. The harvests
till 1808 were not as bad as that of 1804, but not good enough to
lower the prices. Also, owing to the Berlin and Milan Decrees of
Napoleon and the Non-intercourse Act of the United States of America,
imports were restricted so that at the end of 1808 wheat was 92s. In
this year the exports of wheat exceeded the imports, but it was due to
the requirements of our army in Spain; and 1789 was the last year when
exports were greater under normal circumstances.[532] 1809 was a bad
harvest, so was 1810; in the former rot being very prevalent among
sheep; and by August, 1810, hay was L11 a load and wheat 116s., only
large imports (1,567,126 quarters) preventing a famine. Down wool was
2s. 1d. per lb., beef and mutton 8-1/2d., cheese 8d.[533]

In 1811 the whole of July and part of August were wet and cold; and
in August, 1812, wheat averaged 155s., the finest Dantzic selling at
Mark Lane for 180s., and oats reached 84s. As our imports of corn then
chiefly came from the north-west of Europe, which has a climate very
similar to our own, crops there were often deficient from bad seasons
in the same years as our own, and the price consequently high. On the
other hand, it is a proof that produce will find the best market
regardless of hindrances, that much of our corn at this time came from
France. Corn in 1813 was seized on with such avidity that there was no
need to show samples. As high prices had now prevailed for some time
and were still rising, landlords and farmers jumped to the conclusion
that they would be permanent; so that this is the period when rents
experienced their greatest increase, in some cases having increased
fivefold since 1790, and speculations in land were most general. Land
sold for forty years' purchase, many men of spirit and adventure very
different from farmers 'were tempted to risk their property in
agricultural speculations',[534] and large sums were sunk in lands and
improvements in the spirit of mercantile enterprise. The land was
considered as a kind of manufacturing establishment, and 'such powers
of capital and labour were applied as forced almost sterility itself
to become fertile.' Even good pastures were ploughed up to grow wheat
at a guinea a bushel, and much worthless land was sown with corn.
Manure was procured from the most remote quarters, and we are told a
new science rose up, agricultural chemistry, which, 'with much
frivolity and many refinements remote from common sense,