IMPORTS OF WHEAT AND WHEAT FLOUR
IN BAD SEASONS.
| Quarters. | |
| 1810, | 1,491,341 |
| 1817, | 1,020,949 |
| 1818, | 1,593,518 |
| 1829, | 1,364,200 |
| 1830, | 1,701,889 |
| 1838, | 1,834,452 |
The October imports, which Mr Gladstone considers as being reduced in consequence of the good harvest at home, would, if spread over the year, amount to 1,848,000 quarters—being very little less than the average amount imported from 1836 to 1840, when we had five bad or indifferent seasons in succession. Mr Gladstone, however, we apprehend, leaps too rapidly at his conclusions. He should have waited until the frost set in, and then, perhaps, he might have been able to point to a materially diminished importation. We should like to know how he will dispose of the ascertained statistics for November. They are as follows:—
IMPORTS OF FOREIGN GRAIN INTO UNITED
KINGDOM, FOR NOVEMBER 1849.
| Quarters. | |
| Wheat and wheat flour, | 215,134 |
| Barley and barley meal, | 90,304 |
| Oats and oat meal, | 114,311 |
| Rye and rye meal, | 6,201 |
| Beans, | 19,061 |
| Pease, | 22,269 |
| Indian corn, | 46,306 |
| Buckwheat, | 30 |
being equal to 513,615 quarters of all kinds of grain for the month! These are the diminished importations! But we shall come down even later, and inquire what sort of proportion the arrivals of foreign grain bear to those of British growth in the London market, according to the last accounts. We copy from the Times of December 11:—
"Corn Exchange, Monday, Dec. 10.—Throughout the past week, there have been good arrivals of wheat, barley, and oats into this market from abroad, although of wheat the quantity reported has been less than of other grain. Of English corn of any kind, (if we except barley,) the total reports are insignificant, and but a few cargoes of oats from Ireland. The state of the trade, on the several market days, was languid, and even at lower prices for barley and oats, buyers were indisposed to get into stock."
The following is a statement of the arrivals of grain at London from the 3d to the 8th of December, which may serve to indicate the sources from which the population of our vast metropolis is fed; and we leave Mr Gladstone to reconcile it, as he best can, with his new theory of importations:—
| British | Foreign | |
| Qrs. | Qrs. | |
| Wheat, | 4601 | 19,617 |
| Barley, | 6144 | 19,842 |
| Oats, | 7370 | 21,718 |
| Rye, | 514 | |
| Beans, | 962 | 337 |
| Pease, | 1077 | 6,713 |
| blah | 20,154 | 68,741 |
So then, after the harvesting of "the largest wheat crop ever known in England," and at the dead season of the year, when the navigation of the Elbe is closed, the importation of foreign wheat into the London market exceeds the arrival of English wheat by a ratio of nearly five to one! And, with such facts before us, we are forbidden to believe that imports affect prices! We hope, when we next meet Mr Gladstone, to find him in a more logical humour, and better prepared with his facts.