ted against this exclusive system, and it was
abandoned, as regards the United States, by the treaty of Ghent in 1814.
The mercantile states of Europe soon followed the example of America,
and the reciprocity of duties bill, introduced by Huskisson on June 6,
1823, conceded equal rights to all countries reciprocating the
concession, only retaining the exclusion against such countries as might
reject equality of trade. The change involved some hardship to
shipowners who had built their vessels with timber bought at prices
raised by heavy duties, but they were too shortsighted to accept the
compromise offered by Huskisson. Before long, however, the act was
justified, and the shipowners compensated by a rapid increase in British
shipping.

[Pageheading: _AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT._]

For nearly five years after the accession of George IV. the state of the
country was, on the whole, more prosperous, and the industrial classes
were more contented, than in the five years next preceding. Such
restlessness as there was prevailed among farmers and agricultural
labourers rather than among workmen in the manufacturing districts, and
in 1823 every branch of manufactures was reported to be flourishing. It
is difficult for a later generation, accustomed to consider 30s. a
quarter a fair price for wheat, to understand the perennial complaints
and petitions of the agricultural interest when 60s. a quarter was
regarded as a low price for wheat, and the cultivation of wheat extended
over a vastly larger area than it does at present. Nor is the difficulty
lessened, when we remember the miserably low rate of wages then paid by
farmers. A partial explanation may be found in the fact that what they
saved in wages they lost in poor rates, and that most agricultural
products except corn were sold at a very small profit. The high poor
rates were the result of the disastrous system of giving allowances to
labourers.

But there were other evils caused by the vicious policy pursued by the
government. The encouragement of home production had led to the
enclosure of land not fit for cultivation, so that a slight fall in
prices meant ruin to many farmers. Moreover, the corn laws, though
framed for the purpose of arresting fluctuations in price, actually
increased fluctuations and thus enhanced the risks attending
agricultural enterprise. Nor were landlords who had thriven on war
prices, and raised the scale of their establishments as if these prices