The Sun.
London, England, 1854-11-01 00:00:00

THE PRIC.M OF CORN.

The &Me has the following on the question of
the price of corn :
"Governments, consumers, and speculators occupy
themselves seriously with the rise which has taken
place during the last six or seven weeks in the price of
corn. Some time before the harvest prices had de-
clined, and it was generally hoped that they would re-
turn to what they were in 1850, 1851, and 1852, for the
crops presented a fine appearance, and abundance pro-
mised to succeed to scarcity. The season fulfilled all
that it caused to be hoped ; the harvest was abundant
in all parts of Europe, and yet it was no sooner got
in than a rise took place in England as well as in
France, in Belgium as well as in Spain, at New
York, Hamburg,• Dantzic, Naples, Lubeck, and
other places. In the first days which followed the
harvest, an attempt was made to explain this eco-
nomic phenomenon by a number of reasons which
were soon abandoned. The labour in the fields, the
threshing of the corn, the want of water in rivers, re-
turn, in fact, every year at the same epoch, and yet
never prevent the price of wheat from diminishing im-
mediately after, the harvest, if it be abundant. It is
evidently elsewhere that we must seek the causes of this
dearness, of which speculation cannot be accused, for it
extends over too many countries to be the result of fore-
stalling undertaken to raise prices. The price of corn,
like that of any other merchandise, is regulated in virtue
of unchangeable principles, with respect to which laws
are nearly powerless ; abundance causes a fall in
prices, as scarcity necessarily causes a rise. But this
only takes place in a normal and regular manner in
the event of the demand maintaining itself in the
ordinary proportions. It may easily happen that an
abundant harvest is followed by a permanent rise; that
indeed is the case every time that the consumption in-
creases almost instantaneously and more rapidly than
the production. The present rise has not, in our opinion,
any other causes; otherwise it would be local, there would
be hesitation in prices, and all the other articles of food,
those of luxury as well as those of first necessity, would
not rise uniformly. Europe once before saw a precisely
similar phenomenon change in a few years the rela-
tion between the value of the produce of the earth, of
capital, and manual labour. From the year 1400 up
to 1561, the price of the hectolitre of wheat varied in
France from 3f. 62c. to 4f. 55c., taking an average of
good and tolerable years. But during that period the
old world arose from its torpor—America was discovered,
explored, and pillaged. From 1500 to 1550, the gold
which the Spaniards wrested from the masters of Peru
and Mexico began to spread throughout all Europe, and '
caused general comfort previously unknown. The bulk'
of the populations, whose condition was most wretched,
ceased to content themselves .with Lbarley bread and
cakes of oats, chestnuts, or buck wheat ; they be-
gan to eat wheaten bread, and the demand all at
once exceeding the offer, the 'price of wheat rose in
the interval from 1564 to 1601 to 20f, 43c. the
hectolitre. The consumption increased more rapidly
than the production. A reaction, however, soon
came. The sufferings of the populations towards the
cod of the reign of Louis XIV., the prodigality of the
regency and of the reign of Louis XV., caused a dimi-
nution in the consumption, and from 1772 to 1788 the
average of prices was not more than 14fr. 67c. the hecto-
litre. But France began her great revolution ; and then
there was what was like the discovery of a new moral
world, and bold Christopher Celumbuses regenerated
nations, honoured labour, and summoned all classes of
society to a higher degree of welfare. After some days of
confusion, wars, and disasters, peace was established,
manufactures developed themselves, commerce extended,
and the number of consumers increasing, the price of
corn increased also. From 1832 to 1848 the average
price was l9fr. 76c. The awakening of manufactures and
the generalisation of labour produced the same effects
as the discovery of America ; wealth increased, and
the condition of the most wretched populations im-
proved. But a new cause of progress was on the
point of. becoming developed ; new Peruvian and Mexi-