eastern counties. At Swanage six people out of seven were
paupers, and in one parish in Cambridgeshire every person but one was
a pauper or a bankrupt.[585] Corn rose again: by June, 1817, it was 117s.,
but fell to 77s. in September.

In 1818 occurred a drought of four months, lasting from May till
September, and great preparations were made to ward off the expected
famine; immense quantities of wheat came from the Baltic, of maize
from America, and beans and maize from Italy and Egypt, with hay from
New York, as it was selling at L10 a ton. However, rain fell in
September, brown fields suddenly became green, turnips sprang up
where none had appeared, and even spring corn that had lain in the
parched ground began to grow, so the fear of scarcity passed.

In 1822 came a good season, which produced a great crop of wheat; in
the lifetime of the existing generation old men declared that such a
harvest had been known only once before; imports also came from
Ireland to the amount of nearly a million quarters, so that the price
at the end of the year was 38s., and the average price for the year
was 44s. 7d. Beef went down to 2s. 5d. a stone and mutton to 2s. 2d.
The cry of agricultural distress again rose loudly. Farmers were
still, though some of the war taxes had been remitted, heavily taxed;
for the taxes on malt, soap, salt, candles, leather, all pressed
heavily.[586] The chief cause of the distress was the long-felt
reaction after the war, but it was aggravated by the return to cash
payments in 1819. Gold had fallen to its real value, and the fall in
gold had been followed by a fall in the prices of every other
article.[587] The produce of many thousand acres in England did not
sell that year for as much money as was expended in growing it,
without reckoning rent, taxes, and interest on capital.[588] Estates
worth L3,000 a year, says the same writer, some years since, were now
worth L1,000. Bacon had gone down from 6s. 6d. to 2s. 4d. a stone;
Southdown ewes from 50s. to 15s., and lambs from 42s. to 5s.

A Dorset farmer told the Parliamentary committee that since 1815 he
knew of fifty farmers, farming 24,000 acres, who had failed
entirely.[589]

In the _Tyne Mercury_ of October 30, 1821, it was recorded that Mr.
Thos. Cooper of Bow purchased 3 milch cows and 40 sheep for L18 16s.
6d. which sum four years previously would only have bought their
skins. Prime beef was sold in Salisbury market at 4d. retail, and good
join