[531] Thorold Rogers, _Work and Wages_, c. 18. In many cases he was getting 15s. and 16s. a week all the year round. The Parliamentary Committee of 1822 put his wages during the war at from 15s. to 16s. a week. _Parliamentary Reports Committees_, v. 72; but it is difficult to say how much he received as wages, and how much as parish relief. Recruiting for the war helped to raise wages, as did the increased growth of corn. [532] McCulloch, _Commercial Dictionary_ (1847), p. 438. See Appendix, ii. [533] Tooke, i. 319, and _Pamphleteer_, vi. 200 (A. Young). Since 1770, says the latter, labour by 1810-11 had doubled, but meat had risen 146 per cent., cheese 153 per cent., bread 100 per cent. Wages therefore had not risen in proportion to prices. [534] _Inquiry into Agricultural Distress_ (1822), p. 38. [535] _Thoughts on Present Depressed State of Agricultural Industry_ (1817), p. 6. [536] Vancouver, _General View of the Agriculture of Devon_, p. 357. [537] See 14 Eliz., c. 11, and 39 Eliz., c. 18. [538] _Transactions of the Devon Association_, xxix. 291-349. [539] Average annual prices of wheat were: 1812, 126s. 6d.; 1813, 109s. 9d.; 1814, 74s. 4d.; 1815, 65s. 7d. [540] Porter, _Progress of the Nation_, p. 149. [541] _A Defence of the Farmers and Landowners of Great Britain_ (1814), p. 49. [542] Ibid. p. x. [543] Ibid. p. 7. [544] _Agricultural State of the Kingdom_, p. 67. [545] _Parliamentary Reports (Committees)_, v. 72. [546] _Thoughts on the Present Depressed State of the Agricultural Interest_ (1817), p. 4. [547] Duncumb, _General View of the Agriculture of Hereford_, 1805. The writer of _A Defence of the Farmers and Landowners of Great Britain_ (1814) puts the average crop of wheat in the United Kingdom at 15 or 16 bushels an acre, p. 28. A very low estimate. [548] Duncumb, _General View of the Agriculture of Hereford_, p. 140. [549] Tooke, _History of Prices_, ii. 4. [550] _Farmer's Magazine_ (1817), p. 69. [551] The duties were often evaded by smuggling; coasting vessels met the foreign corn ships at sea, received their cargoes, and landed them so as to escape the duty. [552] _Agricultural State of the Kingdom_, p. 5. [553] _Observations for the Use of Landed Gentlemen_ (1817), p. 7. [554] _Defence of the Farmers, &c._ (1814); and _Parliamentary Reports_, v. 72. [555] _Agricultural State of the Kingdom_, p. 64. [556] Ibid. p. 105. [557] The agricultural horse tax was repealed in 1821, the tax on ponies and mules in 1823. [558] There were some exceptions, but the overwhelming majority of replies to the letters were couched in the above spirit. [559] At a time when landlords formed the majority in Parliament, it is curious to find a substantial farmer asserting that 'the landed interest has been, since the corn law of 1773, held in a state of complete vassalage to the commercial and manufacturing, and the farmers of the country in a state very little superior to that of Polish peasants.'