.Sessions, Michaelmas. 30 Commons Journals,2 March 1733.

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issued a proclamationenjoining"all farmers, againstforestalling, underseverepenalties,to bringtheircornto open market,and not to sell by sampleat theirown dwellings".31But the authorities did not liketo be pressedon the pointtoo closely:in 1766 (anotheryear of scarcity)the Surreymagistratesenquired whetherbuyingby and receiveda portensamplein factremaineda punishableoffence, is notby his officeentitled touslyevasivereply- H.M.'s Secretary to giveinterpretation to the Laws.32 Two lettersgive some insightinto the spread of new practices towardsthe West. A correspondent writingto Lord Shelburnein of"confederacy": 1766accusedthedealersandmillersat Chippenham He himselfsentto marketfora quarterof wheat,and thoughtherewere his manyloads there,and it was soon afterthemarketbell rang,wherever agentapplied,the answerwas " 'Tis sold". So that,though... to avoid the penaltyof the law, theybringit to market,yet the bargainis made before,and the marketis but a farce ....

(Such practicescould be the actualoccasionof riot:in June1757 it was reportedthat"thepopulationroseat Oxfordand in a fewminutes seized and divideda load of cornthatwas suspectedto have been boughtby sample,and onlybroughtto the marketto save appearin Dorchesterin froma correspondent ances".34) The secondletter, of describes a different he claimedthat 1772, practice market-fixing: thegreatfarmers to fixthepricebeforethemarket, gottogether and manyof thesemen won'tsell less thanfortybushels,whichthe poor can't purchase. Thereforethe miller,who is no enemy to the farmer,gives the price he asks and the poor must come to his terms.3

Paternalists and thepoorcontinuedto complainat theextensionof marketpracticeswhichwe,lookingback,tendto assumeas inevitable and "natural".36 But whatmaynowappearas inevitablewas not,in theeighteenth a matterforapproval. A characcentury, necessarily teristic againstthesupposed pamphlet(of 1768)exclaimedindignantly to of farmer as he likes with his own. This wouldbe do liberty every a "natural",not a "civil" liberty: It cannotthen be said to be the libertyof a citizen,or of one who lives under the protectionof any community;it is ratherthe libertyof a savage; therefore he who avails himself thereof,deserves not that protection,the power of

Societyaffords.

P.C. 1/6/63. Calendar of Home Ofice Papers (London, 1879), 1766, pp. 92-4. 33 Ibid., pp. 91-2. 34 Gentleman'sMagazine, xxvii (1757), p. 286. 35 Anonymousletterin P.R.O., S.P. 37/9. 36 Examples, from an abundant literature,will be found in: Gentleman's Magazine, xxvi (1756), p. 534; Anon. [Ralph Courteville], The Cries of the Public (London, 1758), p. 25; Anon. ["C.L."], A Letterto a Memberof ParliamentproposingAmendmentsto the Laws against Forestallers,Ingrossers,and Regraters(London, 1757), PP. 5-8; MuseumRusticumet Commerciale,iv (1765), p. 199; Forster,op. cit., p. 97. 31P.R.O.,

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Attendanceofthefarmer at marketis "a materialpartof hisduty;he to secretorto disposeofhisgoodselsewhere"."7 shouldnotbe suffered But afterthe 176osthepitchingmarketsperformed so littlefunction in mostpartsof the Southand the Midlandsthat,in thesedistricts, the complaintagainstsample-saleis less oftenheard,althoughthe complaintthatthepoorcannotbuyin smallparcelsis stillbeingmade at theend ofthe century. 38 In partsof theNorthit was a different matter. A petitionof Leeds labourersin 1795 complainsof the "corn factorsand the millersand a set of peopul which we call and mealmenwho have gotthe cornintotharehandsthat hucksters theymayhold it up and sell it at thareowne priceor theywill not sell it". "The farmerscarryno cornto markitbut whattheycarre in tharepockitfortharesample.. . whichcause the pooreto groane verymuch".39 So long it tookfora process,whichis oftendated fromat leastone hundredyearsearlier,to workitswayout. This example has been followedto illustratethe densityand ofthedetail,thediversity oflocal practices,and theway particularity in which popular resentmentcould arise as old marketpractices existsthroughout changed. The same density,the same diversity, the scarcely-charted area of marketing.The paternalist modelwas, of course, breakingdown at many other points. The Assize of in checkingthe profitsof bakers,simply Bread, althougheffective reflectedthe rulingprice of wheator flour,and could in no way influencethese. The millerswere now, in Hertfordshire and the ThamesValley,verysubstantial and sometimes dealers entrepreneurs, in grain or malt as well as large-scalemanufacturers of flour.40 Outsidethemaincorn-growing urbanmarketssimplycould districts, not be supplied withoutthe operationof factorswhose activities would have been nullifiedif legislationagainstforestallers had been enforced. strictly How fardid theauthorities recognizethattheirmodelwas drifting apartfromreality? The answermust changewiththe authorities 37 Anon., An Enquiry into the Price of Wheat, Malt, etc. (London, 1768), pp. 119-23. 31See e.g. Davies (below p. Ioi). It was reportedfrom Cornwall in 1795 that "many farmersrefuseto sell [barley]in small quantitiesto the poor, which causes a great murmuring": P.R.O., H.O. 42/34; and fromEssex in ISoo that "in some places no sale takes place exceptingat the ordinaries,where buyers and sellers (chieflyMillers and Factors) dine together... the benefitof the Market is almost lost to the neighbourhood"; such practices are mentioned "with great indignationby the lower orders": P.R.O., H.O. 42/54. 39 P.R.O., H.O. 42/35. 40 See F. J. Fisher, "The Development of the London Food Market, 15401640", Econ. Hist. Review,v (1934-5).

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concernedand with the advance of the century. But a general answercan be offered:the paternalists did,in theirnormalpractice, back to thismodel recognizemuchof the change,but theyreferred wheneveremergency arose. In thistheywerein partthe prisoners of the people, who adopted partsof the model as theirrightand was actually heritage. There is even an impressionthatambiguity welcomed. It gave magistratesin disturbeddistricts,in time of to their and some endorsement dearth,some room formanoeuvre, attemptsto reduce prices by suasion. When the Privy Council authorized (as it did in 1709, 1740, 1756 and 1766) the posting of

in unreadableGothictypethreatening dire penalties proclamations forestallers, laders, hucksters, etc., it against badgers, broggers, to put the fearof God intolocal millersand helpedthe magistrates dealers. It is truethatthelegislation was repealed againstforestallers in 1772;buttherepealingActwas notwelldrawn,and duringthenext majorscarcityof 1795 Lord Kenyon,the chiefjustice,tookit upon himselfto announcethatforestalling remainedan indictableoffence at commonlaw: "thoughtheact of EdwardVI be repealed(whether wiselyor unwiselyI takenot upon me to say) yetit stillremainsan offenceat commonlaw, co-evalwiththe constitution. ..".4 The trickleofprosecutions whichcan be observedthroughout thecentury - usuallyforpettyoffences - didnotdry and onlyin yearsofscarcity up: indeed,therewereprobablymorein 1795and 18oo-i thanat any timein the previoustwenty-five years.42 But it is clear thatthey to thepoorthat weredesignedforsymboliceffect, as demonstrations the authorities in theirinterests. wereactingvigilantly Hence the paternalistmodel had an ideal existence,and also a real existence. In yearsof good harvestsand moderate fragmentary prices,the authorities lapsed into forgetfulness.But if pricesrose and the poor becameturbulent, it was revived,at leastforsymbolic effect. 41 Lord Kenyon's charge to the Grand Juryat ShropshireAssizes, Annals But he was not proclaiming a new of Agriculture,xxv (1795), PP. IIO-II. view of the law: the 1780 edition of Burn's Justice,ii, pp. 213-4 had already stressed that (despite the Acts of 1663 and 1772) "at the common law, all endeavours whatsoeverto enhance the common price of any merchandize ... whetherby spreadingfalserumours,or by buyingthingsin a marketbeforethe accustomed hour, or by buying and selling again the same thing in the same market" remained offences. 42 Girdler,op. cit.,pp. 212-60, listsa numberof convictionsin 1795 and 18oo. Privateassociationswere establishedin severalcountiesto prosecuteforestallers: see the Rev. J. Malham, The Scarcity of Grain Considered(Salisbury, 18oo), pp. 35-44. Forestalling etc. remained offencesat common law until 1844: W. Holdsworth,Historyof EnglishLaw (London, 1938 edn.), xi, p. 472. See also below, note 64.

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III thanthat victorieshave been moreoverwhelming Few intellectual ofthenewpoliticaleconomywonin thematter whichtheproponents of theregulationoftheinternalcorntrade. Indeed,so absolutehas thattheycan scarcelyconceal the victoryseemedto some historians theirimpatiencewiththe defeatedparty.43 The modelof the new be takenas thatof Adam politicaleconomymay,withconvenience, Smith,althoughThe Wealthof Nationsmay be seen not onlyas a to whichmany butalso as a grandcentralterminus pointofdeparture of in the the middle lines of discussion century eighteenth important (some of them,like CharlesSmith'slucid Tractson theCorn Trade (1758-9), specificallyconcernedto demolish the old paternalist marketregulation)all run. The debate between1767 and 1772 which culminatedin the repeal of legislationagainstforestalling, fouryearsbefore signalleda victory,in this area, for laisser-faire Adam Smith'sworkwas published. This signifiedless a new model than an anti-model- a direct Tudor policiesof "provision". "Let negativeto the disintegrating in everyact thatregardsthecornlawsbe repealed",wroteArbuthnot 1773; "Let corn flowlike water,and it will findits level".44 The freedomof the corn trade" was also the "unlimited,unrestrained demand of Adam Smith.45 The new economy entailed a deno lessfar-reaching ofthetheoryoftradeand consumption moralizing dissolution ofrestrictions thanthemorewidely-debated uponusury.46 it is notsuggestedthatSmithand his colleagues By "de-moralizing" or were unconcernedforthe public good.48 It is were immoral47 . as Adam Smith has shown ..."); 43 See e.g. Gras, op. cit., p. 241 (".. M. Olson, Economicsof the WartimeShortage (North Carolina, 1963), P. 53 ("People were quick to finda scapegoat"). 44 J. Arbuthnot ("A Farmer"), An Inquiryinto the Connectionbetweenthe PresentPrice of Provisionsand the Size of Farms (London, 1773), p. 88. 4 Adam Smith's "digression concerningthe Corn Trade and Corn Laws" is in Book Iv, chapter5 of The Wealthof Nations. 46 R. H. Tawney takes in the question in Religion and theRise of Capitalism (London, 1926), but it is not centralto his argument. 47 The suggestion was made, however, by some of Smith's opponents. One pamphleteer,who claimed to have known him well, alleged that Adam Smith had said to him that "the ChristianReligion debased the human mind", and that "Sodomy was a thingin itselfindifferent". No wonder that he held heartlessviews on the corn trade: Anon., Thoughtsof an Old Man of IndependentMind thoughDependentFortuneon thePresentHigh Pricesof Corn (London, I8oo), p. 4. I see no reason to disagree with ProfessorA. W. 48 On the level of intention Coats, "The Classical Economists and the Labourer", in Land, Labour and L. and G. E. Mingay (London, 1967). But intention Jones Population,ed. E. is a bad measure of ideological interestand of historicalconsequences.

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meant,rather,that the new politicaleconomywas disinfestedof intrusivemoralimperatives.The old pamphleteers were moralists firstand economistssecond. In the new economictheoryquestions as to the moralpolityof marketing do not enter,unlessas preamble and peroration. In practicalterms,thenewmodelworkedin thisway. The natural operationof supplyand demandin thefreemarketwouldmaximize the satisfaction of all partiesand establishthe commongood. The marketwas neverbetterregulatedthanwhenit was leftto regulate itself. In thecourseofa normalyear,thepriceof cornwouldadjust itselfthroughthe marketmechanism. Soon afterharvestthe small and all thosewithharvestwagesand Michaelmasrentsto farmers, pay, would threshout theircornand bringit to market,or release whattheyhad pre-contracted to sell. FromSeptemberto Christmas low pricesmightbe expected. The middlingfarmerswould hold theircorn,in thehopeofa risingmarket, untiltheearlyspring;while the most opulentfarmersand farminggentrywould hold some of theirsuntilstilllater- fromMay to August- in expectationof catchingthemarketat thetop. In thiswaythenation'scornreserves wereconveniently rationed,by the pricemechanism,overfifty-two weeks,withoutanyintervention bythe State. Insofaras middlemen intervenedand contractedforthe farmers'crops in advance,they thisserviceof rationingeven moreefficiently.In years performed of dearththe priceof grainmightadvanceto uncomfortable heights; butthiswas providential, since(apartfromprovidingan incentiveto the importer)it was again an effective formof rationing,without whichall stockswould be consumedin the firstnine monthsof the threemonthsdearthwouldbe exchangedfor year,andin theremaining actualfamine. The onlyway in whichthis self-adjusting economymightbreak downwas throughthe meddlesomeinterference of the Stateand of popularprejudice.49 Corn mustbe leftto flowfreelyfromareasof surplustoareasofscarcity. Hencethemiddleman playeda necessary, productive,and laudable r61e. The prejudicesagainstforestallers on a level withwitchcraft. Smithdismissedcurtlyas superstitions Interference with the naturalpatternof trade mightinduce local faminesor discouragefarmersfromincreasingtheiroutput. If in timesof dearth, prematuresales wereforced,or pricesrestrained

49 Smith saw the two as going together: "The laws concerningcorn may everywherebe compared to the laws concerning religion. The people feel themselvesso much interestedin what relateseitherto theirsubsistencein this life,or to theirhappiness in a lifeto come, that governmentmust yield to their prejudices. .".

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excessivestocksmightbe consumed. If farmers did hold backtheir whenpricesbroke. As graintoo long,theywouldbe likelyto suffer fortheotherpopularculprits- millers,mealmen,dealers,bakersmuch the same logic applied. Their tradeswere competitive.At the mosttheycould onlydistortpricesfromtheirnaturallevelover shortperiods,and oftento theirultimatediscomfiture.Whenprices theremedywas seennotin a beganto soarat theend ofthecentury, returnto the regulationof trade,but in more enclosure,tillageof wastelands,improvement. It shouldnotbe necessaryto arguethatthemodelofa naturaland forthe bestgood of self-adjusting economy,workingprovidentially all, is as much a superstitionas the notionswhich upheld the which paternalistmodel - although,curiously,it is a superstition some economichistorianshave been the last to abandon. In some morecloselyto eighteenth-century respectsSmith'smodelconformed realitiesthan did the paternalist;and in symmetry and scope of intellectualconstruction it was superior. But one shouldnot overlookthespeciousair of empiricalvalidationwhichthemodelcarries. Whereasthefirstappealsto a moralnorm- whatoughtto be men's reciprocalduties- thesecondappearsto say: "thisis thewaythings work,or wouldworkifthe Statedid notinterfere".And yetifone considersthesesectionsof TheWealthofNationstheyimpresslessas an essayin empiricalenquirythanas a superb,self-validating essayin logic. Whenwe considertheactualorganization oftheeighteenth-century corntrade,empiricalverification of neithermodelis to hand. There has beenlittledetailedinvestigation ofmarketing;50 no majorstudyof thatkeyfigure, themiller.51 Even thefirstletterof Smith'salphabet - theassumption thathighpriceswerean effective formofrationing remainsno more than an assertion. It is notoriousthat the demandforcorn,or bread,is highlyinelastic. Whenbreadis costly, thepoor(as one highly-placed observerwas oncereminded)do notgo over to cake. In the view of some observers,when prices rose labourersmighteatthesamequantity ofbread,butcutoutotheritems in theirbudgets;theymighteven eat morebreadto compensatefor the loss of otheritems. Out of one shilling,in a normalyear,6d. 50See, however, A. Everitt, "The Marketing of AgriculturalProduce", in The Agrarian History of England and Wales, vol. iv, 500oo-640, ed. Joan Thirsk (Cambridge, 1967) and D. Baker, "The Marketing of Corn in the first half of the Eighteenth Century: North-east Kent", Agric. Hist. Rev., xviii, (1970). 51 There is some useful informationin R. Bennett and J. Elton, Historyof Corn Milling (Liverpool, 1898), 4 vols.

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mightgo on bread,6d. on "coarsemeatand plentyofgardenstuff"; butin a high-price yearthewholeshillingwouldgo on bread.52 of grain In anyevent,it is well knownthatthe price movements cannot be accounted for by simple supply-and-demandprice mechanisms;and thebountypaid to encouragecornexportsdistorted mattersfurther. Next to air and water,cornwas a primenecessity in supply. In 1796 of life,abnormallysensitiveto any deficiency in wheatwas ArthurYoungcalculatedthattheoverallcropdeficiency lessthan25 percent;butthepriceadvancewas 81 percent:giving(by his calculation)a profit to theagricultural of?20 millions community writerscomplainedthatthe over a normalyear.53 Traditionalist farmersand dealersacted fromthe strengthof "monopoly";they were rebuttedin pamphletafterpamphlet,as "too absurd to be seriously treated: what! more than two hundred thousand people... !".54 The pointat issue,however,was not whetherthis farmeror thatdealercould act as a "monopolist",but whetherthe 52 Emanuel Collins, Lying Detected(Bristol, 1758), pp. 66-7. This seems to be confirmedby the budgets of Davies and Eden (see note 20 above), and of observers: see The UnknownMayhew, ed. E. P. Thompson nineteenth-century and E. Yeo (London, 1971), App. II. E. H. Phelps Brown and S. V. Hopkins, "Seven Centuries of the Prices of Consumables compared with Builders' Wage rates", Economica,xxii (1956), pp. 297-8 allow only 20% of the total household budget on farinaceousfood, althoughthe budgets of Davies and of Eden (taken in high price years) show an average of 53%. This again suggests that in such years bread consumptionremained stable, but other items were cut out altogether. In London theremay already have been a greaterdiversificationof diet by the 1790s. P. Colquhoun wrote to Portland, 9 July 1795, that there was abundance of vegetables at Spitalfields market, expecially potatoes, "that great substitute for Bread", carrots and turnips: P.R.O., P.C.I/27/A.54. xxvi (1796), pp. 470, 473. Davenant had estimated 53Annals of Agriculture, in 1699 that a deficiencyin the harvestof one-tenthraised the price by threetenths: Sir C. Whitworth, The Political and Commercial Works of Charles Davenant (London, 1771), ii, p. 224. The problem is discussed in W. M. "The Bread Crisis in Britain,1795-6", Economica,new ser., xxxi (1964), Stemrn, and J. D. Gould, "AgriculturalFluctuations and the English Economy in the EighteenthCentury",Jl. Econ. Hist., xxii (1962). Dr. Gould puts weight on a point often mentioned in contemporaryapologetics for high prices (e.g. Farmer'sMagazine, ii, I8Ol, p. 81) that the small growers,in a year of scarcity, required their entire crop for seed and for their own consumption: in such factorsas thishe findsthe "chieftheoreticalexplanationof the extremevolatility of grain prices in the early modem period". One would require more investigation of the actual operation of the market before such explanations carry conviction. 54 Anon., ["A Country Farmer"], Three Letters to a Member of the House of Commons... concerningthe Prices of Provisions(London, 1766), pp. 18-19. For other examples see Lord John Sheffield,Observationson the Corn Bill (London, 1791), P. 43; Anon., Inquiryinto the Causes and Remediesof the late and presentScarcity and highPrice of Provisions(London, 18oo), p. 33; J. S. Fry, Letterson the Corn-Trade (Bristol, 1816), pp. Io-II.

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producingand tradinginterestsas a wholewere able, witha longto take advantageof continuingtrainof favourablecircumstances, theircommandof a primenecessityof lifeand to enhancethe price to theconsumer, in muchthesamewayas theadvancedindustrialized nationstodayhave been able to enhancethe priceof certainmanufacturedgoodsto theless advancednations. As the century advancedmarketing proceduresbecame lesstransparent,as the corn passed throughthe hands of a more complex networkof intermediaries.Farmerswere selling,not in an open market(which,in a local and regionalsense,was theaim competitive of the paternalist ratherthanthe laisser-faire model),but to dealers or millerswho werein a betterpositionto hold stocksand keep the markethigh. In thelast decadesof thecentury, as populationrose, so consumptionpressed continuallyupon production,and the commanda seller'smarket. Wartime producerscouldmoregenerally conditions,while not in factinhibitinggreatlythe importof grain nevertheless accentuatedpsychological duringconditionsof scarcity, tensionsin such years.55 Whatmatteredin settingthe post-harvest of theharvestyield:and thereis evidence price,was the expectation in the last decadesof the centuryof the growthof a farming lobby, well awareof thepsychological factorsinvolvedin post-harvest price levels, assiduously fostering an expectation of shortage.56 in yearsof dearththe farmers'faceswerewreathedin Notoriously, smiles,5' while in years of abundant harvest Dame Nature's inconsideratebountycalled forthagriculturalcries of "distress". And no matterhowbountiful theyieldmightappearto theeyeofthe townsman, everyharvestwas accompaniedby talkof mildew,floods, commenced. blightedearswhichcrumbledto powderwhenthreshing The free marketmodel supposes a sequence of small to large theircornto marketovertheyear;butat theend of farmers, bringing the century,as high-priceyearsucceededupon high-priceyear,so moresmallfarmerswereable to hold back supplyuntilthe market roseto theirsatisfaction.(It was, afterall, forthemnota matterof routinemarketing but of intense,consuminginterest:their profit fortheyearmightdependverylargelyupon thepricewhichthreeor 55 See Olson, Economicsof the WartimeShortage,ch. 3; W. F. Galpin, The Grain Supply of England duringtheNapoleonic Period (New York, 1925). 56 See e.g. Anon., ["A West Country Maltster"], Considerationson the presentHigh PricesofProvisions,and theNecessitiesofLife (London, 1764), p. Io. hope", a Yorkshire land-owner wrote in 1708, "the dearth of corn 57 "I which is likelyto continue for several years to come will make husbandryvery profitableto us, in breaking up and improvingall our new land": cited by Beloff,op. cit., p. 57.

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fourcorn-stacks mightfetch). If rentshad to be paid,thegrowthin countrybankingmade it easier for the farmerto be accommodated.58 The Septemberor Octoberriotwas oftenprecipitated by the failureof pricesto fall aftera seeminglyplentifulharvest,and indicateda consciousconfrontation betweenreluctant producerand angryconsumer. These commentsare offered, notin refutation ofAdam Smith,but simplyto indicateplaceswherecautionshouldbe exerciseduntilour model knowledgeis greater. We need onlysay of the laisser-faire thatit is empirically unproven;inherently unlikely;and thatthereis some evidenceon the otherside. We have recentlybeen reminded that"merchantsmade moneyin the eighteenth century",and that grain merchantsmay have made it "by operatingthe market".59 Such operationsare occasionallyrecorded,althoughrarelyas frankly as was notedby a Whittlesford (Cambs.) farmerand cornmerchant in his diaryin 1802: I boughtReythisTime TwelveMonthat 50osperQr. I couldhavesold it 122s per Qr. The poor had their flower,good rey, for 2s 6d per peck. to me, whichwas Is 9d per peck. It was a Blessing Parish paid the difference

to thePoorand goodto me. I bought320 Quarters.60

was above ?1,ooo. The profiton thistransaction

If one can reconstruct clearalternative modelsbehindthe policies of traditionalists and of politicaleconomists,can one constructthe same forthe moraleconomyofthe crowd? This is less easy. One is confrontedby a complex of rationalanalysis,prejudice,and traditional patternsof responseto dearth. Nor is it possible,at any given moment,clearlyto identifythe groupswhichendorsedthe and theoriesofthecrowd. Theycomprisearticulate and inarticulate, include men of educationand address. After1750 each year of scarcitywas accompaniedby a spate of pamphletsand lettersto the press, of unequal value. It was a common complaintof the Pitt... on 58 The pointis notedin Anon.,A Letterto theRt. Hon. William theCausesof theHighPriceofProvisions (Hereford,1795),p. 9; Anon.,["A A LettertotheRt.Hon.LordSomerville (London, SocietyofPracticalFarmers"], Revolution Bankingin theIndustrial 18OO),p. 49. Cf. L. S. Pressnell,Country (Oxford,1956),pp. 346-8. 59C. W. J.Graingerand C. M. Elliott,"A FreshLook at WheatPricesand Marketsin theEighteenth Econ.Hist.Rev.,2nd ser.,xx, (1967),p. Century", 262.

E. M. Hampson, The Treatmentof Povertyin Cambridgeshire, 1597-1834

(Cambridge,1934),P. 211.

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offreetradein cornthatmisguidedgentryadded fuelto protagonists theflamesofmobdiscontent. Thereis truthin this. The crowdderiveditssenseoflegitimation, in fact,fromthe paternalist model. Many gentlemenstillresented themiddlemanas an interloper. Wherelordsofthe manorretained marketrightstheyresentedthe loss (throughsample-salesetc.) of theirmarkettolls. If theywere landlord-farmers, who witnessed meat or flourbeing marketedat prices disproportionately high in relationto theirown receiptsfromthe dealers,theyresentedthe profitsof thesecommontradesmenthe more. The essayistof 1718 has a titlewhichis a precisof his matter:An Essay to provethat Forestallers,Hawkersand Jobbersof Corn, Regrators,Engrossers, Cattle, and otherMarketableGoods... are Destructiveof Trade, to thePoor, and a CommonNuisanceto theKingdomin Oppressors General. All dealers (unless simple droversor carters,moving provisionsfrom one point to the next) appeared to this not unobservant writeras a "vile and perniciousset ofmen"; and, in the classic termsof reprovaladopted by men of settledestateto the bourgeois, they are a vagabond sort of people .... They carrytheir all about them, and their ... stock is no more than a plain ridinghabit, a good horse, a list of the fairs and markets,and a prodigious quantity of impudence. They have the mark of Cain, and like him wander fromplace to place, drivingan interlopingtrade between the fairdealer and the honest consumer.6e

This hostilityto the dealer existedeven among many country some of whomwerenotedto be inactivewhenpopular magistrates, disturbances sweptthroughtheareasundertheirjurisdiction. They werenot displeasedby attackson dissenting or Quakercornfactors. A Bristolpamphleteer, whois clearlya cornfactor, complainedbitterly in 1758 to the J.P.sof "yourlaw-giving in mob", whichprevented, the previousyear,the exportof corn fromthe Severn and Wye valleys,and of "manyfruitless applicationsto severalJusticesof the Peace".62 Indeed, the convictiongrows that a popular hubbub

61 Adam Smith noted nearly sixtyyears later that the "popular odium ... which attendsthe corn trade in years of scarcity,the only years in which it can be veryprofitable,renderspeople of characterand fortuneaverse to enterinto it. It is abandoned to an inferiorset of dealers". Twenty-fiveyears later again Earl Fitzwilliamwas writing:"Dealers in corn are withdrawingfromthe in which had render'd them trade, afraid to trafficin an article trafficking liable to so much obloquy & calumny,and to be run at by an ignorantpopulace, withoutconfidencein protectionfromthose who oughtto be more enlighten'd": Fitzwilliamto Portland,3 Sept. I8oo, P.R.O., H.O. 42/51. But an examination of the fortunesof such familiesas the Howards, Frys and Gurneys mightcall in question such literaryevidence. 62 Emanuel Collins, op. cit., pp. 67-74. In 1756 several Quaker meetinghouses were attackedduringfood riotsin the Midlands: Gentleman'sMagazine, xxvi (1756), p. 4o8.

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was not unwelcometo some in authority.It againstforestallers distractedattentionfromthe farmersand rentiers;while vague QuarterSessionalthreatsagainstforestallers gaveto thepoora notion thatthe authorities wereattendingto theirinterests. The old laws a dealercomplainedin 1766, againstforestallers, are printed in every newspaper, and stuck up in every corner,by order of the justices, to intimidatethe engrossers,against whom many murmurings are propagated. The common people are taught to entertaina very high opinion and reverenceforthese laws ....

Indeed, he accused the justicesof encouraging"the extraordinary to enforce pretence,thatthepowerand spiritofthemob is necessary the laws".63 But if the laws wereactuallyset in motion,theywere directedalmost withoutexceptionagainstpettyculprits- local who pocketedsmall profitson trivial wide-boysor market-men, - whilethelargedealersand millerswereunaffected.64 transactions

S3 Anon., Reflections on thepresentHigh Price ofProvisions,and theComplaints and Disturbancesarisingtherefrom (London, 1766), pp. 26-7, 31. 64 Contraryto the common assumption,the forestalling legislationhad not fallen into desuetude in the firsthalf of the eighteenthcentury. Prosecutions were infrequent,but sufficiently evident to suggest that they had some effect upon regulatingpetty dealing in the open market. At Manchester (see note fines for or 23 above) forestalling regratingtook place sometimes annually, sometimes every two or three years, from 1731 to 1759 (seven fines). Commodities involved included butter, cheese, milk, oysters,fish, meat, carrots, pease, potatoes, turnips, cucumbers, apples, beans, gooseberries, currants, cherries,pigeons,fowls,but veryrarelyoats and wheat. Fines are less frequent after 1760 but include 1766 (wheat and butter), 1780 (oats and eels), 1785 (meat), and 1796, 1797 and 1799 (all potatoes). Symbolically,the Court Leet officersto preventforestallingjumped from3 or 4 appointed annually (17301795) to 7 in 1795, 15 in 1796, I6 in 1797. In addition offenderswere prosecuted on occasion (as in 1757) at Quarter Sessions. See Earwaker, Court Leet Records(cited note 23 above), vols. vii, viii, and ix and Constables'Accounts (note 68 below), ii, p. 94. For other examples of offences,see Essex Quarter Sessions, indictments,2 Sept. 1709, 9 July 17II (engrossingoats), and also 171 for cases involving forestallingof fish, wheat, rye, butter, and, again, 13 Jan. 1729/30: Essex Rec. Off., Calendar and Indictments, Q/SR 541, Q/SR 548, Q/SPb 3/7, Q/SPb b 3; Constables' presentmentsfor forestalling hogs, Oct. 1735 and Oct. 1746: Bury St. Edmunds and West SuffolkRec. Off., DB/I/8 (5); ditto forforestallingof butter,Nottingham,6 Jan. 1745/6,Records of the Borough of Nottingham(Nottingham, 1914), vi, p. 209; conviction for forestallingof fowls (fine 13s. 4d.) at AtherstoneCourt Leet and Court Baron, 18 Oct. 1748: Warwicks. Rec. Off.,L2/24 23; cautions against the forestalling of butter etc., Woodbridge market,30 Aug. 1756: Ipswich and East Suffolk Rec. Off., V 5/9/6-3. In most Quarter-Sessional or market records the odd prosecution is to be found, before 1757. The author of Reflections (cited note 63 above), writingin 1766, says these "almost-forgottenand disregarded statutes" were employed for the prosecution of "some submissive huckstersand indigent or terrifiedjobbers", and implies that the "principal factors" have despised "these menaces", believingthem to be bad law (p. 37). For 1795 and I8oo see note 42 above: the most importantcases of the prosecution of large dealers, were those of Rusby, for regratingoats (1799): see Barnes, op. cit., pp. 81-3; and of Waddington, convicted of forestallinghops at Worcester Assizes: see Times,4 Aug. I8oo and (for conviction upheld on appeal) I East 143 in EnglishLaw Reports(London, 190Io), vol. cii, pp. 56-68.

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THE ENGLISH CROWD IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

and crustyMiddlesex Thus, totakea lateexample,an old-fashioned J.P., J. S. Girdler,instituteda generalcampaignof prosecutions in 1796 and 18oo, with handbillsoffering againstsuch offenders lettersto the press,etc. Convictionswere rewardsforinformation, upheld at severalQuarterSessions,but the amountgainedby the shillings. We can guess speculatorsamountedonlyto ten or fifteen at thekindofoffender whomhis prosecutions touchedbytheliterary styleofan anonymousletterwhichhe received: We no youare an enemyto Farmers,Millers,Mealmenand Bakersand our Trade ifit had notbeneforme and anotheryouyousonofa bitchyouwold havebenemurdurd longagobyoffering yourblastedrewardsandpersecuting Our Trade God dam you and blastyou you shallneverlive to see another harvest..P 65

likeGirdlerwerejoinedbytownsmen traditionalists Compassionate of variousranks. Most Londonerssuspectedeveryonewho had any partin handlinggrain,flouror breadofeverykindofextortion. The urbanlobbywas,ofcourse,especiallypowerful in themiddleyearsof the century,pressingforan end to the exportbounty,or forthe prohibitionof all exportsin timeof dearth. But London and the and largertowns harbouredinexhaustiblereservesof resentment, some of the wildestaccusationscame fromthis milieu. A certain Dr. Manning,in the 1750s, publishedallegationsthat bread was notonlywithalum,chalk,whitingandbeanmeal,butalso adulterated with slaked lime and whitelead. Most sensationalwas his claim that millersturnedinto theirflour"sacks of old groundbones": "thecharnelhousesofthedead areraked,to add filthiness to thefood of the living",or, as anotherpamphleteer "the present commented, age [is] makingheartymealson thebonesofthelast". Manning'saccusationswentfarbeyondthe boundsof credibility. (A criticcomputedthatif lime was being used on the scale of his allegations,more would be consumedin the London bakingthan buildingindustry).66Apartfromalum, whichwas widelyused to whitenbread,the commonestformof adulteration was probablythe admixtureof old, spoiled flourwith new flour.67 But the urban populationwas quick to believethatfarmorenoxiousadulterations were practised,and such belief contributedto the "Shude-hill Fight" at Manchesterin 1757,whereone of the millsattackedwas believedto mix"Accorns,Beans,Bones,Whiting,ChoptStraw,and Girdler,op. cit., pp. 295-6. " Emanuel Collins, op. cit., pp. 16-37; P. Markham, Syhoroc (London, 1758), i, pp. 11-31; Poison Detected: or FrightfulTruths... in a Treatise on Bread (London, 1757), esp. pp. 16-38. 67 See e.g. John Smith, An Impartial Relation of Facts Concerning theMalepracticesof Bakers (London, n.d., 1740?). 6"

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even dried Horse Dung" withits flour,while at anothermill the presenceof suspiciousadulterantsnear the hoppers(discoveredby thecrowd)led totheburningofboltersand sieves,andthedestruction of mill-stones and wheels."6 of Therewere other,equallysensitive,areaswherethe complaints oftraditionalists thecrowdwerefedby thecomplaints or by thoseof urban professionalpeople. Indeed, one may suggestthat if the crowd acted accordingto any consistent riotingor price-setting of theoretical model,thenthismodelwas a selectivereconstruction the paternalistone, takingfromit all those featureswhich most favouredthe poor and whichoffereda prospectof cheap corn. It was, however,less generalizedthanthe outlookof the paternalists. it is thismiller,this The recordsofthepoorshowmoreparticularity: and dealer,thosefarmershoardinggrain,who provokeindignation informed notions action. This particularity was,however, bygeneral of rightswhich disclose themselvesmost clearlyonly when one examinesthecrowdin action. For in one respectthemoraleconomy of the crowdbrokedecisivelywiththatof the paternalists: forthe popular ethic sanctioneddirectaction by the crowd,whereasthe the paternalist valuesof orderunderpinning modelemphatically did not. The economyof the poor was stilllocal and regional,derivative froma subsistence-economy.Corn should be consumedin the regionin whichit was grown,especiallyin timesof scarcity. Profoundfeelingwas aroused,and overseveralcenturies,by exportin timesof dearth. Of an exportriotin Suffolkin 1631 a magistrate wrote:"to see theirbreadthustakenfromthemand sentto strangers has turnedthe impatienceof the poor into licentiousfuryand desperation".69In a graphicaccountof a riotin the same county yearslater(1709), a dealerdescribedhow "the Mobb seventy-eight rose,he thinksseveralhundreds,and saidthatthecornshouldnotbe carryedoutoftown": "oftheMobb somehad halberds,somequarter to Norwich,at several and someclubbs.. .". Whentravelling staffs, placeson theway:

the Mobb hearingthathe was to goe throughwithcorn,told himthatit theTowne,forthathe wasa Rogue,andCorn-Jobber, shouldnotgo through and some cry'dout Stonehim,some Pull him offhis horse,someKnock him down,and be sureyou strikesure; thathe ... questionedthemwhat 6sSee J. P. Earwaker, The Constables'Accountsof the Manor of Manchester

(Manchester, 1891), iii,pp. 359-61; F. Nicholsonand E. Axon,"The Hatfield

Family of Manchester, and the Food Riots of 1757 and 1812", Trans. Lancs. and Chesh. Antiq. Soc., xxviii (1910/II), pp. 83-90. 69 Calendar State Papers, Domestic,1631, p. 545.

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THE ENGLISHCROWDIN THE EIGHTEENTHCENTURY

madethemrisein suchan inhumanmannerto theprejudiceof themselves and the countrey, but thattheystillcryedout thathe was a Rogue & was goingto carrythecornintoFrance... o70

in the mountains,or in the greatsheepExcept in Westminster, men were neverfarfromthesightof corn. Manudistricts, grazing the collierswent was dispersedin the countryside: facturing industry to theirlabourby the side of cornfields;domesticworkerslefttheir fortheharvest. Sensitivity wasnotconfined to loomsand workshops areaswereespeciallysensitive, overseasexport. Marginalexporting wherelittlecornwas exportedin normalyears,but where,in times of scarcity,dealers could hope for a windfallprice in London, local dearth.7" The colliers- Kingswood,the therebyaggravating theNorthEast - wereespeciallyprone Forestof Dean, Shropshire, to action at such times. Notoriouslythe Cornishtinnershad an and a readinessto turn out in irascibleconsumer-consciousness, force. "We had the devil and all of a riot at Padstow",wrotea in 1773,withscarcely-concealed admiration: Bodmingentleman

Some of thepeoplehaverunto too greatlengthsin exporting of corn.... wentthither, whofirst thecornfactors Sevenor eighthundredtinners offered seventeen shillingsfor24 gallonsofwheat;but beingtoldtheyshouldhave brokeopenthecellardoors,and tookawayall in the none,theyimmediately placewithoutmoneyor price.72

The worstresentment was provokedin the middleyearsof the century,by foreignexportsupon which bountywas paid. The was seen as receivingcornat pricessometimesbelowthose foreigner of the Englishmarket,withthe aid of a bountypaid out of English taxes. Hence the extremebitternesssometimesvisitedupon the who was seen as a man seekingprivate,and dishonourable, exporter, gain at the expenseof his own people. A NorthYorkshirefactor, who was givena duckingin the riverin 1740,was told thathe was "no betterthan a rebel".73 In 1783 a notice was affixedto the market-cross in Carlisle,commencing: PeterClemeseson& Moses Luthartthis is to give you Warningthatyou mustQuit yourunlawfull Dealing or Die and be Damed yourbuyingthe of the Cityand Soborbsof Carlisleto Cornto starvethe Poor Inhabitants send to Franceand getthe BountyGivenby the Law fortakingthe Corn out of theCountrybut by theLord God Amighty we willgiveyou Bounty at theExpenceofyourLives youDamed Roagues....

"And if Eany PublickHouse in Carlisle[thenoticecontinued]Lets for you or Luthartput up... Corn at theirHouses theyshallsuffer This revived in the last of the feeling years century, notably it".74 70 P.R.O.,

P.C.I/2/I65.

in Britain,1714-54" 71 See D. G. D. Isaac,"A Studyof PopularDisturbance (EdinburghUniv.Ph.D. thesis,I953), ch. I. 72 Calendar of Home OfficePapers, 1773, P. 30.

7 P.R.O., S.P. 36/50.

74 London Gazette, March

1783, no. 12422.

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in 1795,whenrumoursflewaroundthe countryas to secretexports to France. Moreover,1795 and I8oo saw the efflorescence of a regionalconsciousnessonce more,as vivid as thatof one hundred years before. Roads were blockadedto preventexportfromthe parish. Waggons were interceptedand unloaded in the towns throughwhich they passed. The movementof grain by nightof a military convoyassumedthe proportions operation: Deep groanthewaggonswiththeirpond'rousloads, As theirdarkcoursetheybendalongtheroads; Wheelfollowing slow, wheel,in dreadprocession to theirpointstheygo ... Withhalfa harvest, The secretexpedition, likethenight That coversitsintents, stillshunsthelight... whenhe leaveshis bed, Whilethepoorploughman, Sees thehugebarnas emptyas his shed.7"

Threatsweremade to destroythe canals.7" Ships werestormedat the ports. The miners at Nook Colliery near Haverfordwest to close the estuaryat a narrowpoint. Even lighterson threatened the Severnand Wyewerenotimmunefromattack.77 Indignation againsta dealerwhosecommitmightalso be inflamed mentto an outsidemarketdisruptedthe customary suppliesof the farmerand publicannearTiverton local community.A substantial complained to the War Officein 1795 of riotous assemblies to pull downor firehishousebecausehe takesin Butter "threatening of the neighbouringFarmers& Dairymen,to forwardit by the commonroadwaggon,thatpassesbyhis doorto ... London".7" In Chudleigh (Devon) in the same year the crowd destroyedthe of a millerwhohad ceasedto supplythelocal community machinery to theVictualling withfloursincehe was undercontract Department of the Navy for ship's biscuits:this had given rise (he says in a revealingphrase) "to an Idea that ive done much infimyto the Community".79Thirtyyearsbeforea groupof London merchants fortheir ofthemilitary had foundit necessaryto seektheprotection cheese-warehouses alongtheriverTrent: The warehouses... in dangerfromtheriotouscolliersare nottheproperty and absolbutofa numerousbodyof cheesemongers, of anymonopolizers, 75S. J. Pratt, Sympathyand OtherPoems (London, 1807), pp. 222-3. 76 Some years beforeWedgwood had heard it "threatened... to destroyour

Staffordwerepassingthrough canalsandletoutthewater",becauseprovisions shireto ManchesterfromEast Anglia:J. Wedgwood,Addressto the Young Inhabitantsof thePottery(Newcastle, 1783). 77 P.R.O., P.C.1/27/A.54; A.55-7; H.O. 42/34; 42/35; 42/36; 42/37; see also Stern, op. cit., and E. P. Thompson, The Making of the EnglishWorking Class (Penguin edn., 1968), pp. 70-3. 78 P.R.O., W.O. i/io82, JohnAshley,24 June 1795. 7 P.R.O., H.O. 42/34.

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utely necessaryforthe receptionof theircheese, forthe conveyanceto Hull, thereto be ship'd forLondon.s0

are relatedto thecomplaint, These grievances alreadynoted,ofthe of goods fromthe open market. As the dealersmoved withdrawal at provincial furtherfromLondon and attendedmore frequently so theywereable to offer markets, pricesand buyin quantitieswhich made the farmersimpatientto servethe small ordersof the poor. "Now it is out ofthecourseofbusiness",wroteDavies in 1795,"for to retailcornbythebushelto thisorthatpoorman; except thefarmer in someparticular places,as a matteroffavour,to hisownlabourers". And wherethe poor shiftedtheirdemandfromgrainto flour,the storywas muchthe same: Neither the miller nor the mealman will sell the labourer a less quantity than a sack of flourunderthe retailprice at shops; and the poor man's pocket will seldom allow of his buyinga whole sack at once.81

Hence the labourerwas drivento the pettyretailshop, at which priceswereenhanced.82 The old marketsdeclined,or, wherethey werekeptup, theychangedtheirfunctions. If a customerattempted to buy a singlecheeseor halfflitchof bacon,Girdlerwrotein 18oo, "he is sureto be answeredby an insult,and he is toldthatthewhole lot has been boughtup by someLondon contractor".83 We maytake as expressiveof thesegrievances,whichsometimes occasionedriot,an anonymousletterdroppedin 1795by the doorof the Mayorof Salisbury: Gentlemen of the Corperation I pray you put a stop to that practice which is made use of in our Markits by Rook and other carriers in your giving them the Liberty to Scower the Market of everythingso as the Inhabitance cannot buy a singel Artickelwithoutgoing to the Dealers forit and Pay what Extortionatprice they thinkproper and even Domineer over the Peopel as thow they was not Whorthyto Look on them. But theirtime will soon be at an End as soon as the Solders ear gon out of town.

is askedto ordercarriersout ofthemarketuntilthe The Corporation have been served,"and stop all the Butchersfrom townspeople sendingthemeatawayby a Carcesat a timeBut makethemcut it up in the Markitand sarve the Town first". The letterinformsthe Mayorthatupwardsof threehundredcitizenshave "posetivelyswor to be trowto each otherfortheDistructionoftheCarriers".84 80P.R.O., W.O. 1/986fo.69. 8" Davies, op. cit., pp. 33-4. 82 "The firstprinciple laid down by a baker, when he comes into a parish, is, to get all the poor in his debt; he then makes theirbread of what weightor goodness he pleases .. .": Gentleman'sMagazine, xxvi (1756), p. 557. 83 Girdler,op. cit., p. 147. 84 P.R.O., H.O. 42/34.

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Where the workingpeople could buy cereals in small parcels intensefeelingcould arise over weightsand measures. We are exhortedin Luke: "Give,and itshallbe givenuntoyou,goodmeasure and runningover,shallmengive presseddown,and shakentogether, untoyourbosom". This was not,alas,thepracticeofall farmers and of CharlesII had even dealersin protestant England. An enactment giventhepoortherightto shakethemeasure,so valuablewasthepoor man'scornthata loosenessin themeasuremightmakethedifference to himof a daywithouta loaf. The same Act had attempted, with totallackofsuccess,to enforce theWinchester measureas thenational standard. A greatvarietyof measures,varyingeven withincounty to the next, gave abundant boundariesfrom one market-town forpettyprofiteering.The old measuresweregenerally opportunities larger -

sometimes very much larger -

than the Winchester;

or dealers,moreoftenthey sometimes theywerefavouredby farmers werefavouredby the customers. One observerremarked that"the lowerordersof people detestit [theWinchestermeasure],fromthe smallnessof itscontents, and thedealers... instigatethemto this,it their retain every uncertainty in weightsand interest to being measures".85

Attemptsto change the measure oftenencounteredresistance, occasionallyriot. A letterfroma Clee Hill (Salop.) miner to a "BrotherSufferer" declared: forourreliefto helpto Clem [starve]us Thay are goingto The Parliament lesson our Measure and Wait [weight]to the Lower Standard. We are aboutTen Thousandswornand readyat anytimeAnd we wou'd haveyou We havebut getArmsand Cutlassesand swearone anotherto be true.... one Life to Loose and we will not clem ....

Lettersto farmersin Northiam(Sussex) warned:

to you all foryou Gentlemenall ie hope you whilltakethisas a wharning to putthelittleBushelsbie and taketheoald measher[measure]againforif you donttherewhillbe a largecompanythatshallborne[burn]the little and cornmeasherwhenyouare all abade and asleepand yourcornehouses stacks and you along with them .....87

to the Annalsof Agriculture A Hampshirecontributor explainedin theprice an idea that conceived that the "have erroneously 1795 poor froma nine-gallon bushelto ofgrainis increasedbythelatealteration xxvi (1796), p. 327; MuseumRusticumet Commerciale, "5 Annals ofAgriculture, iv (1765), p. 198. The differencein bushels could be very considerable: as

had 16 gallons,the bushelof 8 gallons,the Stamford againsttheWinchester

Carlisle 24, and the Chester 32: see J. Houghton, A Collectionfor Improvement of Husbandryand Trade (London, 1727), no. xlvi, 23 June 1693. 86 London Gazette, March 1767, no. 10710. 8 November 1793, in P.R.O., H.O. 42/27. The measures concerned

wereformalt.

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the Winchester, fromits happeningto takeplace at a momentof a risingmarket,by which,the same moneywas paid foreightas used to be paid forninegallons". "I confess",he continues,

I have a decidedpredeliction forthe nine-gallon measure,forthe reason thatit is the measurewhichnearestyieldsa bushelof flour;whence,the poorman is enabledto judgeofwhathe oughtto payfora bushelof flour, thancomesto his which,in thepresentmeasure,requiresmorearithmetic shareto ascertain.88

Even so, the arithmetical notionsof the poor maynot have been so erroneous. Changesin measures,likechangesto decimalcurrency, tendby somemagicto disadvantage theconsumer. If less cornwas beingbought(at theend ofthecentury) in theopen marketby thepoor,thisalso indicatedtheriseto greaterimportance of themiller. The milleroccupiesa place in popularfolk-lore, over many centuries,which is both enviableand unenviable. On one handhe was notedas a fabulously successfullecher,whoseprowessis still perhaps perpetuatedin a vernacularmeaning of the word "grinding". Perhaps the convenienceof the village mill, tucked arounda secludedcornerofthestream,to whichthevillagewivesand maidensbroughttheircornforgrinding;perhapsalso his command overthe meansof life; perhapshis statusin thevillage,whichmade himan eligiblematch- all mayhave contributed to thelegend: A briskyounglass so briskand gay She wentuntothemillone day... There'sa peckofcornall forto grind I can butstaya littletime. Come sityoudownmysweetpretty dear I cannotgrindyourcornI fear My stonesis highand mywaterlow I cannotgrindforthemillwon'tgo. Then she sat downall on a sack They talkedofthisand theytalkedofthat They talkedoflove,ofloveprovedkind She soonfoundout themillwouldgrind....89

On theotherhand,themiller'sreputewas less enviable. "Loving!", exclaimsNellie Dean in Wuthering Heights:"Loving! Did anybody everhearthelike? I mightas welltalkoflovingthemillerwhocomes oncea yearto buyourcorn". If we areto believeall thatwas written 88 89

xxiv (1795), PP. 51-2. Annals of Agriculture, James Reeves, The Idiom of the People (London, 1958), p. 156. See also

BritishMuseum,Place MSS., Add. MS. 27825for"A prettymaidshe to the millerwouldgo", verse2: Then themillerhe laid heragainstthemillhopper Merrya soul so wantonly He pulledup hercloaths,and he putin thestopper For saysshe I'll havemycorngroundsmalland free.

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about him in theseyears,the miller'sstoryhad changedlittlesince Chaucer's Reeve's Tale. But wherethe small countrymillerwas accused of quaintlymedievalcustoms- over-sizetoll dishes,flour concealedin thecasingofthestones,etc.- hislargercounterpart was accusedof addingnew,and greatlymoreenterprising, peculations: For ther-biforn he stalbutcurteisly, But nowhe was a thiefoutrageously.

At one extremewe stillhave the littlecountrymill,exactingtoll accordingto its own custom. The toll mightbe taken in flour (alwaysfrom"the bestofthemealand fromthefinerflourthatis in remainedthe the centreof the hopper"); and since the proportion in price,it was to themiller'sadvansamewithwhateverfluctuation (evenwheretoll tageifpriceswerehigh. Aroundthesmalltoll-mills and had been commutedformoneypayments)grievances multiplied, therewere fitfulattemptsat theirregulation."9Since the millers cornon theirown intodealing,and intogrinding enteredincreasingly accountforthe bakers,theyhad littletimeforthe pettycustomers (witha sackor twoofgleanedcorn);henceendlessdelay;hencealso, it mightbe theproductofother,inferior, whentheflourwas returned grain. (It was complainedthatsomemillerspurchasedat half-price damaged corn which they then mixed with the corn of their ofmanymills woreon, thetranslation customers.91)As thecentury a more corn-mills to industrialpurposesgave to the surviving petty advantageousposition. In 1796 these grievanceswere sufficiently feltto enable Sir Francis Bassettto carrythe Miller's Toll Bill, intendedto regulatetheirpractices,weightsand measures,more strictly.92

But these pettymillerswere, of course, the small fryof the century. The greatmillersof the ThamesValleyand of eighteenth who traded orderof entrepreneurs, the largetownswerea different in flourand malt. MillerswerequiteoutsidetheAssize extensively of Bread, and theycould immediately pass on any increasein the of corn to the consumer. England also had its unsung price in the includingthose extraordinary century, eighteenth banalitds thesoke-mills, whichexercisedan absolutemonopolyofthe survivals, manufacturing grindingof grain(and the sale of flour)in substantial 90 See P. Markham, Syhoroc (London, 1758), ii, p. 15; Bennett and Elton, op. cit.,iii, pp. 150-65; informationof JohnSpyryagainstthe Miller of Millbrig Mill, I1740, for taking sometimes *th., sometimes 4th., and sometimes ith part as mulcture: West Riding Sessions papers, County Hall, Wakefield. 91See e.g. Girdler,op. cit., pp. 102-6, 212. xxiii (1795), PP. 179-91; Bennettand Elton, op. cit., 92 Annals of Agriculture,

iii,p. 166; 36 Geo. III, c. 85.

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Leeds.93 In mostcases centres,amongthemManchester, Bradford, sold or leasedtheseto private thefeoffees whoownedthesoke-rights speculators. Most stormywas the historyof the School Mills at wereintendedas a charitableendowManchester,whosesoke-rights mentto supportthe grammar school. Two unpopularlesseesof the rightsinspired,in 1737,Dr. Byrom'srhyme: Bone and Skin, two millersthin, Would starvethe town, or near it; But be it known,to Skin and Bone, That Flesh and Blood can't bear it.

offlour When,in 1757,newlesseessoughtto prohibittheimportation to thegrowingtown,whileat the sametimemanagingtheirmills(it was alleged)withextortion and delay,fleshand blood could indeed bear it no longer. In thefamous"Shude-hillFight"of thatyearat but the soke-rights least fourmen were killedby musketry, were But no even where actual one broken.94 obtained, soke-right finally and could provokethe millmightcommanda populouscommunity, peopleto furyby a suddenadvancein thepriceofflouror an evident in its quality. Mills werethe visible,tangibletargets deterioration of someof the mostseriousurbanriotsofthe century. The Albion Mills at Blackfriars Bridge(London'sfirststeammills)weregoverned by a quasi-philanthropic syndicate;yetwhentheyburneddown in Londoners and danced sangballadsofrejoicingin thestreets.95 1791 The firststeammill at Birmingham (Snow Hill) faredlittlebetter, beingthetargetofa massiveattackin 1795. It mayappearat firstsightas curiousthatbothdealersand millers shouldcontinueto be amongthe objectivesof riotat the end of the century, bywhichtimein manypartsoftheMidlandsand South(and in urbanareas)workingpeoplehad become accustomedto certainly bread at the bakers'shops ratherthangrainor flourin the buying with market-place.We do notknowenoughto chartthechange-over accuracy,and certainlymuch home-bakingsurvived.96 But even 9" See Bennettand Elton, op. cit.,iii, pp. 204 if; W. Cudworth,"The Bradford Soke", The BradfordAntiquary(Bradford,I888), i, pp. 74 ff. 94 See note 68 above and Bennettand Elton, op. cit., iii, pp. 274 ff. 95Ibid., iii, pp. 204-6. 96 Replies fromtowns to Privy Council enquiry, 1796, in P.R.O., P.C.I/33/ A.88: e.g. mayor of York, 16 April 1796, "the poor here can get their bread baked at common ovens . . ."; mayor of Lancaster, Io April, "each family buys theirown flourand makes theirown bread"; mayor of Leeds, 4 April, it is the custom "to buy corn or meal, and to mix up their own bread, and to bake it themselvesor to get it baked forhire". A surveyof bakers in the hundred of Corby (Northants.) in 1757 shows that out of 31 parishes, one parish (Wilbarston) had fourbakers,one had three,threehad two, eighthad one, and fourteenhad no resident baker (four gave no return): Northants. Rec. Off., H (K) 170o.

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wherethe change-over was complete,one shouldnot underestimate the sophistication of the situationand of the crowd's objectives. There were,of course,scoresof pettyriotsoutsidebreadshops,and thecrowdveryoften"set theprice"ofbread. But thebaker(whose tradein timesof highpricescan scarcelyhavebeen an enviableone) was,alone ofall thosewho dealtin thepeople'snecessities(landlord, farmer, factor, carrier, miller),in dailycontactwiththeconsumer;and he was, morethanany of the others,protectedby the visibleparaphernaliaof paternalism. The Assize of Bread clearlyand publicly limitedtheirlawfulprofits(therebyalso tendingto leavethebaking tradein the handsofnumeroussmalltraderswithlittlecapital),and thus protectedthem,to some degree,frompopularwrath. Even CharlesSmith,theable exponentoffreetrade,thoughtthecontinuationoftheAssizeto be expedient:"in largeTowns and Citiesit will to settheAssize,in orderto satisfy thepeoplethat alwaysbe necessary the pricewhichthe Bakersdemandis no morethanwhatis thought reasonableby the Magistrates".97 The psychological effect of the Assizewas,therefore, considerable. The bakercould hope to enhancehis profitbeyondthe allowance calculatedin the Assize onlyby smallstratagems, some of whichthe mixingin of cheap and spoiled bread,adulteration, short-weight flour- were subject eitherto legal redressor to instantcrowd retaliation. Indeed, the bakerhad sometimesto attendto his own evento theextentofenlisting thecrowdon hisside: publicrelations, whenHannahPain of Ketteringcomplainedto thejusticesof shortweightbread,the baker"raised a mob upon her... and said she deservedto be whipped,therewereenoughofsuchscambling scumof the earth".98 Many corporations, throughoutthe century,made a greatshowof supervising weightsand measures,and of punishing offenders.99Ben Jonson's"JusticeOverdo" was still busy in the streetsof Reading,Coventry, or London: "9C. Smith, op. cit., p. 30. 98Examination of Hannah Pain, 12 Aug. 1757, Northants.Rec. Off.,H (K) 167 (I). 99It is notable that punishmentsfor these offenceswere most frequentin years of dearth, and doubtless these were intended to have symbolic force: thus 6 presentmentsfor false or short weight at Bury St. Edmunds sessions, May 1740: Bury St. Edmunds and West SuffolkRec. Off.,D8/I/8(5); 6 fined for deficient weight in Maidenhead, October 1766: Berkshire Rec. Off., M/JMI. At Reading, however, surveillanceappears to be fairlyconstant,in good years as well as bad: Central Public Library, Reading, R/MJ Acc. 167, Court Leet and View of Frankpledge. At Manchester the market officials were vigilantuntil the 1750s, more casual thereafter,but very active in April 1796: Earwaker, Court Leet Records,ix, pp. 113-4.

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Marry, go you into everyalehouse, and down into everycellar; measure the length of puddings ... weigh the loaves of bread on his middle finger... give the puddings to the poor, the bread to the hungry,the custards to his

... children in 1795who,comingon In thistradition we finda Londonmagistrate thesceneof a riotin SevenDials wherethecrowdwas alreadyin the theshopofa bakeraccusedofsellinglight-weight act of demolishing seized the baker'sstock,weighedthe loaves,and bread,intervened, findingthem indeed deficient,distributedthe loaves among the crowd.100 No doubt the bakers, who knew their customers,sometimes to reduceprices,and divertedthe complainedof theirpowerlessness crowd to the mill or the corn-market."Afterransackingmany relatedof the bakers'shops",the millerof Snow Hill, Birmingham, in came numbers .. us attack, ."o01 But in great against "they 1795 manycases the crowdclearlyselectedits own targets,deliberately by-passingthe bakers. Thus in 1740 at Norwichthe people "went to everyBakerin the City,and affix'da Note on his Door in these words,Wheat at SixteenShillingsa Comb". In the same year at Wisbeachtheyobliged"theMerchantsto sell Wheatat 4d perBushel ... notonlyto them,butalso to theBakers,wheretheyregulatedthe Weight& Priceof Bread".a02 But it is clear at this pointthatwe are dealingwitha farmore complex patternof action than one which can be satisfactorily explainedby a face-to-faceencounterbetweenthe populace and particularmillers,dealersor bakers. It is necessaryto takea larger view of the actionsof the crowd. V It has beensuggestedthattheterm"riot"is a blunttoolofanalysis for so many particulargrievancesand occasions. It is also an popularactions. If we are lookingfor imprecisetermfordescribing thecharacteristic formofdirectaction,we shouldtake,notsquabbles outside London bakeries,nor even the greataffraysprovokedby Gentleman'sMagazine, lxv (1795), p. 697. notebookof Edward Pickering,BirminghamCity Ref. Lib., M 22. Ipswich Journal, 12 and 26 July 1740o. (I am indebted to Dr. R. M. Malcolmson of Queen's University, Ontario, for these references). The crowd by no means mistook the bakers for their main opponents, and forms of pressure were often of considerable complexity: thus "incendiary" papers set up around Tenterden (1768) incited people to rise and forcethe farmersto sell their wheat to the millers or the poor at ?Io a load, and threatenedto destroy the mills of those millers who gave to the farmersa higher price: Shelburne, 25 May 1768, P.R.O., S.P. 44/199. 100

101 MS. 102

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discontentwith the large millers,but the "risingsof the people" (mostnotablyin 1740, 1756,1766,1795 and I800) in whichcolliers, tinners,weavers and hosieryworkerswere prominent. What is remarkable aboutthese"insurrections" theirdiscipline,and, is, first, second,the factthattheyexhibita patternof behaviourforwhose originwe mustlook back severalhundredsof years:whichbecomes more, ratherthan less, sophisticatedin the eighteenthcentury; whichrepeatsitself,seeminglyspontaneously, in different partsof thecountryand afterthepassageof manyquiet years. The central actionin thispatternis notthesackof granariesand thepilfering of grainor flourbut theactionof "settingtheprice". about this patternis that it reproduces, What is extraordinary sometimeswithgreatprecision,the emergency measuresin timeof scarcitywhoseoperation,in the yearsbetween1580 and 1630, were codifiedin the Book of Orders. These emergencymeasureswere employedin timesof scarcityin thelast yearsof Elizabeth,and put in a somewhatrevisedform,in the reignof CharlesI, into effect, in 1630. In Elizabeth's reign the magistrateswere required to attendthelocal markets, and where you shall fyndethat there is insufficiente quantities broughteto fill and serve the said markettsand speciallie the poorer sorte, you shall thereuponresorteto the houses of the Farmers and othersusing tyllage... and viewe what store and provision of graine theye have remayningeeither thrashedor unthrashed....

to send "convenientquantities" They mightthenorderthe farmers to marketto be sold "and thatat reasonableprice". The justices were furtherempoweredto "sett downe a certenprice upon the bushellof everyekyndeof graine".103 The queen and her Council in partto the opinedthathighpriceswerein partdue to engrossers, who "bee not contentwth anie "greedie desier" of corn-growers moderategayne,butseeke& devisewaiesto kepeup thepricesto the manifestoppressionof the poorersort". The Orderswere to be all parciality in sparinganie man".'04 enforced"wthout In essence,then,theBook of Ordersempoweredmagistrates (with the aid of local juries) to surveythe corn stocks in barns and to be sentto market;and to enforce ;105 to orderquantities granaries

103 "A Coppie of the Councells her[e] for graine delyvrdat Bodmyn the xith of May 1586": Bodleian Library,Rawlinson MS. B 285, fos. 66-7. 104 There is some account of the operation of the Book of Orders in E. M. Leonard, Early History of English Poor Relief (Cambridge, 19oo); Gras, op. cit., pp. 236-42; Lipson, op. cit., iii, pp. 440-50; B. E. Supple, Commercial Crisis and Change in England, 1600-42 (Cambridge, 1964), p. 117. Papers illustrativeof theiroperationare in OfficialPapers ofNathanielBacon of Stiffkey, Norfolk(Camden Society, 3rd ser., xxvi, 1915), pp. 130-57. 105 For an example, see Victoria County History, Oxfordshire, ii, ed. W. Page (London, 1907), pp. 193-4.

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withseverityeverypartof the marketing, licensingand forestalling legislation. No cornwas to be sold exceptin open market,"unlesse thesamebe to someporehandicrafts Men, or Day-Labourerswithin the parishwhereinyou doe dwell,thatcannotconveniently cometo the Market Townes". The Orders of 1630 did not explicitly empowerjusticesto set the price,but orderedthemto attendthe marketand ensurethatthe poor were"providedof necessaryCorne S..

with as much favourin the Prices, as by the earnestPerswasion of

theJusticescan be obtained". The powerto set a priceupon grain or flourrested,in emergency, and half-waybetweenenforcement persuasion. 106 This emergencylegislationwas fallinginto disrepairduringthe Civil Wars.107 But the popularmemory,especiallyin a pre-literate society,is extraordinarily long. There can be littledoubt that a directtradition extendsfromtheBookofOrdersof 1630 to theactions of clothingworkersin East Angliaand the West in the eighteenth century. (The literatehad long memoriesalso: the Book of Orders itselfwas republished,unofficially, in 1662,and againin 1758,with a prefatory addressto the readerreferring to the present"wicked to makescarcity".)108 combination 106 By an Act of 1534 (25 Henry VIII, c. 2) the PrivyCouncil had the power to set prices on corn in emergency. In a somewhat misleading note, Gras (op. cit., pp. 132-3) opines that after 1550 the power was never used. It was in any case not forgotten:a proclamationof 1603 appears to set prices (Seligman Collection, Columbia Univ. Lib., Proclamations,James I, 1603); the Book of Orders of 1630 concludes with the warning that "if the Come-masters and other Owners of Victuall ... shall not willinglyperformethese Orders", His Majesty will "give Order thatreasonable Prices shall be set"; the PrivyCouncil attemptedto restrainprices by Proclamation in 1709, Liverpool Papers, Brit. Mus., Add. MS. 38353, fo. 195; and the matterwas activelycanvassed in 1757 - see Smith, Three Tracts on the Corn Trade, pp. 29, 35. And (apart from the Assize of Bread) otherprice-fixingpowers lingeredon. In 1681 at Oxford market(controlledby the University)prices were set forbutter,cheese, poultry, meat, bacon, candles, oats, and beans: "The Oxford Market", Collectanea, 2nd ser. (Oxford, 1890), pp. 127-8. It seems that the Assize of Ale lapsed in Middlesex in 1692 (Lipson, op. cit., ii, p. 5oi), and in 1762 brewers were authorized (by 2 Geo III, c. 14) to raise the price in a reasonable manner; but when in 1773 it was proposed to raise the price by Yd.a quart Sir JohnFielding wrote to the earl of Suffolkthat the increase "cannot be thoughtreasonable; nor will the subject submit to it": Calendar of Home OfficePapers, 1773, PP. 9-14; P. Mathias, The Brewing Industryin England, z700-z830 (Cambridge,

1959), P. 360.

107 See G. D. Ramsay, "Industrial Laisser-Faireand the Policy of Cromwell", Econ. Hist. Rev. Ist ser., xvi (1946), esp. pp. 103-4; M. James, Social Problems and Policy duringthePuritan Revolution(London, 1930), pp. 264-71. 108 Seasonable Orders OfferedfromformerPrecedentsWherebythe Price of Corn ... may be muchabated (London, 1662) - a reprintof the Elizabethan Orders; J. Massie, OrdersAppointedby His Majestie King Charles I (London, 1758).

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The Orderswerethemselves in parta responseto the pressureof thepoor: The Corneis so dear I doutmaniwillstarvethisyeare-

in the churchporchin the parishof So ran a doggerelnoticeaffixed in Wye(Kent) 163o: If you see not to this

Sum ofyouwillspeedamis.

Our souls theyare dear,

For ourbodyshavesumeceare Beforewe arise Less willsafise.... You thatare setin place See thatyoureprofesion you doe not disgrace ....1109

One hundredandthirty yearslater(1768)incendiary paperswereonce againbeingnailedto churchdoors(as wellas to inn-signs)in parishes withinthe same latheof Scrayin Kent,incitingthe poor to rise.110 the can be observed,althoughundoubtedly Manysimilarcontinuities action in the of direct to new districts eighteenth pattern spread century. In many actions, especiallyin the old manufacturing regionsof the East and West, the crowd claimed that since the refusedto enforce"the laws" theymustenforcethemfor authorities themselves. In 1693 at Banburyand ChippingNortonthe crowd "tookawaythe corneby forceout ofthewaggons,as it was carrying sayingthattheywereresolvedto putthelaw awaybytheingrossers, in execution,since the magistratesneglectedit"."'x During the of Gloucestershire, extensivedisordersin theWestin 1766thesheriff couldnotdisguisehisrespectfortherioterswho a gentleman clothier, and civillydesiredthattheywou'd threshout and went... to a farmhouse bringto markettheirwheatand sell it forfiveshillingsper bushel,which and someprovisions beingpromised, giventhemunaskedfor,theydeparted withouttheleastviolenceor offence.

If we follow other passages of the sheriff'saccountswe may mostofthefeatures encounter foundin theseactions:

On Fridaylasta Mobb was rais'din thesepartsbytheblowingofHorns&c of thelowestof the peoplesuch as weavers,mecanicks, entirely consisting and boys,&c... labourers, prentices,

nearthetown... cuttingopen Baggs "They proceededto a gristmill corn &c". of Flower and giving& carryingit away & destroying at the the then attended main markets,setting priceof grain. They Three dayslaterhe senta further report: '09Calendar State Papers (Domestic), 1630, p. 387. of Home Ofice Papers, 1768, p. 342. 1x Westerfield,op. cit., p. 148.

110 Calendar

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They visited Farmers, Millers, Bakers and Hucksters shops, selling corn, flower,bread, cheese, butter,and bacon, at theirown prices. They returned in generalthe produce [i.e. the money] to the proprietorsor in theirabsence left the money for them; and behaved with great regularityand decency where they were not opposed, with outrage and violence where they was: but pilferdvery little,which to prevent,they will not now sufferWomen and boys to go with them.

Aftervisitingthe millsand marketsaroundGloucester,Stroudand Cirencester, they divided into partiesof fiftyand a hundredand visitedthevillagesand farms,requestingthatcornbe broughtat fair in on granaries. A largepartyofthem and breaking pricesto market, attendedon the sheriffhimself,downed their cudgels while he addressedthem on their misdemeanours, listenedwith patience, shoutedGod Save the King", and thenpickedup their "chearfully cudgels and resumedthe good work of settingthe price. The movementpartookof the characterof a generalstrikeof the whole ... and force clothingdistrict:"the rioterscomeintoour workshops out all themenwillingor unwillingto join them".112 This was an unusuallylarge-scaleand disciplinedaction. But the account directsus to featuresrepeatedlyencountered. Thus the movementof thecrowdfromthe market-place outwardsto the mills and thence(as in the Book of Orders)to farms,wherestockswere inspectedand the farmersorderedto send grainto marketat the price dictatedby the crowd- all this is commonlyfound. This was sometimesaccompaniedby thetraditional roundof visitsto the houses of the great,for contributions, forcedor voluntary. At Norwichin 1740thecrowd,afterforcingdownpricesin thecity,and seizing a keel loaded with wheat and rye on the river,solicited contributions fromtherichofthecity: Early on Thursday Morning, by Sound of Horns, theymet again; and after a short Confabulation, divided into Parties, and march'd out of Town at differentGates, with a long Streamer carried before them, purposing to visit the Gentlemen and Farmers in the neighbouringVillages, in order to extort Money, Strong Ale, &c. from them. At many places, where the Generosityof People answer'd not their Expectation, 'tis said they shew'd theirResentmentby treadingdown the Corn in the Fields ....

crowdswere activein thisyear,notablyin Durham Perambulating and Northumberland, the West Riding,and severalpartsof North Wales. Anti-exportdemonstrators,commencingat Dewsbury and "a sortofensignor colours"; (April1740)wereled bya drummer they performeda regular circuit of the local mills, destroying machinery, cuttingsacks,and carrying awaygrainand meal. In 1766 112Letters of W. Dalloway, Brimscomb, 17 and 20 September 1766, in P.R.O., P.C.I/8/41.

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a perambulating crowdin the Thames valleycalledthemselves"the farmerallowedthemto sleepin thestrawin Regulators";a terrified hisyard,and "could hearfromhisChamberthattheyweretellingone anotherwhomtheyhad mostfrightened, & wheretheyhad the best success". The patterncontinuesin the 1790s: at Ellesmere(Salop.) thecrowdstoppingthecornas it goesto themillsand threatening the farmers individually;in the Forestof Dean the minersvisitingmills and farmers' houses,and exactingmoney"frompersonstheymeetin the road"; in West Cornwallthetinnersvisitingfarmswitha noose in one hand and an agreementto bringcorn at reducedpricesto marketin theother.113 It is therestraint, ratherthanthedisorder, whichis remarkable; and therecan be no doubtthatthe actionswere approvedby an overconviction that whelmingpopularconsensus. Thereis a deeply-felt in timesofdearth,to be regulated, and thattheprofiteer pricesought, to put himselfoutsideof society. On occasionthe crowdattempted enlist,by suasion or force,a magistrate, parishconstable,or some to presideover the taxationpopulaire. In 1766 figureof authority at Drayton(Oxon.) membersof the crowdwent to JohnLyford's house "and askedhimifhe werea Constable- uponhis saying'yes' Cheersaid he sho'd go withthemto the Cross& receivethe money for3 sacksof flourwhichtheyhad takenfromone BettySmithand whichtheyw'd sell for5s a Bushel"; the same crowdenlistedthe constableof Abingdonfor the same service. The constableof was enlistedin a similarway,in Handborough(also in Oxfordshire) 1795; the crowd set a price - and a substantialone -

of 4os a sack

and the money upon a waggonof flourwhichhad been intercepted, forno fewerthanfifteen sackswas paid intohis hands. In the Isle of Ely,in the same year,"the mob insistedupon buyingmeatat 4d the sale, per lb, & desiredMr Gardnera Magistrateto superintend as theMayorhad doneat Cambridgeon Saturdaysennight". Again in 1795 therewere a numberof occasionswhen militiaor regular their troops supervisedforcedsales, sometimesat bayonet-point, the otherway. A combinedoperationof officers lookingsteadfastly soldieryand crowd forcedthe mayorof Chichesterto accede in 113Norwich, 1740 - Ipswich Journal,26 July 1740; Dewsbury, 1740 J. L. Kaye and five magistrates,Wakefield, 30 Apr. 1740, in P.R.O., S.P. 36/50; Thames Valley, 1766 - testimonyof BartholomewFreeman of Bisham Farm, 2 Oct. 1766, in P.R.O., T.S.II/995/3707; Ellesmere, 1795 - P.R.O., W.O. I/Io89 fo. 359; Forest of Dean - John Turner, Mayor of Gloucester, 24 June 1795, P.R.O., W.O.I/Io87; Cornwall - see John G. Rule, "Some Social Aspects of the Cornish Industrial Revolution", Industryand Society in the South-West,ed. Roger Burt (Universityof Exeter, 1970), pp. 90-I.

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settingthe price of bread. At Wells men of the 122nd Regiment began or jobbersof butter,who they by hootingthosetheyterm'dforestallers huntedin different partsof the town- seized the butter- collectedit in - placed sentinelsoverit - thenthrewit, & mix'tit together together retail'dthe same,weighingit in scales,sellingit a tub - & afterwards aftertherateof8d perlb ... thoughthecommonpricegivenbythejobbers was rathermorethanIod.114

It wouldbe foolishto suggestthat,whenso largea breachwas made to in the outworksof deference, manydid not takethe opportunity carryoffgoodswithoutpayment. Butthereis abundantevidencethe otherway,and some of it is striking. There are the Honitonlacein 1766,who,havingtakencornfromthefarmers and sold workers, not it at thepopularpricein themarket, broughtback to thefarmers only the moneybut also the sacks; the Oldham crowd,in I8OO, whichrationedeach purchaserto two pecksa head; and the many occasionswhencartswerestoppedon theroads,theircontentssold, and the moneyentrustedto the carter.115 Moreover,in thosecaseswheregoodsweretakenwithoutpayment, it is wise to enquirewhetherany or whereviolencewas committed, entersinto the case. The particularaggravationof circumstances distinction is made in an accountof an actionin Portsea(Hants.) in by the crowdthe 1795. The bakersand butcherswerefirstoffered "those that in those werepaid with demands complied popularprice: exactness". But thosewho refusedhad theirshopsrifled,"without receivinganymoremoneythanthemob choseto leave". Again,the quarrymenat Port Isaac (Cornwall)in the same yearseized barley warehousedforexport,payingthe reasonablyhigh price of I Is. a to ship bushel,at thesametimewarningtheownerthat"if he offer'd the Remaindertheywould come & takeit withoutmakinghim any recompence". Very oftenthe motiveof punishmentor revenge comes in. The greatriotin Newcastlein 174o, when pitmenand keelmenswept into the Guildhall,destroyedthe town books and sharedout the town's hutch,and pelted aldermenwith mud and 114 Drayton, Oxon briefagainstWm Denleyand threeothers,in P.R.O., T.S. 1/995/3707; Handborough - informationof Robert Prior, constable, 6 Aug. 1795, P.R.O., Assizes 5/II6; Isle of Ely - Lord Hardwicke,Wimpole, 27 July1795, P.R.O., H.O. 42/35 and H. Gunning, Reminiscences of Cambridge (London, I854), ii, PP. 5-7; Chichester - duke of Richmond, Goodwood, "Verax", 28 Apr. 1795, P.R.O., 13 Apr. 1795, P.R.O., W.O. /o1092;Wells W.O. I/Io82 and the Rev. J. Turner, 28 Apr., H.O. 42/34. For an example of

a constablewhowas executedforhispartin a tinners'riotin St. Austell,1729,

see Rule, op. cit., p. 9o. 116See R. B. Rose, op cit., p. 435; Edwin Butterworth,Historical Sketches of Oldham (Oldham, 1856), pp. 137-9, 144-5.

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stones,came only aftertwo phases of aggravation:first,when an agreementbetweenthe pitmen'sleadersand the merchants (withan aldermanactingas arbitrator) settingthe pricesof grainhad been had firedinto the crowd broken;second,whenpanickyauthorities fromthe Guildhallsteps. At one house in Gloucestershire in 1766 shotswerefiredat thecrowdwhich(writesthesheriff)--

intothehouse,and destroying all thefurnitheyhighlyresentedbyforceing ture,windows,&c and partlyuntiledit; theyhave givenout sincethatthey greatly repentedof thisact because'twasnot the masterof the house (he beingfromhome)thatfireduponthem.

In 1795 the tinnersmountedan attackupon a Penryn(Cornwall) merchant who was contracted to sendthembarley,but who had sent themspoiledand sproutinggrain. When millswereattacked,and theirmachinerydamaged,it was oftenin furtherance of a longor as for some notorious standingwarning, punishment practice."'s Indeed,ifwe wishto call in questiontheunilinearand spasmodic view of food riots,we need onlypointto this continuingmotifof when men and women near to starvation popular intimidation, nevertheless attackedmillsand granaries, notto stealthefood,but to punishthe proprietors.Repeatedlycornor flourwas strewnalong the roads and hedges; dumpedinto the river;mill machinery was damagedand mill-damslet off. To examplesof such behaviourthe authorities reactedbothwithindignation and astonishment.It was symptomatic (as it seemedto them)ofthe"frantic"and distempered humoursof a peoplewhosebrainwas inflamedby hunger. In 1795 boththe Lord ChiefJusticeand ArthurYoung deliveredlecturesto the poor,pointingout thatthe destruction of grainwas notthe best way to improvethe supplyof bread. Hannah More added a Halfof S8oogives us a rather pennyHomily. An anonymousversifier morelivelyexampleoftheseadmonitions to thelowerorders: Whenwithyourcountry Friendsyourhoursyoupass, Andtake,as oftyou'rewont,thecopiousglass, Whenall growmellow,ifperchanceyouhear "That 'tisth' Engrossers makethecornso dear; "They mustand willhavebread:they'vehad enough "Of Rice and Soup,and all suchsquashystuff: and strivebymightand main "They'llhelpthemselves: "To be reveng'don all suchroguesin grain": Johnswearshe'llfightas longas he has breath, " 'Twerebetterto be hang'dthanstarv'dto death:

116Portsea - Gentleman'sMagazine, lxv (1795), P. 343; Port Isaac - Sir W. Molesworth,23 March 1795, P.R.O., H.O. 42/34; Newcastle - Gentleman's Magazine, x (1740), p. 355, and various sources in P.R.O., S.P. 36/51, in NorthumberlandRec. Off.and Newcastle City ArchivesOff.; Gloucestershire, 1766 - P.R.O., P.C. 1/8/41;Penryn,1795 - P.R.O., H.O. 42/34.

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"He'll burnSquireHoardum'sgarner,so he will, "Tuck up old Filchbag,and pull downhis mill". Now whentheProngand Pitchfork theyprepare And all theimplements ofrustickwar... unlawful them what ills deeds Tell attend, Deeds, whichin wrathbegun,and sorrowend, That burningbarns,and pullingdowna mill, Willneithercornproduce,norbelliesfill."'11

But werethe poor reallyso silly? One suspectsthatthe millers and dealers,whokeptone waryeyeon thepeopleand theotheron the at their knewbetterthanthepoetasters oftheirprofits, maximization escritoires.Forthepoorhadtheirownsourcesof information.They workedon thedocks. They movedthebargeson thecanals. They drove the carts and mannedthe toll-gates. They workedin the granariesand the mills. They oftenknewthe local factsfarbetter to hidden than the gentry;in manyactionstheywent unerringly in existence the whose denied. of faith, J.P.s, good supplies grain If rumoursoftengrewbeyondall bounds,theywerealwaysrootedin at leastsomeshallowsoiloffact. The poorknewthattheone wayto maketherichyieldwas to twisttheirarms. VI Initiatorsof the riotswere,veryoften,the women. In 1693 we learn of a greatnumberof womengoingto Northampton market, "withknivesstuckin theirgirdlesto forcecornat theirown rates". In an exportriotin 1737 at Poole (Dorset) it was reported:"The Numbersconsistin so manyWomen,& the Men supporting them, & Swear, if any one offersto molestany of the Women in their Proceedingstheywillraisea GreatNumberof Men & destroyboth Ships & Cargoes". The mob was raised in Stockton(Durham) in 1740 by a "Lady witha stickand a horn". At Haverfordwest withthe J.P. who attempted, (Pembroke)in 1795 an old-fashioned helpofhis curate,to do battlewiththecolliers,complainedthat"the womenwereputtingtheMen on, & wereperfectfuries. I had some strokesfromsomeofthemon myBack.. .". A Birmingham paper describedthe Snow Hill riotsas the workof "a rabble,urgedon by furiouswomen". In dozens of cases it is the same - the women peltingan unpopulardealer with his own potatoes,or cunningly combiningfurywiththe calculationthattheyhad slightlygreater of theauthorities:"the thanthe menfromthe retaliation immunity said of womentoldthecommonmen",theHaverfordwest magistrate 117 Anon., Contentment: or Hints to Servants,on thePresentScarcity(broadsheet, I8oo).

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the soldiers,"thattheyknewtheywerein theirHeartsforthem& woulddo themno hurt".11"8 These women appear to have belongedto some pre-history of theirsex beforeits Fall, and to have been unawarethattheyshould have waited for some two hundred years for their Liberation. in 1807: "Womenare more (Southeycould writeas a commonplace, disposedto be mutinous;theystandless in fearof law, partlyfrom ignorance,partlybecause theypresumeupon the privilegeof their in all publictumultstheyare foremost in violence sex, and therefore and ferocity".)119They werealso,ofcourse,thosemostinvolvedin face-to-face most sensitiveto price significancies, most marketing, or inferiorquality. It is experiencedin detectingshort-weight thespontaneous probablethatthewomenmostfrequently precipitated actions. Butotheractionsweremorecarefully prepared. Sometimes noticeswere nailed to churchor inn doors. In 1740 "a Mach of Futtballwas Criedat KetringoffiveHundredMen ofa side,butthe desighnwas to Pull Down Lady BeteyJesmaine'sMills". At the end of the century the distribution of hand-written noticesmayhave becomemorecommon. FromWakefield (Yorks.),1795: To Give Notice To all Women & inhabitance of Wakefield theyare desired to meet at the New Church ... on Friday next at Nine O'Clock ... to state the price of corn... By desire of the inhabitantsof Halifax Who will meet them there

From Stratton(Cornwall),I8oI: To all the labouring Men and Tradesmen in the Hundred of Strattonthat are willing to save their Wifes and Children fromthe Dreadfull condition of being STARVED to DEATH by the unfeelingand Griping Farmer .... Assemble all emeadiatelyand march in Dreadfull Array to the Habitations - Calendar State Papers, Domestic,1693, p. 397; Poole 118 Northampton memorial of Chitty and Lefebare, merchants,enclosed in Holles Newcastle, 26 May 1737, P.R.O., S.P. 41/o0; Stockton- Edward Goddard, 24 May 1740, P.R.O., S.P. 36/50 ("We met a Lady with a Stick and a horn going towards Norton to raise the people . . tookthe hornfromher,She usingveryill language all the while and followed into the Town, raisingall the People she could ... Ordered the Woman to be taken up ... She all the way Cryingout, Damn you all, Will You See me Suffer,or be sent to Gaol"?); Haverfordwest- P.R.O., H.O. 42/35; Birmingham- J. A. Langford, A Centuryof BirminghamLife (Birmingham,1868), ii, p. 52. 119 Lettersfrom England (London, 1814 edn.), ii, p. 47. The women had otherresourcesthan ferocity:a colonel of Volunteerslamented that "the Devil in the shape of Women is now using all his influenceto induce the Privatesto brake their attachments to their Officers": Lt.-Col. J. Entwisle, Rochdale, 5 Aug. 1795, P.R.O., W.O. I/Io86.

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of the GripingFarmer,and Compellthemto sell theirCornin theMarket, at a fairand reasonablePrice....120

The small-scale,spontaneousactionmightdevelopfroma kindof ritualizedhootingor groaningoutsideretailers'shops;121 fromthe ofa waggonofgrainor flourpassingthrougha populous interception centre; or fromthe mere gatheringof a menacingcrowd. Very would develop: the owner of the quickly a bargaining-situation with provisionsknewverywell thatifhe did not complyvoluntarily the price imposed by the crowd (and his compliancemade any he stoodin dangeroflosinghis verydifficult) subsequentprosecution stockaltogether. Whena waggonwithsacksof wheatand flourwas at Handborough(Oxon.) in 1795,some womenclimbed intercepted aboardand pitchedthesackson theroadside. "Some ofthepersons assembledsaid theywouldgiveFortyShillingsa Sack forthe Flour, and theywouldhave it at that,and wouldnotgivemore,and ifthat wouldnotdo,theywouldhaveitbyforce". The owner(a "yeoman") at lengthagreed: "If thatmustbe the price,it mustbe the price". The procedureofforcedbargaining can be seenequallyclearlyin the depositionof Thomas Smith, a baker, who rode into Hadstock (Essex) with bread on his panniers (1795).

He was stopped in the

villagestreetby fortyor more women and children. One of the women(a labourer'swife)held his horse

and havingaskedwhetherhe had fallenin his priceof Bread,he toldher, he had no Ordersto fall fromthe Millers,& she thensaid, "By God if you don'tfallyoushallnotleaveanyBreadin theTown" ....

Several in the crowd then offered9d. a quarternloaf, while he demanded19d. Theythen"sworethatifhe wouldnotletthemhave it at 9d a Loaf, theywouldtakeit away,& beforehe could giveany otherAnswer,severalPersonsthen about him took severalof the Loaves offhis Pads .. .".

Only at this point did Smith agree to the

sale at 9d. the loaf. The bargainingwas well understoodon both who had to hold on to theircustomersin thefat sides; and retailers, as as the well lean, oftencapitulatedat the firstsignof crowd years

turbulence.122

120 KetteringP.R.O., S.P. 36/50: forotherexamples of the use of football to assemble a crowd, see R. M. Malcolmson, "Popular Recreationsin English Society, 1700-1850", (WarwickUniv. Ph.D. thesis, 1970), pp. 89-9o; Wakefield - P.R.O., H.O. 42/35; Stratton- handwrittennotice,dated 8 April and signed "Cato", in P.R.O., H.O. 42/61 fo. 718. 121 A correspondentfromRosemary Lane (London), 2 July1795,complained of being awoken at 5 a.m. "by a most dreadfulGroaning (as the Mob call it) but what I should call Squealing": P.R.O., W.O. I/Io89 fo. 719. 122 Handborough - informationsof J. Townsend, Thomas Higgins, and Robert Prior in P.R.O., Assizes 5/II6; Hadstock - informationof Thomas Smith, i8 Nov. I795, Essex Rec. Off.,Q/SB b 362/84.

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In larger-scale once thenucleusof a crowdhad been disturbances, formed,the remainderwas oftenraised by horn or drums. "On commencesin Monday last", a letterfroma Shropshiremagistrate 1756,"the colliersfromBroseley&c assembledwithhornsblowing,& proceeded to Wenlock Market...". What was criticalwas the of the determined nucleus. Not onlythe "virility"of the gathering colliers, and their particularexposure to consumer-exploitation, explaintheirprominent r61e,but also theirnumbersand thenatural disciplineof the miningcommunity."On Thursday morning", JohnTodd, a pitmanat HeatonColliery,Gateshead,deposed(1740), "at thetimeofthenightshiftgoingon", hisfellowpitmen,"about60o or 80 in numberstoppedtheginat thepit ... and it was proposedto come to Newcastleto settlethe prices of corn. . .". When they camefromNook CollieryintoHaverfordwest in 1795(themagistrate relatesthathis curatesaid: "Doctor,hereare the collierscoming. . . I lookedup & sawa greatcrowdofmenwomen& childrenwithoaken bludgeonscomingdownthe streetbawlingout, 'One & all - one & all' ") thecolliersexplainedlaterthattheyhad comeat therequestof the poor townspeople,who had not the moraleto set the price on theirown.123 The occupationalmake-upof the crowdprovidesfew surprises. It was (it seems)fairlyrepresentative oftheoccupationsofthe"lower orders"in the riotingareas. At Witney(Oxon.) we findinformationsagainsta blanket-weaver, a tailor,the wifeof a victualler, and a servant;at SaffronWalden (Essex) indictments againsttwo collara bricklayer, a carpenter, a sawyer,a worstedmakers,a cordwainer, maker,and ninelabourers;in severalDevonshirevillages(Sampford Peverell,Burlescomb,Culmstock)we finda spinster,two weavers, a cordwainer, a woolcomber, a thatcher, and ten labourersindicted; a mason,a sawyer,and seven in the Handboroughaffaira carpenter, labourerswerementionedin one information.124 There werefewer

123 BroseleyT. Whitmore,II Nov. 1756, P.R.O., S.P. 36/136; Gateshead - informationof John Todd in Newcastle City Archives; HaverfordwestP.R.O., H.O. 42/35. informationof Thomas Hudson, Io Aug. 1795, P.R.O., 124 Witney Assizes 5/II6; SaffronWalden - indictmentsfor offenceson 27 July 1795, P.R.O., Assizes 35/236; Devonshire - calendar of Summer Circuit, 1795, P.R.O., Assizes 24/43; Handborough - informationof James Stevens,tythingman, 6 Aug. 1795, P.R.O., Assizes 5/116. All 13 of the Berkshireriotersof 1766 triedby Special Commissionwere describedas "labourers"; of 66 persons broughtbeforethe Special Commissionat Gloucesterin 1766, 51 were described as "labourers", Io were wives of "labourers", 3 were spinsters:the descriptions reveal little: G. B. Deputy Keeper of Public Records,5th Report(1844), App. ii, pp. 198-9, 202-4. For Wales, 1793-I8o0 see Jones, "Corn Riots in Wales", op. cit.,App. III, p. 350. For Dundee, 1772, see S. G. E. Lythe, "The Tayside Meal Mobs", Scot. Hist. Rev., xlvi (1967), p. 34: a porter,a quarryman,three weavers, and a sailor were indicted.

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accusationsas to the alleged incitementof personsin a superior station in life than Rude and others have noted in France,125 althoughit was more often suggestedthat the labourerswere encouragedby theirsuperiorstowardsa tone hostileto farmersand middlemen. An observerin theSouth-Westin ISoi arguedthatthe riotswere"certainlydirectedby inferior Tradesmen,Woolcombers, & Dissenters,who keep aloof but by theirlanguage& immediate influence governthelowerclasses".126 Occasionally, largeemployers of labourerswere allegedto have encouragedtheirown workersto act.127 as comparedwithFrance,was the Anotherimportantdifference, withthe offarmlabourersin Englandas contrasted relativeinactivity and pettypeasantry. Many cerealfarmers, activityof the vignerons of course,continuedthe customof sellingcheap grainto theirown labourers. Butthisappliedonlyto regular,annually-hired labourers, and to certaindistricts. Rurallabourerselsewheredid participate in riots,when some other group (like colliers)formedthe original nucleus,or wheresome activitybroughtthemtogetherin sufficient numbers. When a large band of labourerstoured the Thames Valley in 1766, the actionhad commencedwithgangs at workon a turnpike-road, who said "with one Voice, Come one & all to Newburyin a Body to Make the Bread cheaper". Once in town, theyraisedfurther supportbyparadingin thetownsquareand giving threehuzzas. In East Angliain 1795 a similarnucleuswas found fromamongthe"bankers"(gangs"employedin cleansingout Drains & in embanking"). The bankersalso were less subjectto instant and punishment,or to the revengesof villagepateridentification nalism,thanwerefieldlabourers,being"forthe mostpartstrangers fromdifferent countries[who]are not so easilyquietedas thosewho liveon thespot".128 In truth,thefoodriotdid notrequirea highdegreeoforganization. It requireda consensusofsupportin thecommunity, and an inherited its of action with and restraints. And the own objectives pattern of thisformof actionraisesan interesting persistence question:how farwas it, in anysense,successful? Would it have continued,over so manyscores,indeedhundreds,ofyears,ifit had consistently failed See Rude, The Crowd in History,p. 38. Lt.-Gen. J. G. Simcoe, 27 Mar. 18oi, PR.O., H.O. 42/61. 127 Thus in an export riot in Flint (1740) there were allegations that the steward of Sir Thomas Mostyn had found arms for his own colliers: various depositionsin P.R.O., S.P. 36/51. 128 Newbury - briefin P.R.O., T.S. 11/995/3707;East Anglia - B. Clayton, Boston, II Aug. 1795, P.R.O., H.O. 42/35. 125 126

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to achieveits objectives,and had leftnothingbut a fewruinedmills and victimson the gallows? It is a questionpeculiarlydifficult to answer;but one whichmustbe asked. VII In theshort-term itwouldseemprobablethatriotand price-setting defeatedtheirown objects. Farmersweresometimesintimidated so farthattheyrefusedafterwards, forseveralweeks,to bringgoodsto market. The interdiction of the movementof grain withinthe countrywas likely only to aggravateshortagein otherregions. Althoughinstancescan be foundwhereriotappearedto resultin a fallin prices,and instancescan be foundoftheopposite,and,further, instancescan be foundwherethereappearsto be littledifference in the movementof pricesin riotand non-riotmarkets, none of these instances- howeveraggregatedor averaged- need necessarily disclosethe effectof the expectation of riot upon the totalmarket129 situation. We maytakean analogyfromwar. The actualimmediate benefits of war are rarelysignificant, eitherto victoror defeated. But the ofwarmaybe considerable: benefits whichmaybe gainedbythethreat and yetthe threatcarriesno terrorsif the sanctionof war is never was as muchan arenaof classwar as the used. If themarket-place and minebecamein theindustrial thenthethreat revolution, factory theentiremarketing notonlyin yearsof ofriotwouldaffect situation, dearthbut also in years of moderateharvest,not only in towns to riotbut also in townswherethe notoriousfortheirsusceptibility authoritieswished to preservea traditionof peace. However we quantify theavailabledatathesecannotshowus to what carefully levelpriceswouldhaverisenifthethreatof riothad been altogether removed. in riot-prone areaswereoftencool and competent The authorities in handlingdisturbance. This allowsone sometimesto forgetthat in a profounddislocationofsocial riotwas a calamity, oftenresulting relationsin the community, whoseresultscould lingeron foryears. The provincialmagistracy wereoftenin extremeisolation. Troops, if theyweresentfor,mighttaketwo,threeor moredaysto arrive, 129 Undoubtedly detailed investigationof short-termprice-movementsin relation to riot, which several scholars are now attemptingwith the aid of computers,will help to refinethe question; but the variables are many, and evidence as to some (anticipationof riot,persuasion broughtto bear on tenants, dealers, etc., charitable subscriptions,application of poor rates, etc.) is often elusive and difficult to quantify.

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of Gloucestershire and the crowdknewthisverywell. The sheriff could do nothingin thefirstdaysof the "rising"of 1766 but attend in at Stroudmarketwithhis "javelin men". A Suffolkmagistrate the refrained from leaders of the crowd because imprisoning 1709 "the Mobb threatened to pull bothhis houseand theBridewelldown if he punishedanyof theirfellows". Anothermagistrate who led a to and unmartial commitatus North Yorkshire ragged posse through Durham in 1740, capturingprisonerson the way,was dismayedto at findthecitizensofDurhamturnoutandreleasetwoofhisprisoners the gate of the gaol. (Such rescueswere common.) A Flintgrain exporterhad an even moreunpleasantexperiencein thesame year. Riotersenteredhis house,drankthebeerand winein his vaults,and stoodwitha DrawnSwordpointeduponmyDaughterin Laws breast.... They have a greatmanyFire Arms,Pikesand Broadswords.Five of the Pikes declare that four of them shall do to Four and they Carrymy Quarters the othermy head in triumphabout with them ....

130

The questionoforderwas by no meanssimple. The inadequacy of civil forceswas combinedwitha reluctanceto employmilitary force. The officers themselveshad sufficient humanity,and were surroundedby sufficient as to theirpowersin civilaffrays, ambiguity in this"Odious to showa markedlackofenthusiasm foremployment calledin the troops,or authorized Service".131 If local magistrates the use of fire-arms, theyhad to go on livingin the districtafterthe had the odiumof thelocal population,perhaps left, incurring troops and beingthevictimsofbrokenwindows letters, receiving threatening or evenarson. Troopsbilletedin a townquicklybecameunpopular, even with those who had firstcalled them in. With uncanny regularity requestsfortheaid oftroopsare followed,in Home Office or WarOfficepapers,afteran intervaloffiveorsixweeks,bypetitions fortheirremoval. A pitifulpetitionfromtheinhabitants of Sunderland in I8oo, headedby theirRector,askedforthewithdrawal ofthe 68thRegiment: Their principalaim is robbery. Several have been knockeddown and plunderedoftheirwatches,butalwaysit has beendonein themostviolent and brutalmanner.

One youngmanhad had his skullfractured, anotherhis upperlip cut off. Inhabitantsof Wantage,Farringdonand Abingdonpetitioned Gloucester - W. Dalloway, 20 Sept. 1766, P.R.O., P.C. 1/8/41;Suffolk letter of 29 May 1709, P.C. 1/2/165; Durham - J. Williamson, 15 June 1740, S.P. 36/51; Flint - G. Colley, 25 May 1740, S.P. 36/50. a most Odious Service which nothing but Necessity can justify", 131"...

180

ViscountBarrington toWeymouth, I8 Apr.1768,P.R.O.,W.O. 4/83,fos.316-7.

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in thenameof God ... removethe partof Lord Landaff'sregiment from thisplace,or elseMurdermustbe theconsequence, forsucha settofVillains neverenteredthisTown before.

A local magistrate, supportingthe petition,added thatthe "savage behaviourof the military . .. exasperatesthe populaceto the highest degree. The usual intercourseof the husbandmenat fairs and marketsis muchinterrupted".132 Riot was a calamity. The "order" whichmightfollowafterriot couldbe an evengreatercalamity. Hence theanxietyofauthorities, eitherto anticipatethe event,or to cut it shortin its earlystages,by and concession. In a letterof1773 personalpresence,byexhortation themayorofPenryn,besiegedby angrytinners,writesthatthetown was visitedby threehundred"of thoseBanditti,withwhomwe were forcedto beata Parleyand cometo an agreement to letthemhavethe Corn for one-thirdless than the Prime Cost to the Proprietors". Such parleys,moreor lessreluctant, werecommon. An experienced Warwickshire Sir RichardNewdigate,notedin his diary magistrate, on 27 September 1766: At ii rodeto Nuneaton... and withtheprincipalpeopleof thetownmet theBedworthcolliersand mob who camehallowingand armedwithsticks, all theirreasonabledemands demandedwhattheywanted,promised to satisfy iftheywouldbe peacableandthrowawaytheirstickswhichall ofthemthen did intothe Meadow,thenwalkedwiththemto all the houseswhichthey expectedhad engrossedand let 5 or 6 go in to searchand persuadedthe ownersto sellwhatwas foundofcheese....

The colliersthenleftthetownquietly,afterSir RichardNewdigate and two othershad each giventhemhalfa guinea. They had, in actedaccordingto theBookofOrders. 133 effect, in the firstcommencement of riot,often This kindof bargaining, secured concessionsforthe crowd. But we should also note the in anticipation ofriot. Thus exertions and landowners bymagistrates a Shropshiremagistrate in 1756describeshowthecolliers"say ifthe farmersdo not bringtheircornto the markets, theywill go to their houses& threshforthemselves":

I havesentto myTenantsto orderthemto takeeachofthemsomecornto the marketon Saturdayas theonlymeansI can thinkofto preventgreater outrages.

In the same year we may observemagistrates in Devon exerting themselvesin a similarway. Riotshad occurredat Ottery,farmers' Sunderland- petitionin P.R.O., W.O. 40/17; Wantageand Abingdon petitionto Sir G. Yonge, and C. Dundas, 6 Apr. 1795, ibid. S13 Penryn P.R.O., W.O. 40/17; Warwickshire- H. C. Wood, "The Diaries of Sir Richard Newdigate, 175I-I806", Trans. BirminghamArchaeological Soc., lxxviii (1962), p. 43. -

132

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corn seized and sold offat 5s. a bushel,and severalmillsattacked. an admonitory and conciliaSir GeorgeYongesenthisservantto affix torypaper in the market-place: The mob gather'd,insultedmy Servant,and intimidated the Cryer....

On reading [the paper] they declared It would not do, the Gentlemen need not trouble themselves,for Theywould fixthe Price at 4s 9d next Market

and toldboththeCommon Day: uponthisI rodeintotheTown yesterday, people and the bettersort,that if thingswere not quiet the militarymust be sent for ....

had thensenttheirowncornintothe He and twoneighbouring gentry local markets: I have ordered mine to be sold at 5s 3d and 5s 6d per bushell to the poorer sort,as we have resolved to keep ratherabove the Price dictatedby the Mob. I shall send to the Millers to know if they can part with any Flour ....

had The mayorof Exeterrepliedto Yonge thatthe cityauthorities was quietimmediately orderedcornto be sold at 5s. 6d.: "Everything the farmersfellthe price . . .". Similarmeasureswere stillbeing takenin Devon in I801, "some Gentlemenof the mostrespectable charactersin the neighbourhoodof Exeter... directing... their Tenantryto bringCorntotheMarket,underthepenaltyofnothaving theirleases renewed". In 1795 and 18oo-I such ordersby traditionalistlandownersto theirfarmingtenantswere frequentin other and an advocate counties. The earl of Warwick(an arch-paternalist ofthelegislation in itsfullestrigour)rodein person againstforestallers to histenants.134 aroundhis estatesgivingsuchdirections Such pressuresas these,in anticipation ofriot,mayhavebeenmore effectivethan has been supposed: in gettingcorn to market;in restrainingrising prices; and in intimidatingcertain kinds of effective profiteering.Moreover,a dispositionto riotwas certainly of parishreliefand of as a signalto the richto put the machinery charity- subsidizedcornand breadforthepoor- intogoodrepair. In January1757 ReadingCorporation agreed: that a Subscription be set on foot for Raising money to Buy Bread to be Distributed to the Poor ... at a Price to be fixed much below the present price of Bread ....

The Corporationitselfdonated?21.'13 Such measureswere very followed,theinitiative comingsometimesfroma corporacommonly

134 ShropshireT. Whitmore,II Nov. 1756, P.R.O., S.P. 36/136; Devon - Hist. Manuscripts Comm., City of Exeter, Series lxxiii (London, 1916), pp. 255-7; Devon, 18oi - Lt.-Gen. J. G. Simcoe, 27 Mar. ISoi, P.R.O., H.O. 42/61; Warwick - T. W. Whitley, The ParliamentaryRepresentation of the City of Coventry(Coventry,1894), p. 214. 135 MS. diary of Reading Corporation, Central Public Library, Reading: entryfor 24 January1757. ?30 was disbursed "towards reducingthe present high price of Bread" on 12 July1795.

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tion, sometimesfromindividualgentry,sometimesfromQuarter Sessions, sometimes from parish authorities,sometimes from - especiallythosewhoemployeda substantial labour-force employers in isolateddistricts. (such as lead-miners) The measurestakenin 1795 wereespeciallyextensive, variousand well-documented.They rangedfromdirectsubscriptions to reduce the priceof bread(the parishessometimessendingtheirown agents directto theportstopurchaseimported subsidiesfrom grain),through the poor rates,to the Speenhamlandsystem. The examinationof suchmeasureswouldtakeus toofarintothehistory ofthePoor Laws than we intendto go.136 But the effectswere sometimescurious. whilequietingone area,mightprovokeriotin an adjaSubscriptions, centone,through arousinga sharpsenseofinequality. An agreement in Newcastlein 1740to reduceprices,reachedbetweenmerchants and a deputationof demonstrating pitmen(with aldermenmediating), resultedin "countrypeople" fromoutlying intothe villagesflooding an unsuccessful was to limit the sale to made city; attempt persons witha written from"a Fitter,Staithman, Ton Tail Man, or certificate Churchwarden". Participation riotsin by soldiersin price-setting 1795 was explained,by the duke of Richmond,as arisingfroma similarinequality:it was alleged by the soldiers"that while the the CountryPeople are relievedbytheirParishesand Subscriptions, Soldiersreceiveno such Benefit". Moreover,such subscriptions, whilebeingintendedto buyoffriot(actualor potential),mightoften havetheeffect ofraisingthepriceofbreadto thoseoutsidethebenefit of subscription. werestill 137 In SouthDevon,wheretheauthorities of 1757,theprocesscan be seen. The actingin I8oi in thetradition Exetercrowddemonstrated in themarketforwheatat Ios. a bushel: The Gentlemen and Farmers met, & the People waited their decision .... They were informedthat no Price they shou'd name or fixwould be agreed to, & principallybecause the principleof fixinga Price wou'd be resisted. The Farmers then agreed at I2s and everyInhabitantto have it in proportion to theirFamilies .... The Argumentsof the discontentedat Exmouth are very cogent. "Give us whatever quantitythe Stock in Hand will afford,& at a price by which 136Especially usefulare repliesfromcorrespondentsin Annals ofAgriculture, vols. xxiv and xxv (1795). See also S. and B. Webb, "The Assize of Bread", op. cit.,pp. 208-9; J. L. and B. Hammond, op. cit.,ch. vi; W. M. Stem, op. cit., pp. 181-6. 137 A point to be watched in any quantified analysis: the price officially returned from a market in the aftermathof riot might rise, although, as a consequence of riot or threatof riot,the poor mightbe receivingcorn at subsidized rates.

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we can attainit, & we shall be satisfied; we will notacceptanySubscription fromtheGentrybecauseit enhancesthePrice,& is a hardshipon them".138

The pointhere is not just thatprices,in time of scarcity,were determined by manyotherfactorsthanmeremarket-forces: anyone witheven a scantyknowledgeof much-maligned "literary"sources mustbe awareof that. It is moreimportant to notethetotalsocioeconomiccontextwithinwhichthe marketoperated,and the logic of crowdpressure. One otherexample,this timefroma hitherto riot-free market, mayshowthislogicat work. The accountis thatof a substantialfarmer,JohnToogood, in Sherborne(Dorset). 1757 commencedwith"generalcomplaint"at highprices,and frequent accountsofriotselsewhere: On the3othofApril,beingMarket-Day, manyofouridleand insolentPoor Men and Womenassembledand beguna Riot in the MarketHouse, went to ObornMill and broughtoffseveralBags of Flourand dividedthe Spoil herein Triumph.

On the next Monday an anonymousletter,directedto Toogood's brother (whohadjustsold 10 bushelsof wheatat 14s. iod. - "a great priceindeed"- to a miller),was foundin theabbey: "Sir, If you do notbringyourWheatintotheMarket,and sellitat a reasonableprice, yourBarnsshallbe pulleddown...". As Rioting is quite a new Thing in Sherborne ... and as the neighbouring

Parishesseemedripeforjoiningin thisSport,I thought therewas no Time to be lost,and thatit was properto crushthisEvil in it's Bud, in Orderto whichwe tookthefollowing Measures. Havingcalleda Meetingat the Almshouse,it was agreedthatMr. Jeffrey and I shouldtakea Surveyof all themostnecessitous FamiliesintheTown, this done, We raised about ?Ioo by Subscriptions, and beforethe next MarketDay, our Justiceof thePeace and someoftheprincipalInhabitants madea Processionthroughout theTown and publishedby theCryerofthe Town thefollowing Notice. "That thePoorFamiliesofthisTown willbe suppliedwitha Quantity of Wheatsufficient fortheirSupporteveryWeek'tillHarvestat theRateof afterthispublicNotice 8s p. Busheland thatif any personwhatsoever shalluse anythreatening or commitanyRiotor Disorderin Expressions, thisTown,theOffender be shall forthwith committed to Prison".

forwheat,at Ios. and 12s. thebushel,supplying Theythencontracted itto a "List ofthePoor" at 8s. untilharvest. (6o bushelsweeklyover thisperiodwillhave involveda subsidyof between?Ioo and ?200.) "By theseMeans we restoredPeace, and disappointedmanyloose, disorderlyFellows of the NeighbouringParishes,who appearedin theMarketwiththeiremptyBags,expecting to havehad Cornwithout 138 Newcastle - advertisement24 June 174o in City ArchivesOff.; Duke of Richmond, 13 Apr. 1795, P.R.O., W.O. 1/1092; Devon - James Coleridge, 29 Mar. 80oi,H.O. 42/61.

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Money". JohnToogood,settingdownthisaccountfortheguidance ofhis sons,concludedit withtheadvice: If thelikeCircumstances in yourTime and eitherof you happenhereafter are engagedin Farmering Business,let nota covetousEye temptyou to be in advancingthePriceof Corn,butratherletyourBehaviourshew foremost someCompassionand CharitytowardstheConditionofthePoor ... .139

It is withinsuch a contextas thisthatthefunctionof riotmaybe disclosed. Riot may have been, in the short term, counteralthoughthishas notyetbeen proved. But,once again, productive, and one to be avoided,evenat a highcost. riotwas a socialcalamity, The cost mightbe to achieve some medium,betweena soaring "economic"pricein the market,and a traditional "moral" priceset of by thecrowd. That mediummightbe foundby theintervention of farmersand dealers, by the prudentialself-restraint paternalists, a portionof the crowd throughcharitiesand or by buying-off subsidies. As Hannah More carolled,in the personaof the sententiousJackAnvil,whendissuadingTom Hod fromriot: So I'll workthewholeday,and on SundaysI'll seek At Churchhowto bearall thewantsoftheweek. us supplies, The gentlefolks, too,willafford They'llsubscribe- and they'llgiveup theirpuddingsand pies.

Derry down.140

Derry down, indeed, and even Tra-la-dee-bum-deeay!However, thenatureofgentlefolks beingwhatitis, a thundering goodriotin the thanthesight nextparishwas morelikelyto oil thewheelsofcharity ofJackAnvilon his kneesin church. As thedoggerelon theoutside in 1630: ofthechurchdoorin Kenthad putitsuccinctly Beforewe arise Less willsafise.

VIII We have been examininga patternof socialprotestwhichderives froma consensusas to the moraleconomyof the commonwealin timesof dearth. It is not usuallyhelpfulto examineit forovert, arosethrough articulate althoughthesesometimes politicalintentions, chancecoincidence. Rebelliousphrasescan oftenbe found,usually (one suspects)to chill the blood of the rich withtheirtheatrical effect. It was said that the Newcastlepitmen,flushedwith the successoftheircaptureoftheGuildhall,"wereforputtingin practice theold levellingprinciples";theydid at leastteardowntheportraits diaryof JohnToogood, Dorset Rec. Off.,D 170/I. "The Riot: or,halfa loafis betterthanno bread,&c", 1795, in Hannah

139 MS.

140

More,Works(London,1830),ii, pp. 86-8.

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of CharlesII and JamesII and smashtheirframes. By contrast, bargees at Henley (Oxon.) in 1743 called out "Long Live the Pretender";and someonein Woodbridge(Suffolk)in 1766 nailedup a noticein the market-place whichthe local magistrate foundto be bold and seditious and of and delicate "peculiarly high import": "We are wishing[it said] thatour exiled King could come over or send some Officers". Perhaps the same menacewas intended,in the South-Westin 1753, by threatsthat "the Frenchw'd be here soon".141

Most common are general "levelling" threats,imprecations againstthe rich. A letterat Witney(1767) assuredthe Bailiffsof the townthatthe people would not suffer"such damnedwheesing fatgutedRoguesto StarvethePoorbysuchHellishWayson purpose thattheymayfollowhuntinghorse-racing etc. and to maintaintheir familysin Pride and extravagance". A letteron the Gold Cross at & StourBirmingham'sSnow Hill (1766), signed "Kidderminster bridge",was perhapsin the modeofrhyming doggerel... thereis a smallArmyofus upwardsofthreethousandall readyto fight & I'll be dam'difwe don'tmaketheKing'sArmyto shite If so be theKing& Parliment don'torderbetter we willturnEnglandintoa Litter & ifso be as thingsdon'tgetcheaper I'll be damdifwe don'tburndowntheParliament House & makeall better....

A letterin Colchesterin 1772 addressedto all farmers,millers, butchers,shopkeepersand corn merchants,warnedall the "damd Rogues" to takecare,

forthisis november and we haveabouttwoor threehundredbum shellsa gettingin Readinessforthe Mellers[millers]and all no kingno parliment nothingbuta powderplotall overthenation.

The gentlemen of Fareham(Hants.)werewarnedin 1766to prepare "fora Mob or Sivelwar",whichwould"pull Georgefromhisthrone beat downthe house of rougs[rougues]and destroythe Sets [seats] ofthe Law makers". "Tis betterto Undergoa forrieghn Yoke than to be used thus", wrotea villagernear Herefordin the nextyear. And so on, and frommost parts of Britain. It is, in the main, rhetoric,althoughrhetoricwhichqualifiesin a devastating way the - MS. accountofriotsin CityArchives;Henley- D. G. D. 141 Newcastle Isaac, op. cit., p. 186; Woodbridge - P.R.O., W.O. 1/873: 1753 - Newcastle MSS., Brit. Mus., Add. MS. 32732, fo. 343. Earl Poulet, Lord Lieutenant of Somerset,reportedin anotherletterto the duke of Newcastle that some of the

mob "came to talka Levellinglanguage,viz. theydid not see whysome sh'd be rich & otherspoor": ibid., fos. 214-5.

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rhetoricof historiansas to the deferenceand social solidaritiesof GeorgianEngland.142 in such Onlyin 1795and 18oo-I, whena Jacobintingeis frequent ofa genuineunderlettersand handbills,do we havetheimpression currentof articulatepoliticalmotivation.A trenchantexampleof these is some doggereladdressedto "the BrothMakers & Flower Risers"whichgave a Maldon (Essex) magistrate cause foralarm: On Swill& Grainsyouwishthepoorto be fed And underneath theGullintine we couldwishto see yourheads For I thinkit is a greatshameto servethepoorso And I thinka fewofyourheadswillmakea pretty show.

Scores upon scoresof such letterscirculatedin theseyears. From Uley (Glos.), "no King but a Constitutiondown down down O fatalldownhighcaps and proudhatsforeverdowndown.. .". At had been executedfortheir Lewes (Sussex), afterseveralmilitiamen a noticewas posted:"Soldiersto Arms"! partin price-setting, Ariseand revengeyourcause On thosebloodynumskulls, Pittand George, For sincetheyno longercan sendyouto France likeSwine,or pierc'dbytheLance, To be murdered You are sentforbyExpressto makea speedyReturn To be shotlikea Crow,or hang'din yourTurn ....

At Ramsbury(Wilts.)in I8oo a noticewas affixed to a tree:

Downe withYour Luxzuaras Governmentboth spirital& temperalOr you starvewithHunger. theyhave strippyou of breadChees Meate &c &c &c &c &c. Nay even yourLives have theyTaken thousandson their lettheBurbonFamilydefendtheirowneCause and let us true Expeditions Britonslookto Our Selveslet us banishSome to Hanoverwheretheycame from Downe withyourConstitution Arecta republickOr you and your are to starvethe Remainderof our Days dearBrotherswillyou offsprings lay downand die underMan eatersand Lave youroppspringunderthat BurdenthatBlackguard Government whichis noweatainyouup. God Save thePoor& downwithGeorgeIII.143

But thesecrisisyearsof thewars(I8oo-I) would demandseparate and the new treatment.We are comingto theend of one tradition, tradition has scarcelyemerged.In theseyearsthealternative formof economicpressure- pressureupon wages - is becomingmore vigorous;thereis also somethingmore than rhetoricbehind the union organization, oaths,the languageof sedition- underground In "United food riots traditional Englishmen". shadowy I812 1'S Witney - London Gazette, Nov. 1767, no. 10779; Birmingham P.R.O., W.O. 1/873; Colchester - London Gazette, Nov. 1772, no. 11304; Fareham - ibid., Jan. 1767, no. Io69o; Hereford - ibid., Apr. 1767, no. 10717. 143Maldon- P.R.O., W.O. 40/17; Uley - W. G. Baker,Oct. 1795, H.O. 42/36; Lewes - H.O. 42/35; Ramsbury - enclosure in the Rev. E. Meyrick, 12 June 18oo, H.O. 42/50.

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overlapwithLuddism. In 1816 the East Anglianlabourersdo not onlyset the prices,theyalso demanda minimumwage and an end to Speenhamlandrelief. They look forwardto the verydifferent revoltof labourersin 1830. The older formof action lingerson intothe 184os and even later:it was especiallydeeplyrootedin the revolution oftheindustrial South-West.144Butin thenewterritories it passed by stagesintootherformsof action. The breakin wheat pricesafterthe wars eased the transition. In the northerntowns the fightagainstthe cornjobbersgave way to the fightagainstthe Corn Laws. There was anotherreason why 1795 and 18oo-i bringus into historicalterritory.The formsof actionwhichwe have different been examiningdependedupon a particularset of socialrelations,a and the crowd. authority particularequilibriumbetweenpaternalist This equilibriumwas dislodgedin the wars,fortwo reasons.First, ofthegentryled to a newfearofanyform theacuteanti-Jacobinism of popular self-activity; magistrateswere willingto see signs of actionsevenwhereno such seditionexisted; seditionin price-setting and thusgave to the civil the fearof invasionraisedthe Volunteers, powersmuch more immediatemeans for meetingthe crowd,not withparleyand concession,but withrepression.'14 Second, such repressionwas legitimized,in the minds of centraland of many local authorities, by the triumphof the new ideologyof political economy. theHome Secretary, thedukeofPortland, Ofthiscelestialtriumph, servedas TemporalDeputy. He displayed,in 18oo-I, a quite new not onlyin handlingdisturbance,but in overrulingand firmness, withthoselocal authorities who stillespousedthe old remonstrating In a significant episode occurredin paternalism. SeptemberI8oo Oxford. There had been some affairof settingthe priceof butter in the market,and cavalryappearedin the town(at the requestas it transpired- of the Vice-Chancellor). The Town Clerk,on wroteto the Secretary at thedirectionof themayorand magistrates, their"surprisethata military War,expressing bodyof horsesoldiers shouldhave madetheirappearanceearlythismorning": It is withgreatpleasureI inform youthatthepeopleofOxfordhavehitherto to be riotousexceptthebringing intothemarket[of] shewnno disposition 144 See A. Rowe, "The Food Riotsof the Fortiesin Cornwall",Reportof

Royal Cornwall PolytechnicSociety, 1942, pp. 51-67. There were food riots

in the ScottishHighlandsin I847; in Teignmouthand Exeterin November I867; and in Norwicha curiousepisode(the"Battleof Ham Run") as lateas i886.

145 See J. R. Western,"The Volunteer Movement as an Anti-Revolutionary Force, 1793-1801", Eng. Hist. Rev., lxxi (1956).

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somehampersof butterand sellingit at a shillinga poundand accounting forthemoneytotheownerofthebutterbe reckoned ofthatdescription ....

the extremepressureof the times", the City "Notwithstanding authorities wereof"the decidedopinion"thattherewas "no occasion in this Cityforthe presenceof a regularSoldiery",especiallysince were being most activein suppressing"what they the magistrates conceiveto be one oftheprincipalcausesofthedearness,theoffences of forestalling, . ..". and regrating ingrossing, The Town Clerk'sletterwas passed overto the dukeof Portland, and drewfromhima weightyreproof: His Grace ... desires you to informthe Mayor and Magistrates,that as his

official situationenableshimin a moreparticular mannerto appreciatethe extentofthepublickmischief ensuefroma continuance whichmustinevitably of the riotousproceedings whichhave takenplace in severalpartsof the ofthepresent ofProvisions, so heconsiders Kingdominconsequence scarcity calledupontoexercise himself tobe moreimmediately hisownjudgement and discretionin directingadequatemeasuresto be takenforthe immediate and effectual suppressionof such dangerousproceedings.For greatlyas His Grace lamentsthe cause of theseRiots,nothingis morecertainthan ofno othereffect thanto increasetheevilbeyond thattheycan be productive all power of calculation. His Grace, therefore,cannot allow himself to

pass overin silencethatpartof yourletterwhichstates"thatthe People of Oxford have hitherto shewn no disposition to be riotous, except the bringinginto Market some Hampers of Butter,and selling it at a Shilling a

forthe moneyto the Ownerof the Butter,can be pound,and accounting thiscircumstance, reckonedof thatdescription".So farfromconsidering in yourletter(evensupposing in thetriviallightin whichit is represented withothersof a similarand a stillmoredangerous it to standunconnected nature,whichit is to be fearedis notthecase) His Graceseesit in theview of a violentand unjustifiable attackon property pregnantwiththe most of every fatalconsequencesto the Cityof Oxfordand to it's Inhabitants and whichHis Gracetakesit forgrantedtheMayorand Magisdescription; tratesmusthavethoughtit theirboundendutyto suppressand punishby and committal oftheOffenders.14' theimmediate apprehension

ThroughoutI8oo and I8oi the duke of Portlandbusied himself the same doctrines. The remedyfordisturbance was the enforcing for liberal or even Volunteers; subscriptions military cheap corn were to be discouraged,as exhaustingstocks; persuasionupon farmersor dealersto lowerpriceswas an offenceagainstpolitical economy. In AprilI8oI he wroteto Earl MountEdgcumbe, Your Lordship must excuse the libertyI take in not passing unnoticed the

enteredintobytheFarmers to havebeenvoluntarily youmention agreement in Cornwallto supplytheMarketswithCornand otherArticlesofProvision at reduced Prices ....

146W. Taunton, 6 Sept. I8oo; I. King to Taunton, 7 Sept. 18oo: P.R.O., W.O. 40/17 and H.O. 43/12. In privatelettersPortlandexerted to Dr. Hughesof JesusCollege,Oxford himselfevenmoreforcefully, writing (12 Sept.) of the "unjust& injudiciousproceedingsof yourfoolishCorporPortlandMSS., PwV III. ation": Univ.ofNottingham,

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thatthe farmershad been subjectedto The duke had information pressureby the countyauthorities: ... the experienceI have ... calls upon me to say that everyundertakingof

and mustunavoidably the kindcannotin the natureof thingsbe justified add to and aggravate thedistresswhichit pretendsto alleviate, and shortly and I willventurealso to assertthatthemoregeneralit couldbe rendered themoreinjuriousmustbe the consequencesby whichit could not failto of Capitalin be attendedbecauseit necessarily preventsthe Employment the Farming Line

....

.17

The "nature of things" which had once made imperative,in betweentherulers timesof dearth,at leastsome symbolicsolidarity and the poor, now dictatedsolidaritybetweenthe rulersand "the Employmentof Capital". It is, perhaps,appropriatethat it was the ideologistwho synthesizedan hystericanti-jacobinismwith of that the new politicaleconomywho signed the death-warrant paternalismof which,in his more specious passages of rhetoric, he was the celebrant. "The LabouringPoor", exclaimedBurke: "Let compassionbe shewnin action", of theircondition. It is no reliefto ... but let therebe no lamentation it is onlyan insultto theirmiserableundertheirmiserablecircumstances; and religion, shouldbe .... Patience,labour,sobriety, standings frugality, recommended to them;all therestis downright fraud'48

Againstthat tone the notice at Ramsburywas the only possible reply.

I hope thata somewhatdifferent picturehas emergedfromthis accountthan the customaryone. I have triedto describe,not an involuntary spasm,but a patternof behaviourof whicha Trobriand islanderneed nothavebeen ashamed. to re-imagine themoralassumptions ofanothersocial It is difficult configuration.It is not easyforus to conceivethattheremayhave been a time,withina smallerand moreintegrated when community, it appearedto be "unnatural"thatany man shouldprofitfromthe necessitiesofothers,and whenit was assumedthat,in timeofdearth, 147

Portland, 25 Apr. 18oi, P.R.O., H.O. 43/13, pp. 24-7.

On 4 October

ofOxfordUniversity (Dr. Marlow) I8oo Portlandwroteto theVice-Chancellor as to the dangersof thepeople "givingwayto thenotionof theirdifficulties beingimputableto the avariceand rapacityof those,who insteadof being denominated and provident Engrossersare correctly speakingthe purveyors StewardsofthePublic": Univ.ofNottingham PortlandMSS., PwV III. 148E. Burke, Thoughtsand Details on Scarcity,originallypresentedto the Rt. Hon. WilliamPitt in ... November,i795 (London, I8oo), p. 4. Undoubtedly

thispamphletwasinfluential andmayhavecontriwithbothPittandPortland, butedto thetougherpoliciesof I8oo.

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prices of "necessities"should remainat a customarylevel, even thoughtheremightbe less all round. "The economyof the mediaevalborough",wroteR. H. Tawney, held somewhatthesameprimacyin "was one in whichconsumption the publicmind,as theundisputedarbiterof economiceffort, as the nineteenthcenturyattached to profits".14"These assumptions were understrongchallenge,of course,long beforethe eighteenth the great century. But too oftenin our historieswe foreshorten transitions.We leave forestalling and the doctrineof a fairpricein the seventeenth century. We take up the storyof the freemarket in the But thedeathoftheold moraleconomy nineteenth. economy of provisionwas as long-drawn-out as the death of paternalist in industryand trade. The consumerdefendedhis intervention as (perhapsthesamemanin another old notionsofrightas stubbornly his status as an artisan. he defended craft r8le) These notionsof rightwere clearlyarticulated. They carried for a long timethe church'simprimatur.The Book of Ordersof 163o envisagedmoral preceptand exampleas an integralpart of emergencymeasures: That all good Means and Perswasionsbee used by the Justicesin their severallDivisions,and by Admonitions and Exhortations in Sermonsin the Churches... thatthe Poore may bee servedof Come at convenient and charitablePrices. And to the furtherance thereof,that the richerSort bee earnestly moovedby ChristianCharitie,to cause theirGraineto be sold underthecommonPricesoftheMarketto thepoorersort:A deed of ofAlmighty God. mercy,thatwilldoubtlessebe rewarded

At leastone suchsermon,deliveredat Bodminand Fowey(Cornwall) was (beforethe Sessions)in 163o by the Rev. CharlesFitz-Geffrey, readers. Hoardersof corn were still knownto eighteenth-century denouncedas

theseMan-haters, oppositeto theCommongood,as iftheworldweremade theearth,and thefruitsthereof, onelyforthem,wouldappropriate wholly to themselves As Quailes growfatwithHemlocke,whichis poison .... so thesegrowfullbyDearth.... to othercreatures,

They are "enemiesboth to God and man,oppositebothto Grace and Nature". As forthe dealer,exporting cornin timeof scarcity, "the savourof lucreis sweetto him,thoughrakedout ofthepuddle ofthe mostfilthy in Europe .. .".10 profession As the seventeenthcenturydrew on, this kind of exhortation became muted,especiallyamong the Puritans. With Baxterone partof moralpreceptis dilutedwithone partof casuistryand one 149R. H. Tawney, Religionand the Rise of Capitalism(London, 1926), p. 33. 150 C. Fitz-Geffrey,God's Blessing upon the Providersof Corne: and God's Curse upon theHoarders (London, 1631; repr. 1648), PP. 7, 8, 13.

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part of businessprudence: "charitymust be exercisedas well as justice", and, while goods mightbe withheldin theexpectationof risingprices,this mustnot be done "to the hurtof the Commonwealth,as if... keepingit in be the cause of the dearth".151The old moralteachingbecame,increasingly, dividedbetweenthepaternalist gentryon one hand, and the rebelliousplebs on the other. There is an epitaph in the churchat Stoneleigh(Warwicks.)to HumphreyHow, theporterto Lady Leigh,who died in 1688: Here Lyes a FaithfulFrienduntothePoore Who dealtLargeAlmesoutofhis LordPaStore WeepeNot PoorePeopleTho' ye Servat'sDead The Lord himselfeWill Give You DaylyBreade If MarketsRise Raile Not AgainstTheireRates The Priceis StiltheSame at StoneLeighGates152

The old preceptsresoundedthroughoutthe eighteenth century. Occasionallytheymightstillbe heardfromthepulpit: Exaction of any kind is base; but this in the Matter of Corn is of the basest

Kind. It fallsheaviestupon the Poor, It is robbingthembecause they are so .... It is murdering themoutright whomtheyfindhalfdead,and the wreck'dVessel .... These are the Murderersaccusedby plundering the Son of Sirach,wherehe saith,TheBreadof theNeedyis theirLife: he thatdefraudeth themthereof is a Man ofBlood.... maysuchOppresJustly sors be calledMen ofBlood; and surelywill the Blood of those,who thus perishbytheirmeans,be requiredat theirHands.153

More oftentheywereheardin pamphletor newspaper:

To keepup thePriceof theveryStaffof Life at such an extravagent Sale, as thatthe Poor ... cannotpurchaseit, is the greatestIniquityany Man can be guiltyof; it is no lessthanMurder,nay,themostcruelMurder.15'

Sometimesin broadsheetand ballad:

Go nowyouhard-hearted richmen, In yourmiseriesweepand howl, Your canker'dgoldwillriseagainstyou, And Witness be against your souls ...1

55r

in anonymousletters. "Donte makea god of your and frequently of Newburywerewarnedin 1772: mony",thegentlemen butthinkoftheporyougreatmendo youthinkofgohingto heavenor hell. thinkof the Sarmonwichpreachon I5 of March fordam we if we dont make you do you thinkto starvethe pore quite you dam sons of wors [whores] .... .1

1>1 Tawney,op. cit., p. 222. See also C. Hill, Society and Puritanismin Pre-Revolutionary England(London,1964),esp. pp. 277-8. 152 I am indebted to Professor David Montgomery forthisevidence. Anon. in theCountry"], Dearth:or,theIniquity ["A Clergyman Artificial 111 and Dangerof Withholding Corn(London,1756), pp. 20-1. 151

Letter to SherborneMercury,5 Sept. 1757.

"A SeriousCall to the GentlemenFarmers,on the presentexorbitant Pricesof Provisions",broadside,n.d., in SeligmanCollection(BroadsidesPrices),ColumbiaUniv. 155

156London Gazette, Mar. 1772, no. 11233.

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in Cornwallwas addressedin "AverishesWoman!", a corn-hoarder to assembleand 1795 by Cornishtinners:"We are ... determined to marchtill we come to your Idol, or your God or immediately yourMows [Moses?], whomeyou esteemas such and pull it down and likewiseyourHouse ...,". 57 mechanisms ofan unregulated Today we shrugofftheextortionate marketeconomybecause it causes most of us only inconvenience, unostentatious centurythiswas notthe hardships.In the eighteenth case. Dearthswererealdearths. High pricesmeantswollenbellies and sick childrenwhosefoodwas coarsebread made up fromstale likea flour. No evidencehas yetbeen publishedto show anything in Englandin the eighteenth classiccrisedes subsistances century:'58 the mortality of 1795 certainlydid not approachthatin France in thesameyear. Buttherewas whatthegentrydescribedas a distress thatwas "trulypainful":risingprices(wroteone) "have striptthe cloathsfromtheirbacks,tornthe shoes and stockingsfromtheir feet,and snatchedthe foodfromtheirmouths".159The risingsof scenes:menfainted the Cornishtinnerswereprecededby harrowing at theirworkand had to be carriedhomeby theirfellowsin scarcely betterstate. The dearthwas accompaniedbyan epidemicdescribed as "Yellow Fever", very possibly the jaundice associated with near-starvation.'10 In sucha yearWordsworth's "pedlar"wandered amongthecottagesand saw The hardships ofthatseason;manyrich Sankdownas in a dreamamongthepoor, And ofthepoordid manyceaseto be, And theirplace knew them not .....

.161

But if the marketwas the point at whichworkingpeople most it was also the point oftenfelttheirexposureto exploitation, districts- at which rural in or dispersedmanufacturing especially (or "shopping") theycouldmosteasilybecomeorganized. Marketing becomesin matureindustrialsocietyincreasingly impersonal. In and dreadnot", Presumption 157Letterfrom"CaptinsAudacious,Fortitude, dated 28 Dec. 1795, "Polgoothand othermines",and addressedto Mrs.

Herring,ibid., 1796, p. 45.

as This is notto arguethatsuchevidencemaynotbe soon forthcoming 158 theresultsof to local or regionaldemographic crisis;one awaitswithinterest in Warwickshire researchbeingpursuednationally (fromCambridge), (1727-9) byDr. A. Gooder,and inCornishminingvillages(1795)byMr. JohnG. Rule. ~59Annals of Agriculture,xxiv (1795), P. 159 (evidence from Dunmow, Essex). in P.R.O., P.C.I/27/A.54; variousletters,esp. l60 Letterof 24 June1795

29 Mar. 1795, H.O. 42/34. 161 W. and Helen DarbiPoetical Works,ed. E. de Selincourt Wordsworth, shire (Oxford, 1959) v, P. 391.

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Britainor France (and in parts of Southern eighteenth-century Italyor Haiti or ruralIndia or Africatoday)the marketremaineda social as well as an economicnexus. It was the place whereonesocial and personaltransactions went on; where hundred-and-one news was passed, rumourand gossip flewaround,politicswas (if ever) discussedin the inns or wine-shopsroundthe market-square. The marketwas the place where the people, because they were numerous,feltfora momentthattheywerestrong.162 of the marketin a "pre-industrial"society The confrontations are of coursemoreuniversalthanany nationalexperience.And the elementarymoral preceptsof the "reasonableprice" are equally universal. Indeed, one may suggestin Britainthe survivalof a pagan imagerywhichreachesto levelsmoreobscurethan Christian symbolism. Few folkritualssurvivedwithsuch vigourto the end oftheeighteenth as all theparaphernalia oftheharvest-home, century withits charmsand suppers,its fairsand festivals. Even in manuareastheyearstillturnedto therhythm oftheseasonsand facturing notto thatofthebanks. Dearthalwayscomesto suchcommunities as a profoundpsychicshock. Whenit is accompaniedby theknowledge of inequalities,and the suspicion of manipulatedscarcity, shockpassesintofury. One is struck,as thenewcentury opens,bythegrowingsymbolism of blood, and by its assimilationto the demand for bread. In Nottinghamin 1812 the womenparaded witha loaf upon a pole, streakedwithredand tiedwithblackcrepe,emblematic of "bleeding faminedeckedin Sackecloth". At Yeovil (Somerset)in 1816 there was an anonymousletter,"Blood and Blood and Blood, a General Revolution their mus be .. .", the letter signed with a crude heart

drippingblood. In the East Anglianriotsof the same year such phrasesas, "We will have blood beforedinner". In Plymouth"a Loaf whichhad been dippedin blood,witha heartby it, was found in thestreets". In thegreatMerthyr riotsof1831 a calfwas sacrificed and a loafsoakedin itsblood,impaledon a flagpole, servedas emblem of revolt.163 This furyforcornis a curiousculmination oftheage ofagricultural 162 See Sidney Mintz, "Internal Market Systems as Mechanisms of Social Articulation", Intermediate Societies, Social Mobility and Communication (American Ethnological Society, 1959); and the same author's "Peasant Markets", ScientificAmerican,cciii (1960), pp. II12-22. 163 Nottingham- J. F. Sutton, The Date-book of Nottingham(Nottingham, 188o edn.), p. 286; Yeovil - P.R.O., H.O. 42/150o; East Anglia - A. J. Peacock, Bread or Blood (London, 1965), passim; Merthyr - G. A. Williams, "The Insurrectionat MerthyrTydfil in 1831", Trans. Hon. Soc. of Cymmrodorion, Session 1965, 2, pp. 227-8.

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improvement.In the 1790s the gentrythemselveswere somewhat the perplexed. Sometimescrippledby an excess of rich food,L64 fromtimeto timeput asidetheirindustrious magistrates compilation of archivesforthe disciplesof Sir Lewis Namier,and peereddown fromtheir parklandsat the corn-fieldsin which their labourers wrotein to the Home Office, hungered. (More thanone magistrate at this criticaljuncture,describingthe measureswhich he would takeagainstthe riotersif onlyhe werenot confinedto his house by gout). The countywill not be secureat harvest,wrotethe Lord Lieutenantof Cambridgeshire, "withoutsome soldiers,as he had heard thatthe People intendedto help themselveswhen the Corn was ripe". He foundthis "a veryseriousapprehensionindeed" and "in this open countrymost likelyto be effected, at least by stealth". 16ss "Thout shalt not muzzle the ox that treadethout the corn". The breakthrough of the new politicaleconomyof the freemarket was also the breakdownof the old moral economyof provision. - and Speenhamland. Afterthewarsall thatwas leftofit was charity The moraleconomyof the crowdtooklongerto die: it is pickedup by the earlyco-operativeflourmills,by some Owenitesocialists, and it lingeredon for yearssomewherein the bowels of the Coofitsfinaldemiseis that operativeWholesaleSociety. One symptom we have been able to acceptforso long an abbreviatedand "economistic"pictureof the food riot,as a direct,spasmodic,irrational responseto hunger- a picturewhichis itselfa productofa political to the wages-nexus. economywhichdiminishedhumanreciprocities was the assessmentof More generous,but also moreauthoritative, the sheriff of Gloucestershire in 1766. The mobs of thatyear(he had committed acts of violence, wrote) many someofwantonessand excess;and in otherinstancessomeactsof courage, towardsthatwhichtheyprofessto prudence,justice,and a consistency obtain."6

164

E. P. Thompson

In 1795, when subsidized brown bread was being given to the poor of

his own parish,ParsonWoodfordedid notflinchbeforehis continuing duty to hisowndinner:March6th,". .. forDinnera CoupleofboiledChickenand Pigs Face, verygoodPeas Soup,a boiledRumpofBeefveryfine,a prodigious fine,largeand veryfatCock-Turkey rosted,Maccaroni,BatterCustardPudding", etc.: JamesWoodforde,Diary of a CountryParson,ed. J. Beresford (World'sClassicsedn.,London,1963),pp. 483,485. 16"

266

Lord Hardwicke, 27 July1795, P.R.O., H.O. 42/35. W. Dalloway,2o Sept. 1766,P.R.O., P.C. 1/8/41.

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