Such has been the increased production of food during the present century, that the quantity now raised maintains ten millions more human beings than existed at its commencement; for on the first enumeration of the people in 1801 the population of Great Britain was eleven millions; in 1851, it was twenty-one millions.[[16]]
[15]. Considering that there appears to be no objection in principle to the method of raising a loan by Tontine, and that the scheme is a popular one, it seems highly desirable that we should continue this means of measuring with positive exactness the results of our advancing civilization.
[16]. According to Mr Rickman, from the best information that can be obtained from Doomsday Book, the population of England in the time of William the Conqueror was 1½ millions.
In the reign of Edward the Third (1377), when a poll-tax was imposed on all persons of both sexes above fourteen, it was 2½ millions.
In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, at the period of the Spanish Armada, it was 4 millions.
According to Mr Finlaison, at the close of the 16th century it was somewhat under 5 millions two hundred thousand.
According to Mr Rickman, on a computation founded on the return of Baptisms, as stated in the Abstract of Parish Registers, it was in 1700, 5½ millions; in 1750, 6½ millions; and in 1770, 7½ millions.
The first actual enumeration was made in 1801. The following table exhibits the rate of increase in the population of Great Britain from that time up to the enumeration in 1851:
Years. | Population. | Increase Each Decennial Period. | Annual Rate of Increase per cent. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1801 | 10,917,433 | ||
| 1811 | 12,424,120 | 1,506,687 | 1.274 |
| 1821 | 14,402,643 | 1,978,523 | 1.489 |
| 1831 | 16,564,138 | 2,161,495 | 1.408 |
| 1841 | 18,813,786 | 2,249,648 | 1.279 |
| 1851 | 21,121,967 | 2,308,181 | 1.186 |
This increased production of food consists chiefly of grain, green crops, and garden vegetables, countless in variety, and highly nutritious and grateful, completely reversing the nature of the national subsistence compared with that of former times, and giving to the masses of the people a constant and unfailing supply, winter and summer, of fresh vegetable nutriment.