0, and of Scotland in 1755 at about
1,265,300; in 1800 the estimate for England and Wales is 9,187,176, and
for Scotland about 1,599,000. This increase implies a demand for a
larger supply of food. Early in the reign wages were low except near
great towns, and the law of settlement prevented the labourer from
moving freely from one parish to another in order to better himself.
While in 1769-70 labourers in Surrey earned on an average from 8s. to
10s. a week, in Wiltshire they received only 6s. 2d. to 5s. 3d., and in
one district in Lancashire as little as 4s. 11d.[183] Wages, however,
were then eked out by home industries and commonable rights. Yet the
margin between income and expenditure was so small that a rise in the
price of bread soon caused distress, and was often followed by riots.
Bread made from rye or barley was still eaten in poor districts, but
wheaten bread was more generally used than earlier in the century, which
proves that the condition of the poor was bettered. In 1769 it cost 2d.
a pound near London, and at a distance of 150 miles 1-1/2d. Meat was
about 3d. to 4d. a pound, rent and clothing were cheap, firing and
candles very dear.

In 1760 England was still a corn-exporting country; importation was
restrained, exportation encouraged by a bounty, and in times of scarcity
the trade was regulated by temporary enactments. After some bad harvests
an act was made in 1773 with the object of keeping the price steady at
about 48s. the quarter; virtually free importation was allowed when it
reached that limit, and exportation was forbidden when it reached 44s.
Landowners and farmers were dissatisfied, and a general fear lest the
country should become dependent on foreign corn led parliament in 1791
to adopt a policy of encouraging home production; it was enacted that
for the future a bounty should be paid on exportation when the price was
at 44s., that prohibitive duties should be placed on importation when it
was below 50s., and virtually free importation only allowed above 54s.
Nevertheless from about that date England definitely ceased to be able
to feed her own people, except in good seasons. Her naval superiority
during the revolutionary war prevented a stoppage in the supply of wheat
from abroad; but it became uncertain, prices fluctuated violently with
good or bad harvests; war acted as a protection to the corn-grower and
bad harvests were followed by famine prices; in 1795 wheat averaged 81s.
6d. in W