TABLE SHOWING EXPORTS AND IMPORTS OF WHEAT AND FLOUR FROM AND INTO ENGLAND, UNIMPORTANT YEARS OMITTED
| Exports. Quarters. | Imports. Quarters. | |
| England. | ||
| 1697 | 14,699 | 400 |
| 1703 | 166,615 | 50 |
| 1717 | 22,954 | none |
| 1728 | 3,817 | 74,574 |
| 1733 | 427,199 | 7 |
| 1750 | 947,602 | 279 |
| Great Britain. | ||
| 1757 | 11,545 | 141,562 |
| 1758 | 9,234 | 20,353 |
| 1761 | 441,956 | none |
| 1767 | 5,071 | 497,905 |
| 1770 | 75,449 | 34 |
| 1775 | 91,037 | 560,988 |
| 1776 | 210,664 | 20,578 |
| 1780 | 224,059 | 3,915 |
| 1786 | 205,466 | 51,463 |
| 1787 | 120,536 | 59,339 |
| 1789 | 140,014 | 112,656 |
| 1791 | 70,626 | 469,056 |
| 1796 | 24,679 | 879,200 |
| 1801 | 28,406 | 1,424,765 |
| 1808 | 98,005 | 84,889 |
| 1810 | 75,785 | 1,567,126 |
| 1815 | 227,947 | 384,475 |
| 1825 | 38,796 | 787,606 |
| 1837 | 308,420 | 1,109,492 |
| 1839 | 42,512 | 3,110,729 |
| 1842 | 68,047 | 3,111,290 |
The above figures are taken from McCulloch's Commercial Dictionary, 1847, p. 438, and agree roughly with those given by McPherson, Annals of Commerce, iii. 674, and iv. 216 and 532.
After 1842, exports played a very small part, and imports continued to increase; in 1847, 4,612,110 quarters of wheat and flour came in; and the following figures show their growth in recent times:—
| AVERAGE OF ANNUAL IMPORTS OF WHEAT AND FLOUR IN CWTS. | |||
| 1861-5 | 34,651,549 | ||
| 1866-70 | 37,273,678 | ||
| 1871-5 | 50,495,127 | ||
| 1876-80 | 63,309,874 | ||
| 1881-5 | 77,285,881 | ||
| 1886-90 | 77,794,380 | ||
| 1891-5 | 96,582,863 | ||
| 1896-1900 | 95,956,376 | ||
| 1901-5 | 111,638,817 | ||
With regard to the exports and imports of all kinds of corn, large quantities were exported in the first half of the eighteenth century. In 1733, 800,000 quarters were sent to France, Portugal, Spain, and Italy,[757] and exports reached their maximum in 1750 with 1,667,778 quarters, but by 1760 had decreased to 600,000, and after that fell considerably; in 1771, for instance, the first year of the corn register, they only amounted to 81,665 quarters, whereas imports were 203,122. The figures of the imports were swollen by the large quantities of oats which came into England at this time. The following years are typical of the fluctuations in the trade:—
| Exports. | Imports. | |
| 1774 | 47,961 | 803,844 |
| 1776 | 376,249 | 444,121 |
| 1780 | 400,408 | 219,093 |
| 1782 | 278,955 | 133,663 |
| 1783 | 104,274 | 852,389 |
| 1784-8 | large excess of imports, mainly oats | |
| 1789 | 652,764 | 478,426 |
the last year when exports of all kinds of corn exceeded imports.[758]
To sum up, according to these figures, England's exports of wheat regularly exceeded her imports from 1697 until 1757, with the exception of the years 1728-9; then they fluctuated till 1789, the last year in which exports of wheat exceeded imports, and as the same year is the last time when our exports of all kinds of corn exceeded our imports, England at that date ceased to be an exporting country.[759]