The connection between the distress of the poor and public order is also evident in the corn measures of 1527-8. The harvest of 1527 failed, while in the same year the coinage was debased, so that the average price of wheat was nearly double that of preceding years[103]. Part of this rise was thought to be due to the unfair buying of some of the corn-dealers. A commission was issued setting forth that owing to forestalling, regrating and engrossing "more scarcity of corn is pretended to be within this our said realm than, God be thanked, there is in very truth[104]." The commissioners were therefore to punish all offenders in this respect, and were also to find out by inquiry how great the supply of corn really was and to see that it was brought to market when needed[105]. Some of the reports drawn up in accordance with these instructions are in existence, and give for particular places the price and quantity of different kinds of grain and the number of inhabitants in the district[106]. In Essex and Suffolk the commissioners also talked to the more wealthy people and urged them to buy a store of corn for the poor. It was only however in Colchester and Bergholt that they seemed at all willing to do so[107]. On the whole there were few efforts at direct relief of the poor; the object of the Council was to obtain information and to prevent any aggravation of the scarcity by unfair practices. [103] The average prices of wheat were as follows:-- 1520. 1521. 1522. 1523. 1524. 1525. _s._ _d._ _s._ _d._ _s._ _d._ _s._ _d._ _s._ _d._ _s._ _d._ 9 4½ 7 8½ 6 0¼ 5 6 5 1½ 5 5 1526. 1527. 1528. 1529. _s._ _d._ _s._ _d._ _s._ _d._ _s._ _d._ 6 2½ 12 11 8 10¼ 8 10 Thorold Rogers, _Hist. of Agric. and Prices_. [104] The buying and selling of bread were under regulation, while law and custom required that the corn should be sold in the open market. As a rule it was supposed to be sold by the producer to the consumer, but certain licensed "dealers" or "badgers" were allowed to buy corn to sell again. A "forestaller" was one who bought corn or victuals while it was on the way to a port or market, and so did not give other buyers an equal chance; an "engrosser" was a dealer who bought up corn while it was growing, or purchased corn or victuals to sell again; and a "regrator" was one who bought corn or victuals and sold it again in the same market, or within four miles. 5 and 6 Edw. VI., c. 14. [105] _Letters and Papers of Hen. VIII._, IV., No. 3587. 18 Nov. 1527.