1701 2902 68 20,471 1702 2682 53 19,481 1703 3162 74 20,720 1704 3243 61 22,684 1705 3290 41 22,097 1706 2662 54 19,847 1707 2947 42 21,600 1708 2738 62 21,291 1709 3140 118 21,800 1710 4397 343 24,620 1711 3461 142 19,833 1712 3131 96 21,198 1713 3039 102 21,057 1714 4631 150 26,569 1715 3588 161 22,232 1716 3078 100 24,436 1717 2940 137 23,446 1718 3475 132 26,523 1719 3803 124 28,347 1720 3910 66 25,454 The London fever of 1709-10. The “seven ill years” were followed by the fine summer and abundant harvest (although hardly more than half the breadth was sown) of 1699. Scarcity was not a cause of excessive sickness again until 1709-10; although the harvest of 1703 was unfavourable. The price of wheat in 1702 was 25_s._ 6_d._ per quarter, and continued low for a number of years, notwithstanding the war with France. In Marlborough’s wars there were no war-prices for farmers, as in the corresponding circumstances a century after; on the contrary, corn and produce of all kinds were so cheap that farmers had difficulty in paying their rents. The bounty of five shillings per quarter on exported wheat had given a great impulse to corn-growing, so that the acreage of wheat sown was much more than the country in an ordinary year required, partly, no doubt, because the bread of the poorer classes was largely made from the coarser cereals. The period of abundance was broken by the excessively severe winter of 1708-9, one of three memorable winters in the 18th century. The frost lasted all over Europe from October to March, and was followed by a greatly deficient crop in 1709. The following shows the rise of the price of the quarter of wheat in England: _s._ _d._ 1708 Lady-day 27 3 " Michaelmas 46 3 1709 Lady-day 57 6 " Michaelmas 81 9 1710 Lady-day 81 9 The export of corn was prohibited in 1709 and again in 1710.