The project is delighted to announce a forthcoming volume entitled The English Grain Trade, c.1300-c.1850, to be published in the British Academy Records of Social and Economic History series.
The volume will provide an analytical overview of the English grain trade and allied trades across this period, supported by a wide range of illustrative documents including: official and legislative sources; administrative records of national and local government; port books, Sound Tolls and related customs documents; records of litigation; printed sources; examples of specialised literature on related trades and skills; and accounts of popular protest and disorder.
The chronology embraces a long swing in the balance of population and resources from the emergence of famine in the fourteenth century to its disappearance during the seventeenth century; and the development of a structural dependence on imports in the nineteenth century. The latter development had implications for the political, social and cultural history of areas in the economic hinterland of England’s grain market (the Baltic and, later, the New World). The period also saw long swings in political economy from price ceilings to price support, and the renewal of the Corn laws in the early nineteenth century to protect farmers from foreign competition. Finally, these changes in political economy were associated with changes in the form and aspirations of popular political intervention—from grain riots to the Anti-Corn Law League. This latter set of issues throws light on long-term changes in political culture—the core beliefs at work in popular politics, and the means by which popular sentiment was mobilised.
The volume will give an overview of the structure of the grain trade; allied trades and labour demand; production and environmental change; political economy and market regulation; the meanings of bread and grain; and popular politics. Statistical appendices will also be included, which relate to the volume and composition of international trade.
The volume will be published following the completion of the project, marking the culmination of our research, and we hope it will be a useful tool for teaching and further research.
The Politics of the English Grain Trade, 1314-1815 