§ 1. The methods in which the Scarcity Orders of the Privy Council were executed in 1623 and 1630-1. _a._ The suppression of alehouses and restrictions of malting. _b._ The regulations for serving the markets with corn and supplying the poor in their homes. _c._ Selling corn bought by the inhabitants to the labourers under the market price. _d._ Other special methods of providing food for the poor. § 2. Evidence as to the success or failure of the corn regulations. § 3. Reasons for their adoption. § 4. Bearing of the scarcity measures on history of poor relief. _a._ Growth of organisation. _b._ The standard of life of the poorer classes. § 5. Provision of fuel for the poor in winter. § 6. Help afforded in times of sickness or plague. § 7. Contributions to sufferers from fire. § 8. Two characteristics of seventeenth century poor relief accentuated by this emergency relief. _a._ Little distinction between paupers and non-paupers. _b._ Little distinction between relief afforded by voluntary contributions and that provided by poor rates. The special emergencies in which the poor most often obtained relief in the seventeenth century were those arising from bad harvests, sickness, and fire. We will first examine the methods of supplying the poor with corn after bad harvests. We have already seen that in 1608, 1621-3, and 1629-31 the central government issued orders with this object, which closely resembled the commands which had been issued during the reign of Elizabeth. We have now to see how these orders were executed in the early part of the seventeenth century. In 1608 there is little evidence in this direction. A report however was sent from Colchester. There, the constables took an account of the number of persons that had corn by them; of the bargains they had made and of the number of acres they had sown, and in accordance with that survey every person was ordered to bring weekly to market so many bushels of corn unless they had already sold them to poor artificers and day labourers[421]. There were probably like reports from other places but there is nothing to make us think that the scarcity Book of Orders was better executed in 1608 than it had been in 1587 or 1597. [421] Morant's _Essex_, p. 53. [Sidenote: 1. The methods in which the scarcity orders of the Privy Council were executed in 1623 and 1630-1.] But in 1623 and in 1630-31 there are returns from many different parts of the country, and these seem to show that the orders which were occasionally put in force under Elizabeth were frequently put in force under James I., and were usually well executed in the season of scarcity in the reign of Charles I. [Sidenote: _a._ The suppression of alehouses, and restrictions of malting.]