‘The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century B. P, Thompson Past and Present, No. 50 (Feb., 1971), 76-136. Stable URL: fttpflinksjstor.orgsicisici=003 1-2746%28197 102%290%3A50%3C76%3ATMEO TE®3E2.0.CO%SB2-0 Past and Present is currently published by Oxford University Press. ‘Your use of the ISTOR archive indicates your acceptance of ISTOR’s Terms and Conditions of Use, available at hhupvful-jstor-orp/abouv'terms.himal. ISTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have ‘obtained prior permission, vou may not download an entire issue of a joumal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial us. Please contact the publisher cegarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at fhupfuk-jstor-orp/journals/oup. html. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transtnission. ISTOR is an independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of scholarly journals. For more information regarding ISTOR, please contact support @jstor.org- hupsfuk.jstor.org/ ‘Thu Jun 9 23:03:42 2005THE MORAL ECONOMY OF THE ENGLISH CROWD IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY * “He dat wihholdeth Gorn, the People shall curse him: bur Blessing shall ‘be upon the Head of him chat sell it Proverbe 13,26. 1 ‘WE HAVE BEEN WARNED IN RECENT YEARS, BY GEORGE RUDE AND OTHERS, ‘against the loose employment of the term ‘‘mob”. I wish ia this article to extend the warning to the term “rit”, especially where the food riot in eighteenth-century England is concerned ‘This simple four-letter word can conceal what may be described as a spasmodic view of popular history. According to this view che common people can scarcely be taken as historical agents before the French Revolution. Before this period they intrude occasionally and spasmodically upon the historical canvas, in periods of sudden social disturbance. These intrusions are compulsive, rather than self conscious or selCactivating: they are simple responses to economic stimuli. Ic is sufficient to mention a bad harvest or a down-turn in ‘made, and all requirements of historical explanation are satisfied. Unfortunately, even among those few British historiens who have added to our knowledge of such popular actions, several have lent support to the spasmodic view. They have reflected in only a cursory way upon the materials which they themselves. disclose. Thus Beloff comments on the food riots of the early eighteenth century: “this rescatment, when unemployment and high prices combined to make conditions unendurable, vented itself in attacks tupon corn-dealers and millers, attacks which often must have degenerated into mere excuses for crime" But we search his pages in vain for evidence as to the frequency of this “degeneration” ‘Wearmouth, in his useful chronicle of disturbance, allows himself one “Thi aril reports teseich commenced in 1963 and somewhar retarded {in the past ve yout bythe exigancies and slarums of work ins new universy. ‘Aa cater version was presenend sea conference sreanized by che Depertmest of titory a the Stace University of New York at Battal m Apri 1980, Uhave Sho to thdck the Nuffield Founduioa fora mote teceat grant a4 ot eesearahs find to taank Mfr, Malcolm Thomas, Miss f, Neeson and Mr, E, E, Dodd f Featance Ue oii! paper ear been revited and ended at &aumber ot point 5M, Belod, Public Onder and Popular Disnbancar, 1660-1714 (Oxtordy 1998), 9.95,‘THE ENGLISH CROWD IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 77 explanatory category: “‘distress”.* Ashton, in his study of food riots among the colliers, brings the support of the paternalist: “the turbulence of che colliers is, of course, to be accounted for by some thing more elementary than politics: it was the instinctive reaction of virility to hunger".* The riots were “rebellions of the belly”, and shere is a suggestion that this is somehow a comforting explanation. The ine of analyse rune; elemencary instinctive —~ hunger Ghatles Wilson continues the tradition: “Spasmodic rises pret proved keeles on tbe Tye to tog ne, in miners plunder granaries ac Falmouth in 1727". One spasm led on to ‘another: the outcome was “plunder”. For decades systematic social history has lagged in the rear of ‘economic history, until the present day, wien a qualification in the second discipline is assumed to confer, automatically, proficiency in the first. One cannot therefore complain that recent scholarship bas tended to sophisticate and quantify evidence which is only imperfectly understood. ‘The dean of the spasmodic school is of course Rostow, whose crude “social tension chart” was first put forward ia 1948." ‘According to this, we need only bring together an index of unemploy~ ‘ment and one of igh food prices (6 be able to chart the course of social disturbanee. This contains a self-evident teuth (people protest when they are hungry): and in much the seme way a “sexta tension char” would sbow that the onset of sexual maturity can be correlaced with a greater frequency of sexual activity. The objection js that such a chart, if used unwisely, may conclude investigation at the exact point at which i becomes of serious sociological ar cultural interest: being hungry (or being sexy), what do people do? How is <5. arama i nm Peo he bh okt am i ERE ETE ay ct cr ‘Wn, colonds Appremicap, s6oy-17dy (London, 1963), secre Slr rat ge ee eee LSID dui eta Seema tear, yaaa in Pana wars omen ian haematoma auewnn leas ‘SSihe caus ut 5 nugetdon ie pobuny tse, ss cyt of tone wha Sisdiag ne Sean aot Gaer aoe SRTRe ews FE ee ac tora Ce x ite tt foray iutbence are) obsoawmy "Economic Flaca jong and Some Social Movements”, in, Labowring Men (Loudon, 1964) aad eae ler Ona8 PAST AND PRESENT wUMBER 50 their behaviour modified by custom, culture, and reason? And having granted that the primary stiatlus of “distress” is present) does their behaviour contribute towards any more complex, cultucally- mediated function, which canaot be reduced — however long itis stewed over the fires of statistical analysis — back to stimulus once again? ‘Too many of our growth historians are guilty of a crass economic reductionism, obliterating the complexities of motive, behaviour, and function, which, if they noted it in the work oftheir marxist analogues, ‘would make them protest. ‘The weakness which these explanations sbare is an abbreviated view of economic man. What is perhaps an cccasion for surprise is the schizoid intellectual climate, which permits this quantitative historiography to co-cxist (in the same places ‘and sometimes in the seme minds) with a social anthropology which derives from Durklicim, Weber, or Malinowski, We know all about the delicate tissue of social norms and recipracities which regulates the life of Trobriand islanders, and the psychic energies involved in the ‘cargo cults of Melanesia; but at some point this infinitely-complex social creature, Melanesian man, becomes (in our histories) the ceighteenth-century English collier who claps his hand spasmodically upon his stomach, and responds to elementary economic stimuli. To the spasmodic I will oppose my own view.* tis possible to detect in almost every ecighteenth-century crowd action some legitimizing notion. By the notion of legitimation I mean that the men and women in the crowd were informed by the belie that they were defending tradicional rights or customs; and, in general, that they were supported by the wider consensus of the community. On ‘occasion this popular consensus was endorsed by some measure of licence afforded by the authorities. More commonly, the consensus ‘was 30 strong that it averrode motives of fear or deference. “The food riot in eighteenth-century Fogland was a highly-complex form of direct popular action, disciplined and with clear objectives. “How far these objectives were achieved — that is, how far the Food riot was @ “successful” form of action — is too intricate a question to tackle within the limits of an article; but the question can at least be ‘posed (rather than, as is customary, being dismissed unexamined with 4 negative), and this cannot be dome until the crowd's own objectives ace identified. Tc is of course trae that riots were triggered off by soaring prices, by malpractices among dealers, or by hunger, But 1 Thave found most helpful the pioneering study by RB, Rose, “Eighteen, ent Bic Rc sed abe Foye Engand’, Taerutouel Renee Social Pritts, 964); and G. Rud, The Crowd Pitry New Pot, 1964‘THE ENGLISH CROWD IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 79) these grievances operated within & popular consensus as to what were legitimate and what were illegitimate practices in marketing, milling, baking, ete. ‘This in its curn was grounded upon a consistent ttaditional view of social norms and obligations, ofthe proper economic functions of several parties within the community, which, taken together, can be said to constitute the moral economy of the poor. ‘Ap outrage to these moral assumptions, quite as much 9s actual deprivation, was the usual occasion for direct action. ‘While this moral economy cannot be described. as “political” in. any advanced sense, nevertheless it cannot be described as unpolitical Feb. #401, 120, IG The Act ors repealed in tar: 4r Geo. Ml, 62, a capactliy dhe bedgetsin D, Davies, The Cate Labourers in Husbands (Baus, 799} and ta Sie Frederick Ben, Phe Stave of she Peer CLonion, 1707 ‘Alto B.1. ¥; Jones "Tae Com Riots in Wales, 93-80% (ath Ht, Rats iG4)0968). App sp. 347‘THE ENGLISH CROWD IN THE EIGHTEENTH CeNTURY 83 ‘eaten. But at every point within this process there are radiating complexities, opportunities for extortion, lash-points around which riots could arise. And ic i scarcely possible 10 proceed further Wwithour sketching out, in a schematic way, the paternalist mode! of the marketing end manufacturing process — the traditional platonic ideal appealed to im Statute, pamphlet, or protest movement — against which the awkward realities of commerce and consuraption were in friction, “The paternalist modei existed in an eroded body of Statute law, a5 well as common lew and custom. Tt westhe model which, very often, informed the actions of Government in times of emergency until the 1703; and to which many local magistrates continued to appeal. In this model, marketing should be, so fat as possible, direct, from the farmer to the consumer. The farmers shouid bring their corn in bulk to the local pitching markets they should not sell while standing in the field, nor shouid they wichiold ic in the hope of rising prices. “The markets should be controlled; no saies should be made before stated times, when a bell would rings the poor should have che ‘opportanicy to buy grain, flour, or meal first in small parcels, with duly-supervised weights and measures. Ata certain hour, when eheit needs siere satisfied, @ second bell would ring, and larger dealers, (uly licensed) might make their purchases, Dealers were hedged around with many restrictions, inscribed upon the musty parchments of the laws against forestaling, regrating and engrossing, codified in the reign of Edward VI. ‘They must not buy (and farmers must not sell) by sample. ‘They must nat buy standing crops, nor might they ‘purchase to sell again (within three months) in the same market at @ profit, or in neighbouring markets, and sa on. Indeed, for most of the eighteenth century the middleman remained iegally suspect, and his operations weee, in theory, severely restricted. ‘From market-supervision we pass to consumer-protection. Millers and — 10 a greater degree — bakers were considered es servants of the community, working not for a profit but for a fair allowance. Many The bese general study of cighteents-century comm marketing remains RB, Westerbaldy Middlemen in English fiusnes 1060-1740 (Stew Fave, 4$515),ch. 3. Also see N, & B. Gras, The Beaturon of the Lagich Core Market fam the Faith tothe Bighvesnih Conny (Carnbridge, Mass. 1913); D. G. Barnes, Pirtary ofthe Enghsh Gorm Eases (Lands, 1930);C. W. Fey, The Gori es Sonal Rogan (Candge, sos), B, Lips Rian esr of Exeland, 6th edn, Landon, 1936), ty pp, 439-485 E,W, Matic, England om Oe fe fhe lagutal Reh Landon. tad) ee. 35 GE, Fubal end E Goodmen, "Tea in Farm Produce in ughtgnih Certieg nga aricutaral History, 3 GN s090); lange Blackman, “Tie Food Sy Fndustral Town (Shettela)”, Busnes Fitory v (963). spply of 228% PASE AND PRESENT NUMBER 50 of the poor would buy their grain direct in the market (or obtain it as supplement to wages or in gleaning); they would take ito the aull co bbe ground, where the miller might exact a customary toll, and then would bake their own bread, Tn London and those large towns where this had long cessed to be the rule, the baker's allowance ot profit was calculated strictly according to the Assize of Bread, whereby either the price or the weight of the loaf was ordered in relation to the ruling price of wheat.#* This model, of course, parts company at meny poinss with cighteeath-century reelities, What is more surprising isto noe how far parts of it were still operative. ‘Thus Aikin in 1795 is able co describe the orderly regulation of Preston market: “The weckly markets .. ate extemely well regulates to prevent forestaling nd regeaung: None ia the soum'-people ace permiaed to buy dul ihe Gn hou, whch eo gw nine nthe morning: ate eb say purchase: bur noehing Unasid mist be withdrawn frm the market tl ‘ne lock, fat excepted © In the same year in the South-West (another aree noted for tradition- alism) the city suthorities at Exeter attempted to control “hucksters, higlers, and retailers" by excluding them from the market berween 8 a.m, and noon, at which hours the Guildhall bell would be rang.* The Assize of Bread was still effective throughout the eighteenth ‘century in London and in many market towns.*¥ If we follow cheough the case of sale by sample we may observe how dangerous itis to assume prematurely the dissolution of the customary restrictions, Tis often supposed that sale of corn by sample was genctal by the S$. and R. Webb, “The Asse of Bread", Beoncmie Ty xiv, (1904). 2 Te Atkin Description of the Country from sharty ta fariy Mes rsd Man charter (London, 1795), . 286. One of the best surviving records of 2 well- egulaced qoanotial madkec in the elghteepa: century fe ne of Manchester, re matket lookers for fst and fect, for com weights snd measures, OF ‘white meats, for the Aacize of Brea, alecasters, and aficers to prevent en Frosting, foresiling and regretting” were appointed ehroughone the centszy, Ena fine for short stelght and measure, amateetabe meat, et, were frequen lunul he 1750s; supervision theresfir' was atimewhat mote perfomctory Glthocah contianing) with 2 revieal of vigilance is the 17008, Bier were Iposed for sling loads of grain Gefore che market bell 11734, 1787. and rat Cohen William Wyat wat fined 208 “for selling befoce the Bel cang and ddecasing he would sell at any Time of the Day in Spite of cidkee Loed of the ‘Mannoe‘or any person else", and again in 1706,” Phe Gout Lact Racerds of the Manor of Mancharter, ed, J.P, Rarwdier (Manentetery 1185/9), vals Hl, ‘land te, parm. For the vegulation of forestlling st Manchewer, see note 64 Below. ‘Proclamation by Exeter Town Clerk, 28 Match 1795, ia PR.O. 1.0. ale "Kee Send Webb, op ait panting asd J. Burnet, “The Baking Industry in the Nincteenth Contity? Badass Histr,v 1963), 70. 989,THE ENGLISH CROWD IN THE FIGHTEENTHE ceNTURY 85 riddle of the seventeenth century, when Best describes the practice in East Yorkshire,"* and certainly by 1725, when Defee gave his, famous account of the corn trade.* But, while many large farmers were no doubt seiing by sample in most counties by this date, the old pitching markers were stil common, and even survived in the envitous of London. In 1718 2 pamphleteer described the decline of country ‘markets as having taken place only in recent years ‘One can se little ele besides tny-shops and stalls for bawbies an kick Ieazeis The tte arc sunk to noting: aad were, n the erry of many inhabitants, rere ssl to come to (awa Upon 2 ay One, von Desaps Eee, ad in some borougis Four hundeed loach of ty now pss BLO™S nit markevplace, ‘The farmers (he complained) had come to shun the market and to deal with jobbers and other “‘interlopers” at their doors. Other farmers still broaght to market a single load “co make a show of ‘a market, and ro have a Price set", but the main business was done in “parcels of corn. in a bag or handkerchief which are called sammples"."* “This was, indeed, the drift of things, Buc many saualic farmers continued co pitch their grain in the market as before; and the old model remained in men's minds as a source of resentmenc. Again and again the new marketing procedures were contested. In 1710 2 petition on behalf of the poar people of Stony Stratford (Bucks.) complains that the farmers and dealers were “buying and selling in the farmyards and atc their Barre Doores soo that now the poor Inhabitants cannot have a Grist at reasonable rates for our money Which is & Great Calamicy”.:* In 1733 several boroughs petitioned the house of commons ageinst the practice: Haslemere (Surrey) cormplained of miliets and mealmen engrossing the tade — they “secredly bought great quantities of corn by small samples, refusing t0 touy such as hath been pitch'd in open market”."* ‘There is 4 ‘suggestion of something underhand in the practice, and of « loss of twensparency in the marketing procedure, ‘As the century advances che complaints da net die down, although they cend to move northwards and westwards. In the dearth of 1756 the Privy Council, in addition to setting it motion the old laws % Rural Economy in Vorbshira in 641 (Surtees Society, xxx, 1857) Pp. ontge Fin Comptes Brelth Trade (London, 1727) pare a, ‘Anonis ht Ese ts tte tat Regroary Eager, Roeser, Hawkers, ‘apd Jabs of Cathy Chto, and her Aerbetale Conds gre Dostactoe of Fade, Onpesors io the Poor and a Common Nistonce wo the Kingdom sn Ganera| encom £718)n pp, 19 18-20. Pcs. ec, ir, Sesnion, Michaelmas % Borin! Fournal,5 Mace 199336 [PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER 50 against forestalling, issued a proclamation enjoining “all farmers, under severe penalties, to bring their corn to open market, and not to sll by sample at their owa duvellings™"* But the auchorites did not like to be pressed an che point too closely: in 1766 (another year ‘of scarcity) the Surrey magistrates enquired whether buying by sample in face remained a punishable offence, and reccived a porten- cously evasive reply — H.M.'s Secretary is not by his office entitled to give interpretation tothe Lave." ‘Two fetters give some insight into the spread of new practices cowards the West. A correspondent writing to Lord Shelburne in ‘yas accused che dealers and alles at Chippenham of "eonederacy” He hima sent co matbt fora dare of wheat and hough thre wee Ping ide iy an at sla gas bel Sg eter a fee pede vera itl," ht up ea before and the macket is Bava farce suse 7 OMe Baraaln (Such practices could be the actual occasion of riot: in June (757 it was reporeed chat “te population rose at Oxford and in afew sates Seized and divided load of corn that wes suspected to have been ‘bought by sample, and only brought to the market to save appear- snoet".#) ‘The second leer, fro a corespondent in Dorchester in 1772, describes «diferent practice of market-fixing: he claimed that the great farmers got together to fix the price before the market, aed aay ofthese men woot sll ess than fry Buses whieh the poor ‘Sorcpuctuaes gnc he mle, hs no eaeny he tes es ‘he pce eka andthe pot must Same fo hs es Paternalists and the poor continved to complain at che extension of market practices which we looking back, tend to assume a inevitable and “netural ‘But what may now appear #s inevitable was nor, in the eighteenth century, necessarily a mater fos approval. A chatac- teristic pamphlet (of 1768) exclaimed indignantly against che supposed Hiberty af every farmer to do as he Likes with his oh. ‘This would be a “natural, not a “clvil” liberty: Te cnnor ten eid ne the Ubery of itz o of are who ives under ‘heprweton of ap comosaeysc ees a ben savages eens EE Gino hin? erent detevcn oe a pci, epee ed Sodan aos NERO, P69, eel HLS pes Pape London, 1870, 1965 pp 92-4 EE ape on gg 1 Anngmousleaer im BRO S897, CRRRMAGE a aed bile, a be Sonn ine Gnomon’ Aacssae, et (17g6, p.3345 Anan Dlph Coureile Ts, Gaeso he Hee nk, (tad Anoe lie Lene Mee ef ae Init papain Annan 0 Lan agi Poca Tar ELT sae gph Mion Balam moc ee ok Brlop! Foten on: BoTHE ENGLISH CROWD IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 87 Attendance of the farmer at market is “s material part of his duty; he should not be suffered to secret ota dispose of bis goods lsewhere”.** But after the r76cs the pitching markets performed so litle function in most parts of the South and the Midfands that, in these districts, the complaint against sample-sale is less often heard, although the ‘complaint chat the poor canaot buy in small parcels is still being made at the end of the century.”* Tn parts of the North it was a different matter. A petition of Leeds labourers in 1795 complains of the “corn factors and the millers and a sct of peopul which we call hhucksters and mealmen who have got the corn into care bands that they may hold it ap and sell it at thare owne price or they wall not sell it”, “The farmers cerry no corn to markit but what they cacre in there pockic for chare sample... which cause the poore to groan very much”.>* So long it took for a process, which is often dated from at least one hundred years earlier, to work its way out. ‘This example has been followed to illustrate the deasity and particularity of the detail, the diversity of Tocal practices, and the way in which popular resentment could arise as ld marker practices changed. ‘The same density, the same diversity, exists throughout the scarcely-charted ares of marketing. The paternalist mecle) was, of course, breaking down at many other points. The Assize of Bread, although effective in checking the profics of bakers, simply reflected the ruling price of wheat or flour, and could in no way influence these. The millers were now, in Hertfordshire and the ‘Thames Valley, very substantial entreprencurs, and sometimes dealers in genin or malt as well os large-scale manufacturers of flour.** ‘Outside the main corn-growing districts, urban markets simply could rot be supplied without the operation of factors whose activi Srould have been tullfed :f legislation ageinst forestallers had been strict’y enforced. How far did che authorities tecognize that cheir model was drifting apart from reality? ‘The answer mast change with the authorities Anon, An Engiy ite the Price of Wheat, Mate, et. Condon, 1768, pr, ite35 ‘i See cg, Davies (below p. fo4). Tt was ported from Comnuall in 1796 snac eran farmers ate tll fase] tral qusnser 9 de poor’ wee, uses eat urturag'? PLO, FLO. asiog and From Byey fo 1390 that ty tome piace no fae ace lace’ eveepng A he onssaie, were buyers tot sclles (chiely Miles 398 Fanos) Gag together = the bene of the ‘Martet ur eos lott to the acghbourtond™s such peace are mentioned "digaon by the ome cen”: BAO HO. ese Gals Bp Fuhte, “The Development of the Landon Food Market, 1540 1646, Bes Hie Rea, v O34 .88 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER 50 cnc an with he ance of he cn Aa «pel answer can be offered: the paternalists did, in their normal practice, ic oh age ay aed fa ol Cen ye ea ee of the people, who adopted parts of the model as their right and welcomed. It gave magistrates in disturbed districts, in time of dearth, some room for manoeuvre, and some endorsement to their attempts to reduce prices by suasion. When the Privy Council REA ale ace en) eos proclamations in unreadable Gothic type threatening dire penalties G0) ge fae co Bats ad {eles eta acinar ed at Toe a nt, he ates ep Murata au hese cee se ra Sou eof A sO aed ee Sporty LMS Shor mee see cre ts ie coe i de att Sie Becta acon Obed a ens \SMrgcy okt veotareg’ may cp nde Herp se gcd stay time in the previous twenty-five years.** But it is clear that they were designed for symbolic effect, as demonstrations to the poor chat the authorities were acting vigilantly im their interests. Hence the paternalise model bad an ideal existence, and also a fragmentary real existence. In years of good harvests and moderate prices, the authorities lapsed into forgetfulness. But if prices rose Ee he on cn fbn oboe hn poe ‘i en evn ge Sa ae a Regen ges ht Ses is tt SER can oat tae igo ete 2 dis Uhr eld ee Re ete See Seaham fe Scones 3 anode ttas a teats me Giedergeh ite 31260 er of convictions in 1795 and 1630 elvan asrlafions were exaubed in several soses co prosecute lorestaller Eee RNS ya cna pace Su Eee Cae Bede Facets iin ree Bog Ek CladTHE ENGLISH CROWD IN THE EIGHTEENTH GENTURY 89 ur Few intelectual victories have been moce overwhelming chaa that ‘which the proponents of the new political economy won in the matter of the regulation of the internal corn trade. Indeed, so absolute has the victory seemed to some historians that they cin scarcely conceal their impaticace with the defeated party." The model of the new political economy may, with convenience, be taken as that of Adam Smith, although The Wealth of Nations may be seen not only as a point of departure but also 4s a grand central terminus to which many important lines of discussion in the middle of the eighteenth century (ome of them, like Charles Smith's lucid Tracts on the Corn Trade (1738-9), specifically concerned to demolish the old paternalist market regulation) all run, ‘The debate between 1767 and 1772 which culminated in the repeal of legislation against forestalling, signalled a victory, in this area, for laiser-faire four years before ‘Adam Smith's work was published. This signified less a new model then an anti-model — a direct negative co the disintegrating Tuder policies of “provision”. “Let every act that cegards the cora laws be repealed”, Wrote Arbuthnocin 17733 “Let corn flow like water, and it will find ies level”.*¢ The “unlimited, uncestrained freedom of the corn trade” was also the demand of Adam Smith. ‘The new economy entailed @ de- soralizing ofthe theory of trade and consuption no less far-reaching than the more widely-debeted dissolution of restrictions upon usury.’ By “‘de-moralizing” it is not suggested that Smith end his colleagues were immoral or were unconcerned for the public good.** It is eee Grn, ay p248 (Gm Aten Sith as ah «5 Shas eta Hyabn® shart Ree 5.95 Morne ala and a ctoerae SS tcsar 8 Heth St iy au oman seen Pause Potro See ot ath cei ee ‘Sam Seon couse Cor Tete and Ere Lam" SG REE Fact ae in the qcatin n Relgin andthe Rie of Capital BRP Hace a he quests n Resin amd th Ri of Caption ante gakTehe ws ate gab SPS Hey, overt, Oy ot Sty opens ce pnb ont Cale he Thoth Rt we aor Ses PNET na ne Suan Rn ceed ees ad SEC Sido ace tine nae adele Ne manter az he seid Feacdess views om the corn tude: Anim Thoughts of an Old han of Indepen ‘fone Mind thengh Dapenlan: Forte on the Prawns High Priess of Cora (Losin, 1800). B. 4 6 ‘ik level of icestion I see no reason to disagree with Drofesece A. W. Beonomists andere Laboure:", in Land, Labour and ied. 1 Jones and G. E- Mingay (London, 1967). Bet intenton {54 bad measure of ideolostent Interest and of hcortcal conesdcences,90 PAST AND PRESENT [NUMBER 50 meant, rather, that the new pofitcal economy was disinfested of intrusive moral imperatives. The old pamphleteers were moralists first and economists second. In the new economic theory questions 3s co the moral polity of marketing do not enter, unless as preamble and peroration. In practical terms, the new model worked in this way. “The nacurel operation of supply and demand in the free market would maximize the satisfaction of all parties and establish the common good. The market was never better regulated than when it was left to regulate itself. Tn the course of a narmal year, the price of corn would adjust itself theough the market mechanism, Soon after harvest the small farmers, and all those with harvest wages and Michaclmas rents £0 pay, would thresh out their com and bring it to market, or release what they had pre-contracted to sell. From September to Christmas low prices might be expected. ‘The middling farmers would hold ‘their earn. in the hope of a rising market, until the carly springs while the most opulent farmers and farming gentry would hold some of theirs until still later — from May to August — in expectation of catching the market at the top. In this wey the nation’s corn reserves were conveniently rationed, by the price mechanism, over fifty-two ‘weeks, without any intervention by the State, Insofar as middlemen intervened and contrected for the farmers’ crops in advance, they performed chis service of rationing even more efficiently. In years of dearth the price of grain might advance to uncomfortable heights; bbuc this was providential, since (apart from providing en incentive (0 the importer) it was again an effective form of rationing, without ‘which all stocks would be consumed in the first nine months of the year, and in the remaining three months dearth would be exchanged for aceual fernine. ‘The only way in which this self-adjusting economy might break down was through the meddlesome interference of the State and of populer prejudice.“ Corn must be left to flow freely from areas of surplus toareas of scarcity. Hence the middleman played a necessary, productive, and laudable réle. The prejudices agsinst forestallers ‘Smith dismissed curtly as superstitions on a level with witchcraft. Interference with the natural pattern of trade might induce local famines or discourage farmers from increasing their ouput. Tf premature sales were forced, or prices restrained in times of dearth, ‘Smith saw che ewo 2e going together: “The laws, concern corn spears Ey concede ee renga ese ic thc happiness m8 to te, a government mute eld thet prejudicesTHE ENGLISH CROWD IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 91 excessive stocks might be consumed. If farmers did hold back thetr grain too long, they would be likely to suffer when prices broke. As for the other popular culprits — millers, mealmen, dealers, bakers — ‘much the same logic applied. Theis trades were competitive. At the most they could only distort prices ftom their natural level over short periods, and often to their ultimate discomficure. When prices began to soar atthe end of che century, the remedy was seen not in a return to the regulation of trade, but in more enclosure, tilage of waste lands, improvement. Te should not be necessary to argue chat che model of a natural and self-adjusting economy, working providentially for the best good of all, is 25 much a superstition as the notions which upheld the pPaternalise model — although, curiously, it is a superstition which some economic historians have been the last f0 abandon. In some. respects Smith's model conformed more closely to eighteeath-ceatury realities chan did the paternalist; and in symmetry and scape of intellectual construction it was superior. But one should not aver- look the specious air of empirical validation which the model carries. Whereas the frst appeals to 2 moral norm — what aughe to be men’s reciprocal duties — the second appears to say: “this is the way things work, or would work if the State did not interfere”. And yet if one ‘considers these sections of The Wealth of Nations they impress less as an éssay in empirical enquiry than as a superb, self-vali¢ating essay in logic, ‘When we consider the actual organization of the cighteenth-century corn trade, empirical verification of neither model is to hand. ‘There thas been little detailed investigation of marketing"? ne major study of ‘that Key gute, the miller." Even the firs letter of Smith’s alphabet — the assumption that high prices were an effective form of rationing — remains no more than an assertion. Tt is notorious that the ‘demand for corn, or bread, is highly inelastic. When bread is costly, ‘the poor (es one highly-placed observer was once ceminded) do not go ‘over to cake. In the view of some observerss when prices rose labourers might eat cic same quanticy of bread, but cuc out other items in their budgets; they might even at mare bread to compensate for the loss of other items. Out of one shilling, in a normal year, 6d ris Sesame Hoe te Magen of Agra! Prue in ia vigiaian, for land anal Wales vol 1, 1500-1542) 8, Joa Peden, ten gf Ei opt la Ae Pe Na fae tlt of the “Biskicenth: Centicy! Neresense Kent's Agric. it. Rem "haze is some wef information in R. Berwett and J. Eos, Hitory of Carn Milne (Liverpool, 1858), 4 7ey PAST AND PRESENT weamER 50 right go on bread, 64. on “coarse meat and plenty of garden stuf”; ‘but in a high-price year che whole shilling would go on bread."* Ta any event, itis well known that the price movements of grain cannot be accounted for by simple supply-and-demand ps ‘mechanisms; and the bounty paid to encourage com exports distorted matters further. Next to air and warer, corn was a prime necessity of life, abnormally sensitive to any deficiency in supply. In 1796 Arthur Young calculated that the overall crop deficiency in wheat was less than 25 ner cents bur the price advance was 8r per cent: giving (by his calculation) a profit o the agricultural community of £26 millions ‘over a normal year." Traditionalise writers complained that the farmers and dealers acted from the strength of “*mouopoly"; they were rebutted in pamphlet after pamphlet, as “too absurd to be seriously treated: what! more than two hundred thousand people... 1". The point at issue, however, was not whether this farmer or that dealer could act a5 a“monopolise", but whether the ++ inane) Colin fing Detected Bria 158), p67, Thi ser te ante by ee ilps of Baron BALE Pace a ean ot Scere tert: tr fe Utes et Be Pc EES Eidhe, gro gy we B'HPhepe hroun ata’. Hops, Hioren Ceaatee SCP YARE ‘t Coanumedies ompurel wi Milaent Wine rat's Eowaonicn an inst, pyaar ala only 20° the to Tenet bce oe ftancou foc Scan che Sadgee of aes ot iss Shey Sl prt pa esa tang gy ce sa nage tra sich eat Wed capo rcmaie mai bt tne wee erate ee eT ten ad an ncn age des feitag Bee y a epee Cagultn aes fons lly ae tae thre an aca of egal t Suse met opel Fossey aise eat mtectae ites and tne! PRO i San of darintar sai (796 pp, aor ara. Daveta tad estas in 095 thas Sanya the habe seat Se tcads el oe pce by See take? Se a One UBM a Conner Wks of Chak ‘Seopa ep ene pose i red. Str he Bread idea Heats fo9-6%, Banos ar sera 96) S03, DS Saal Mcdton and’ Eigith Sesnory pets Cte, Pa Haye be Gu pts fein een i contrary apogee te ge pees ot bbe Hegacatiot gs doe he ane once a pe sy tanitad Meee Sop e223 andr eee ows eae ae Bae hte eI Earl tcl oft ec aly eee pit he ety mcr poked" "Ont wd cg re vee ee GS Gaal operas oP BS paren tte sich Slane ay 7ERGn, ("A Coy Fame), The Lar toa ember f the Hie cane Seat TAN 7 Mea tan 0 op sea He aes Gl tN Set in Soe Been te Bare Al {a me Cea Raa of Sb (eid prernt ‘Scarly and high Price of Provisions (London, 1800); po 433. 8 Bi Ect i Cite Bc etc, aio fe‘THE ENGLISH CROWD IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 93 producing and trading interests as a whole were able, with a long- continuing train of favourabie circumstances, to take edvantage of their command of a prime necessity of life and to enhance the price to the consumer, in much the same way as the advanced industrialized nations today have been able to enhance ehe price of certain manu factured goods to the less advanced nations. ‘As the century advanced. marketing procedures became less trans parent, as the corm passed through the hands of « more complex network of intermediaries. Farmers were selling, not in an open competitive market (which, in a local and regional sense, was the aim of the paternalist rather titan the Laisersfaire model), but to dealers or millers who were in a better position to hold stocks and keep the market high, In the last decades of the century, as population rose, ‘so consumption pressed continually upon production, and the producers could more generally command seller's market. Wartime conditions, while not in fact inhibiting greatly the import of grain during conditions of scarcity, nevertheless accentuated psychological tensions in such years.** What mattered in setting the post-harvest price, was the expectation of the harvest yield: and there is evidence in the last decades of the century of the growth of a farming lobby, well aware of the psychological factors involved in post-harvest price levels, assiduously fostering an expectation of shortage. Notoriously, in years of dearth the farmers' faces were wresthed smiles,"" while in years of abundant harvest Dame Nature's inconsiderate bounty called forth agricultural cries of “distress” ‘And no matter how bountiful che yield might appear to the eye of the townsman, every harvest was accompastied by talk of mildew, floods, blighted ears which crumbled to powder when threshing commenced. ‘The free market model supposes a sequence of small to large farmers, bringing their corn to market over the year; but ar the end of the century, as high-price year succeeded upon high-price year, $0 more small farmers were able to hold beck supply until the market rose to their satisfaction. (It was, afterall, For them not a matter of routine marketing but of intense, consuming interest: their profit for the year might depend very largely upon the price which three or {See Olson, Beonomizs of she Werte Shortage, ch. 33 WP. Galpin, The Grain Supgiy of England during the Napoleons Peres (New York, 039 Seeeg, Anon, ("A West Coury Malls”), Conidaraion on the "Provisions, aud the Newsies of Life (Lando, £764), . 10, fortaite landowner vote fn 78, which: is kely't9 conte for several years to. come wil make Nurtandry Sery Beppe iti tecling up and eaproving al our now Lands ed By Jaf, op. ety Be $74 ‘PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER 50 four cormstacks might fetch}. If rents tad tobe paid, che growed in country banking made it easier for the farmer to be accommo- dated.** The September or October riot was often precipitated by the failure of prices to fall after a seemingly plentiful harvest, and indicated a conscious confrontation between reluctant producer and enpey canner “These comments are offered, not in refutation of Adam Smith, but simply co indicate places where caution should be exercised until our nowledge is grew, We need only say of he ise faie model that im expel unprovensinhecaty valleys and that there's tome evidence on the other side. "We have recently been reminded thar “merchan mde money ta the eighteenth cemury and that grain merchants may bave made it “by operation the soarkt Sich qperavons are ozsfonaly recoréey sthaugh eae a frankly as was noted by a Whittlesford (Cambs.} farmer and corn merchant Fee dary in to Tsou By Tine Tw Mot cpa av BIE puid ie didnt ne Which wan tso0 et pick twas PBS Era aa a tepmcncay pachmagapes ‘The profit on this transaction was above £1,000, Ww Trone can reconstruct clear alternative models behind the policies of traditionalists and of political economists, can one construct the same for the moral economy of the crowd? "This ig Jess exsy. One is confronted by a complex of rational analysis, prejudice, and ‘eaditional patterns of response to deareh, Nor is it possible, at any given montent, clearly 10 identify the groups which endorsed the theories of the crowd, They comprise articulate and inarticulate, and include men of education and address. After 1750 each year of scarcity was accompanied by a spate of pamphlets and leters co the press, of unequal value It was a common complaint of the The point is noted in Anon A Later 10 the Rt, Hom, Wiliam Pic. the Cauat of the High Price of Provintn (Herctord, 1799), p. 91 Anan: Secteryof Practical Paemersy A Later to fhe Re Flom Lard Sameraile (Loony Hoo), pga. CLL S Preetnll, Country Banking ike Infurrial Retelaton (Oxfer, 1526) 90 48-8 ‘C. W. J Grainger and C. M. Ellige, “A Fresh Look ar Wheat Prices and Macks in the Fightceath Century, Peon Hist Reo 2nd ser 2% (1967) 785: B, Ma Hampson, The Traaomare of Peery in Cambridgeshire, 1599-1834 (Camseidge, 1934) B22‘THe ENGLISH CROWD IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 95 protagonists of free trade in corn that misguided gentry added fuel co ‘the flames of mob discontent. “There is truch in this. The crowd derived its sense oflegitimation, in fact, feom the paternalist model. Many gentlemen still resented the middleman as an interloper. Where lords of the manor retained market rights they resented the loss (through sample-sales ete.) of their marker coll. If they were landlord-farmers, who witnessed reat or flour being marketed ac prices disproportionately high in relation co their own receipts from the dealers, they resented the profits of these common tradesmen the more, ‘The essayist of 1718 has a ttle which is a précis of his matter: An Essay 10 prove thar Regrators, Bagrossers, Forestaller, Hacokers and Jobbers. of Cort, Gattle, and opher Marketable Goods... are Destructive of Trade, Oppreisors to che Poor, and a Gonamon Nuisance to the Kingdom in General. AML dealers "(unless simple drovers or carters, moving provisions from one point xo the next) appeased to this not ‘unolcervant writer a8 2 “vile and pesnicious set of mea” and, inthe classic terms of reproval adopted by men of settled estate t0 the bourgeois, they ate varabood orto aoc Tha ttt hse have the mack of Cain, and hike = eae oe ‘orpece, tnterloping fade between the fai dale and the bamese consumes ‘This hostility to the dealer existed even among meny country ‘magistrates, some of whom were noted to he inactive when popular disturbances swept chrough the ateis under their jurisdiction. ‘They ‘were nat displeased by attacks on dissenting or Quaker corn factors, A Brisco! pamplilecees, who is clearly acorn factor, complained bitterly in 1758 to the J.P.s of “your lawegiving mob”, which prevented, in the previous year, the export of com from the Severn and Wye valleys, and of “many fruitless applications to several Justices of the Pesce. Indeed, the conviction grows that a popular hubbub ‘tAdim Smith noted nearly sy yeues later that che “popelar odium pil tends te Zora wade te ours of caret, the only yar in which i Ee'vay srottats, renders peopl of characte ad forme stereo etet ao te “Sis abandoned to an inferior, act of dealers” Tiweneyctive yeart aest ‘asin Earl Fela was weising “Dealers corn ace withdeewing from the Gee aa eae inal acy nich ad emer hes ‘sliousSouidance in prceton fear ove nought tobe ore eulioten Eluniam to Poréand 9 Sept rao, PRO, HO. ash Buran extiton of fe forse of sc fries the Hawes, Fijeand Guys mig sl fn question suc literary ev Emanuel Colas, ed. ar pb, 67-74, To 1796 severe! Qusker mecting- nouses were acacked ag fond ior isthe Melands: Gentdeman's Megas, Sa (1750) B40.96 PAST AND PRESENT NuMBER 50 iat fats a ao anc 0 ste Is sbiy. 1t distracted attention ftom the farmers and rentiers; while vague Cure Soa tree gn eas pvc th po saan Shree sutoris resending to ther fs heal suas frealosadeeconplie 176 Se pein senate cre by neo Rs aaa ra at Sh wat SERESo faa ee “on Indes, be accede ots of enotragiag “whe exaodiey ‘pretence, that the power and spiric of the mob is necessary co enforce Bh awe*e™ But the in tere stay sx in ec hey ae directed almost without exception against petty culprits — local wide-boys or market-men, who pocketed small profits on trivial Maman whe he ee eae an ils we una ee opto ce nh ra Hie rea Prete oe ony ne et ha 2 tan ae ce aor We alt non had es ea ce alos pace a She fev a ey Ls Seen ipa cei ying Seah ae ane te SSUES USE Sang ote segs Se Bois Bes crue bole ar bs os CEE redial ete inci hm, arts ee ee Ser fet, Soe hei iha rte "ereetalea SOREGT ICE ae Ces a Tae one Eee pr cise ch aces bale se FE Boal Meeme nem eam” endanger ee Se 2s eit Sdn Re” Sete, Se Seba teh 8 OOO Sa Etc ON Se aia te arts, a a era gee Sa et savin ah and PRRs a ing SO Gea Sc tal, Sida? aah Se ole BY Sivee taina B Medl ota tr Bat Ea ar Sao BROIL ara soaca ieee chee age ate PW ban Me taiae ee Sn en oy le ane la atin ie Ted Ce is Sa Wea tala ans ob ne aa SE, Carat, SY Se ta ea SEM gelato see Sipe Sp eae eetiatr ras tae cae a te hea SENG Is Race cade ioe aS ar es eee eo ee ae g Se as eer a Ee erm eae Sgale Mh peed bude, uel Reiley os DRS Ba Beach arte se nea, Soci pin tk Ea A ali rp ao‘THE ENGLISH CROWD IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 97 “Thus, to take a late example, an old-fashioned and crusty Middlesex IP, J.'S. Giedler, instituted « general campaign of prosecutions fagainst such offenders in 1756 and 1800, with handbills offering rewards for information, lecers to the press, etc. Convictions were upheld at several Quarter Sessions, but the amount gained by the speculators amounted only to ten of fifteen shillings. We can guess at the kind of offender whom his prosecutions touched by the literary style of an anoaymous letter which he teceived: ‘We na go are an enemy to Frere, Millers) Mealmen and Bakers snd ont ‘Trade Oe bed noc bene for me and Suotuer you you soa oft Oca you Wald fave pene murdued long ago by offering sour based enarés and peseeing Serra Ga dm you sna Sas you yu sal ever ve oe ante Compassionate traditionalists like Giedler were joined by townsmen ‘of various ranks. Most Londoners suspected everyone who had any part in handling grain, flour or bread of every kind af extortion. The urban lobby was, of course, especially powerful in the middle years of the century, pressing for an end t0 the export bounty, or for the prohibition of all exports in time of dearth. But London and the larger towns harboured inexhaustible reserves of resenemeat, and some of the wildest accusations came from this milieu. A certain Dr, Manning, in the 17508, published allegations that bread was, ‘adulterated not only with alum, chalk whiting and beanmeal, but also with slaked lime and white lead. Moat sensational was bis claim that millers tured into their flour “sacks of ald ground bones”: “the charnel houses of the dead are raked, co add flehiness to the food of the living”, or, a8 another pamphleteer commented, “the present age [is] making hearty meals om the bones af the lat”. ‘Manning's accusations went far beyond the bouads of credibility, (A atic computed thar if lime was being used on the scale of bis allegations, more would be consumed in the London baking than ‘building industry). Apert from alum, which was widely used t0 whiten bread, the commoaest form of adulteration was probably the admixtore of old, spoiled flour with new flour.«? But the urban population was quick to believe that far more noxious aduleerations were practised, and such belief contributed (0 the ‘“Shude-hiil Fighi” at Manchester in 1757, where one of the mills attacked was believed co mix “Accoras, Beans, Bones, Whiting, Chopt Straw, and SEaenel Cala Ee op, soags & Napa, Stra Landen, 2gsBiy i bb, 31383 Pe v Prghfut Trae cin a Treat Bread Laon 1797) 5-168. Hee eg Feb Sintin 4 besarte Relation of Facts Concrnng the Male- procs f Biker Candace nee tree "98 PAST AND FRESENT [NUMBER 50 even dried Horse Dung” with its flours while at another mill the presence of suspicious adulterants near the hoppers (discovered by ‘the crowd) led o the burning of bolters and sieves, and the destruction of millstones and wheels.** ‘There were other, equally sensitive, areas where the complaints of the crowd were fed by the complaints of traditionalists or by those of turban professional people. Indeed, one may suggest that if the rioting or price-setting crowd acted according to any consistent theoretical model, thea this mode] was a selective reconstruction of the paternalist one, taking from it all those features which most favoured the poor and which offered a prospect of cheap com. Tt was, however, less generalized than the outlook of the paternaliss The records of the poor show more puticularity: i i this miller, this dealer, those farmers hoarding grain, who provoke indignation and action. This particulavty was, however, informed by general notions of rights which disclose themselves most clearly only when one examines the crowd in action, For in one respect the moral economy of the crowd broke decisively with that of the peternalists: for the popular ethic sanctioned direct action by the crowd, whereas the values of order underpinning the paternalist model emiphatically did not. ‘The economy of the poor was still local and regional, derivative from a subsistence-economy. Com should be consumed in. the region in which it was grown, especially in times of searcity. Pro= found feeling was aroused, and over several centuries, by export in times of dearth, Of an export riot in Suffolk in 1631 a miagistrate wrote: “to sce thei bread thus taken from them and sent to strangers hhas turned the impatience of the poor into licentious fury and desperation”.** In a graphic account of a riot in the same county seventy-cight years later (1709), a dealer described how “the Mobb rose, he thinks several huadreds, and said that the cora should not be carryed out of town": “of the Mobb some had halberds, some quarter stafis, and some clubs ...”. When travelling to Norwich, a several places on the way: ‘the Moblo hearing tlt he was to soe through with oof, cold him that i ‘Should got go thaigh the Towne, for sate as a Rogues aad Caea-Jabber, fand some cry'd out Stone him, Some Pull hip off his horse, some Knock Ins dowe, and be sure you stike sure; thar he. questioned them What E56 J.P aun Coa cnt of te Maer f Mane RERH of Manchees tad ty Fond Row a sr and its) rows Lan (ond Cash, ug Soe sv gto) pp. 93-9 Calendar State Papers, Dama 1850, oaTHE ENGLISH CROWD IN THE EIOHTRENTH CENTURY 99 eon nn are we di a suatenaien coh Guam mee Asis ete Bab atom te Baal Except in Westminster, in the mountains, ot in che great sheep- grazing districes, men were never far from the sight of corn. Mant facturing industry was dispersed in che countryside: the colliers weat SHUM te sal rcantlas Sonate woh ta looms and workshops for the harvest. Sensitivity was not confined to overseas export, Marginal exporting areas were especially sensitive, SET eater ehast cae we ote, is of scarcity, dealers could hope for a windfall price in London, the adgcnaigg orth les gral Pose Ban Sate ont Bt uc opty ane foie teh Glee" Woonuy the Gael cs inublecneeneccesumeny tt eacue f'n oot Cee ge Ueda a Uh dati Poet we Benn use in ehh seo somo creel uppers mem ean ageing some Sac a eet Sari atia tea deine ntaateratete Bie meses! The want rouument ws provled inte idle eso he ccs by fg tur on sh Rea pa The sce: nscale: By ne STAR hd lw he ld a by ald oto Ea tres Hens lt iene Sto tus ed ue ‘exporter, who was seen as a man seeking private, and dishonourable, san she apne ome panes A Soa akane ae who was given a ducking in the river in 1740, was told that he was we SEN SEES Gi ie a sel tiara Cr comes uc Soon ces Er 9 you Fig tayo Fas unr ae a es err at Suen rer tee ee ates beetates Siesta Wibee demise aceaie Suet lie One SONG aay Si paar evebion feat “And if Bany Publick House in Carlisle [the notice continued] Lets ve ane pray Gon si fe oy hal te it This feeling revived in the last years of che century, notably BEES: PSU muy crgr Desens mn 4° RSE sence neater100 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER 50 in 1795, when rumours flew around the country as to secret exports to France. Moreover, 1795 and 1800 saw the efflorescence of a regional consciousness once more, as vivid as that of one hundred years before. Roads were blockaded to prevent export from the parish, Waggons were intercepted and unloaded in the towns through which they passed. The movement of grain by night convoy assumed the proportions of a military operation: Rae duet county bend dnag te Souda” ‘her folowing wheel, 0 dread procession 03, Wh has hartcst eo thelr poate ty Bo “The seerec expedition lke he aise ‘Tha covers ts tends sil shone the ght ‘White the oot ploughinan, when be leaves his bed, ‘Sees the huge barn as empiy as his shed." ‘Threats were made to destroy the canals."* Ships were stormed at the ports. The miners at Nook Colliery near Haverfordwest threatened to close he estuaty at a narrow point. Even lighters on. the Severn and Wye were not immane from attack? Tadignation might also be iaflamed against a dealer whose comrait- ‘ment (© an outside market disrupted the custoraary supplies of the local community. A substantial farmer and publican near Tiverton complained to the War Office in 1795 of riotous assemblies “threatening to pull dow ar fire his house because he takes in Butter of the neighbouring Farmers & Dairymen, to forward it by the ‘common road waggon, that passes by his door to... London”."* In Chudleigh (Devon) in the same year the crowd destroyed the machinery of a miller who had ceased to supply the local community ‘with flour since he was under contract to the Victualling Department of the Navy for ship's biscuits: his had given rise (he says in a revealing phrase) “to an Idea that ive done much infimy to the Community”.”* ‘Thiety years before a group of London merchants Ihad found it necessary to seek the protection of the military for their cheese-varchouses along the river Trent: "The warehouses... Ja danger from the socus calles ase sot che property ‘of any monopolies bot of 4 aumeross body of eheesemongery aad ses 18 §. J. Beaty Sompathy and Other Pawns (Landon: thar), pp. 23 +s Sonia nt bela Wed had fans i stated Yo decoy our canas and err the marr" Scenuee provisions were paming through Sa Sire Manche rom ae Apa. egw iro Young ‘hts of he Petey ews, 8). BRO. POna7Asa; Aas: FLO, 4a)24; 43/95; 4236; 42/97; see ape Sse pan 8% Seman he Pt il Pa ARO WO. tila” is Rae, 24 Tove 1795, BIRO HO. s/sTHE ENGLISH CROWD IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 101 sare psi oh ap Thee pvc ene th coh ene te wis oes et sn ae ee ed ft Erie teks ean ee noth aa ep a al ih EECGTEINLS Topten ce eal ite tae es ture ie fe ote Se mec rei ah ir peta ar sere sas eaten cee RSSTASE GY Sed a ee a all Sass Soy ead Bete Tet ite mau i te iu een SST TAA tn na a Racing ra ec he hes a den ote yy eal, wih Fics ena? TN a eh hy Gti cee el ists cas to buy & single cheese or half fitch of bacon, Girdler wrote in 1800, Sisal hetnancedy noted hea tn ew wy ys ta ose ‘We may take 23 expressive of these grievances, which sometimes extra lls ed psy Sat see SPSS? ccna fe cari | eae tem eh Snir mua pero oan es ae Eee tay stew inves ue Boer eee ahsete siege cow wey wae aot Whorthy Look oo them, But tei tone wil sm Oe Senna Roy ‘The Corporation is asked to order carriers out of the market until the townspeople have been served, “and stop all che Butchers from SU Etsy Cast nae nap in the Markit and sarve the Town first". The letter informs the Highslide ue tele eae Stn to be trow co each other for the Distruction af che Carriers".*¢ #B.RO., WO, 11986 fo. 60, Davies, on din BD. 38 “The Beet peterple aid dows by a bales, when he comes into a patish, ss, up got all the poor iis brs he tha take thie bread of whe weight oF agen leer Gena Mazer, ni i800. 57 PROMO BB,102 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER 50 ‘Where the working people could buy cereals in small parcels intense feeling could arise over weights and measures, We are exhorted in Luke: “Give, and it shall be given unto you, good measure pressed down, and shaken together, and running ovec, shall men give unto your bosom”, This was not alas, the practice of all farmers and dealers in protestant England. An enactment of Charles IK had evea given the poor the right ro shake the measure, so valuable as the poor ‘man’s cora that a loaseness io the measure might make the difference to him of a day without 2 loaf. ‘The same Act had attempted, with ‘ota lack of succes, to enforce the Winchester measure as the national standard. A. great variety of measures, varying even within county ‘boundaries from one market-own (0 che next, gave abundant ‘opportunities for petty profiering. The old measures were generally larger — sometimes very much larger — than the Winchesters sometimes they were favoured by farmers or deslers, more often they were favoured by the customers. One observer cemarked that “the lover orders of people detest it [the Winchester measure], from the smallness of its canteats, and the dealers ... instigate them to this, it boeing their interest to retain every uncertainty in weights and measures” ‘Attempts to chenge the mesture often encountered resistance, ‘occasionally riot. Alerter from a Clee Hill (Salop.) miner to “Brother Sufferex” declared ‘The Paclament for oxr celief to help to Clem [stave] us Thay are going 10 lesson our Maaiure and. Wait [weigh] (0 the Lower Sundeed._ We are about Ten Thousand swore and ready at any time And we woud have sou fet Aems and Cutlasses an awear one another co be crue =» We have But ‘ne Life to Loose and we wal noe lem» Letters to farmers ia Northiam (Sussex) warned: Gentlemen al i hope jou wall tke this as a wharaing co yot all for vou tov put the tle Bustcl bie anc take te oald measher [meas] teal foc it Soul dont there ull be s Large company that stall borne baer} the le oeasher whe you ate all abade snd asleep and Your carnehouses and corn- Sacks and you slong wih them ===." A Hampshire contribucor to the Annals af Agriculture explained in 11995 thac the poor “have erconeously conceived an idea that the price of grain is increased by the late alteration from a nine-gatlon bushel to 1 al of ricalre i796) 347; Mure Rusia ¢ Covent in tae tence ta hls Cul we sey cosine at ena the Winchester bushel of gallon, the Stanuord had t gallon, eke Ea ade Che yas Fou 2 icin for fpr of bes ‘jap a. ab 3 June 100). Lone Gavute, March 167, ty 13246, * eNom "1795, in PIO, HUG. aap. The meanures concemes‘THE ENGLISH CROWD IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 103 the Winchester, from its happening to take place at s moment of 3 tog mary wks th tone oy a ud i gt sd cobs pun eran glo sof become, ste et pice rhe ae a er ep Sar eel cs oe ese ace Se SA eae OPO Uae athe GSU BOS See tea nan te one =I Even so, the arithmetical notions of the poor may not have been so Eset" Chang in tsncytae cng ts deta eas, tod by se gh danderge ti one, tesco we ig tenia te cad ft canary nthe open stb ho ss inated thee rates pore Ofte lc "Te says spacey pope fae oer tan crt whch at ens aunevate" Oto fond sce sled a nny sce ieche whie prome {Si pape pureed! sonar veiog oe word “grinding”. Perhaps the convenicnce of the village mill, tucked around a secluded corner of the stream, to which the village wives and maidens brought their corn for grinding; perhaps also his command ‘over the means of life; perhaps his status in the village, which made Wman cgi ath Ta my have cote ote gad ‘beats ew eo FTE pee OT Tran bot gay a fide times ees come mcrae nn aioe The he real me eee eee Hasse es SE SECLISESa On esther ta the miles spt wa eval. “Laing, exclaims Nellic Dean in Wuthering Heights: “Loving! Did anybody Ste thete?Tngit wel lt ving li tome SSistyuaio oman Wemcae sole al hrs inl Ae a ca gl Rin cE SSD miller would go", verse 3: fe Sete nan aml ep HES I ea Rea SEU04. PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER 50 about him in these years, the miller’s story hed changed ticle since Chancer’s Reeve’s Tale. But where the small country miller was accused of gueintly medieval customs — over-size toll dishes, flour concealed in the casing ofthe stones, ete. — his larger counterpart was accused of adding new, and greatly more enterprising, peculations: For ter-iforn he wal bug curly, ‘But now he was a thie? outrageously. At one extreme we still have the litte country mill, exacting roll according to its own custom. ‘The coll might be taken in flour {always from “the bese of the meal and from the finer flour that is ia the centre of the hopper”); and since the proportion remained the same with whatever fhictustion in price, it was to the millers advan tage if prices were high. Around the small toll-mills (even where toll, ‘had beca commuted for money payments) grievances multiplied, and there were ficful attempts at their regulation.%* Since the millers centered increasingly into dealing, and into grinding corn on their own ‘account for the bakers, they had litle time for the petty customers (with a sack oF two of gleaned corn); hence endless delay; hence also, ‘when the flour was terurned it might be the product of other, inferior, ‘grein. (It was complained that some millers purchased at half-price damaged corp which they then mixed with the corn of their ‘eustomers."9) As the century wore on, the translation of many mills (o industriat purposes gave to the surviving petty corn-mills a more advantageous position. In 1796 these grievances were sufficiently fele to enable Sir Francis Bassett to carry the Mille’s Toll Bill, intended to vegulate their practices, weights and measures, more strictly. #* But these petty millers were, of course, the smal fy of the ighteenth century. The great mille of the Thames Valley and of the large towns were a different order of entreprencuts, who traded extensively in flour and malt. Millers were quite outside che Assize of Bread, and they covid immediately pass on any increase in the price of corm to the consumer. England also had its unsung banalivés in the cighteenth cencury, including those extraordinary survivals, the soke-mills, which exercised an absolute monopoly of the ‘rinding of geain (and the sale of flour) in substantial manufacturing * See P. Matar, Sparse (Landon, 1738 ep 54 Bente and Eon, aya re a a apy te ea aig Maint ast tame Too eee Yi al nmcnes e Tatts Ault Rae Scat papr, County Ha, Wakes Sieg Gade aegis a 1 Raho Seite cats H9-9s Renae a En nip 9 Genes‘THE ENOLISH CROWD IN THE EIGHTRENTHC CENTURY 105 centres, among them Manchester, Bradford, T.ceds.**_ In most cases the feofiees who owned the soke-rights sold or leased these to private Speculators. Mont stormy tas the istry of the School Mille at Manchester, whose soke-rights were intended as 2 charitable endow= tment to suppor te gran schol. "Two oapopuar lesees of the rights inspired, in 1737, Dr. Byrom’s rhyme: ‘ewe ad Stn coils din Kea Sa a ei Be oe ei ‘pac Pn Bio cst a, Wheo, ja 1757, new lessees sous to prohitic the importation of four to the growing town, while at the same time managing their mills (it was alleged) with extortion and delay, flesh and blood could indeed bear it no longer. In the famous “Shude-hili Fight” of that year at least four men were killed by muskecry, but the soke-rights were finally broken.** But even where no actual soke-right obtained, one ‘mill might command a populous community, and could provoke the people to fury by sudden adgance in the price of flour or an evident deterioration in its quality, Mills were the visible, tangible cargets: Of som othe mos herious Urban eat ofthe century. The Albion Millsa Bachar Bridge (London st team ml) were governed ‘by a quasi-philanthropic syndicate; yet when they burned down {ot Londoners danced and sang ballads of eoiciog inte streets. ‘The tse steam sal at Birmingham (Snow Hil) fared Ine bet, being the target ofa massive attack in 1798 Te may eppent a oe sighs curious that both desler and millers shoold continue to be among the ebjecives of riot atthe end of the entury by which time any pars ofthe Midlands end South nd certainly in urban arcas) working people had become accustomed to buying bread at the bakers’ shops rather than grain or flour in the imarket-place. We do not know enough to chart the change-over with aeccurcy, and carcnly much bomerbaldng survved.*® Bar even * Ss Bengertnd lon

Tis the restraint, rather than the disorder, which is remarkable; and there can be no doubt that che actions were approved by an over ‘whelming popolar consensus. ‘There is a deeply-felt conviction that prices oupht, in times of dearth, co be regulated, and that the profteer put himself outside of society.” On occasion the crowd attempted to enlist, by suasion or force, 2 magistrate, parish constabie, or some figure of authority to preside aver the taxation populaire. In 1766 at Drayton (Oxon,) members of the crowd went to John Lyford’s house “and asked him if he were a Constable — upon his saying ‘yes" ‘Cheer said he sho'd go with them to the Cross & receive the money for 3 sacks of flour which they had taken from one Betty Smith and which they w'd sell for 5s 2 Bushel”; the same crowd enlisted the constable of Abingdon for the same service. ‘The constable of Handborough (also in Oxfordshire) was enlisted in a similar way, in 17953 the crowd sct a price — and a substantial one — of 4os a sack. upon a waggon of floue which had been intercepted, and che money for no fewer than fifteen sacks was paid into his hands. Ia the Isle of Ely, in the same year, “the mob insisted upon buying mest ac 4d per Ib, & desired Mr Gardner a Magistrate to superintend the sale, as the Mayor had done at Cambridge on Saturday sennight™. Again in 1795 there were a mumber of occasions when militia oF regular troops supervised forced sales, sometimes at bayonet point, their officers looking steadfastly the other way. A combined operation of sofdiery and crowd forced the mayor of Chichester to accede in ‘oro, 1740 — Iemich Ferma 26 Jn 740} Dewsbury, e740 — 1, Le Rave ata five magnates; Walebeld, YovApe 74, 10 CHO SP. sts Thames Valey, 66° txdmory of Bertlomest Fecman of Bihar Bote, 2 Or 1955, 18 PRO, TStfopetseny Hamers Tas PRO, 8.0" seoag 9 Fare ot Bean = foen Timer Mayor of Guten, 7 Jong 1795, PRG. W.0.1)5087; Oordyall — see Toba G, Raley "Some Social hapecs of te’ Corns indinal Revues ata end Secesy irate Sauces, os Roger Bare (rivera ty of Eee. 970) Bo Soo‘THE ENGLISH CROWD IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 113 setting the price of bread. At Wells men of the x22nd Regiment begun Wy hoot thne they emt frat of pers of tuner ha Ce ea et a ce aha lng a rey at es ee! Sieg ate of fd pee, hough the Ein pie ge bythe bets eres at oe Te woul be fois co suggest that, when so large a beach was made inthe outworks of deference, many did not ake the opportunity to auty off good without payment. But theres sbundant evidence the athct way and some of ies suiking, “There are the Honiton lee trorkes, ia 1766, who, having ten corn fmm the farmers and sod iar he popular pice i the marker, brought back tothe farmers not toly the moaey but aso the sacks; the Oldbam crowd, tn 1800, ‘which radoned each purchaser to two pects & head} and the many Uecasions when carts Were stopped ou the foods thet eostens sald, fad the money eatrusted tothe cater." ‘Moreover, in thase cases where goods were taken without peyment, ‘or where violence was committed, it is wise to enquire whether any particular aggravation of circumstances enters into the case. The istinon i made in an account ofan action in Portsea (Hants) in 1995. The bakers and butchers were fst offered by the crowd the popular price: “those that complied in those demands were paid with Exuctnest”. Dut those who refused had thet shops rifled, “vitkout feceting any mare money thn the mab choe (0 leave”s “Again the fQuaryeten at Por Tae (Corneal) it the seme year seized batley Srarchoused for export, paying the reasonably high pice of 115.8 Boshel, athe seme sme waraing te owner tht if he flee to sip th Reminder they would come & tae i without making him aay fecompence”. Very often the motive of punihhment of serene omer ne ‘he great rot in Neweastle tn £740, when pen and Fetlmen swept ito the Guildhall, deioyes the towa books and Shared ou the town’s itchy and’ pelted aldermen with, mud and \s« Drayton, Oxog.— brit desist Won Denley and three other, ix PRO, 11S. rpgashigors Hiandvorough = Inonmaton of Rober Prot sous, oRig 9, Bio, Rees Ge or Lord Hace, Wine isdn hg mest hiheae, age oF Retina Contant $e hor i79s) RON NwSG s/xoga, Wels —“Veesx"y ab Apes f795) PRO. ‘OF tisaBs andthe Rev. J. Yume 28 Ar HO. a2 For aa tamole a espeae wh ae enced for pct det in Rael 5, see, $. ate cits ps 4353 Edwin Butterworth, Historical hatchet of Otani (Ohdbam, 8565 OS CaN.14 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER 50 stones, came only afier two phases of aggravation: frst, when an Ugreerient between tbe ptmea’s leaders andthe merchant (vith a flferman acing a arbitratr) sting the prices of grain hod been broken, sccondy when panic authorities had heed lato the cowd from the Guildhall siege, "At one house in Gloucestershire a. 1768 Shots were fied athe sowed which Covtes he sheriff} — they hires fang are te nese and devroyng 2 he ur Sea epee aft theta as otis Soa the toe Site aah Rome eed ope then maser Im 179s the tinners mounted an atack upon a Peneyn {Cornwall merchant who as contracted 9 snd them barley, but who had seat them spoiled and sprouting grain. When mill wete wacked, and their machinery damaged, i wa often in furtherance of 9 fonge standing warning, or as punishment for some notorious practice.'** Indeed, if we wish to call in question the unilinear and spasmodic view of food riots, we need only point to this continuing motif of popular intimidation, when men and women near to starvation: Fevertcless eeacked ils aed pranares, ott teal the ood, but to Punish the propriees, Repeatedly corn or flour was steewn along the roads and hedges; dumped into the river; mill machinery was damaged end milan lt OH To exarples of such bekavioue the futhoritesretted both wh indignron tnd atoniahment. Tt was Symplomacc (ast secmed then) of te "antc™ and dienipeed Humours ota people whove bean ws inflamed by hunger. Th 1795 both the Lord Clit Justice and Arthur Young delivered lectures to the poor, pong out that the destruction of pain was not the best ‘eay'to improve the supply of bread, Homa Move added Fa} penny Homily. An anonymous verifier of t8e0 gives usa ather thoe lively extmple of thete admonitions to the lower erder UA IGH ase et Spe a paola trae me oc “icy at sel nite iad ehh ough SOPRA ASS el SQUAT ee ad ly we eke aac Sate ak ee er ae Oe ane han suet ete acs 4 Poresea — Garaleman's Magazine, lv (1795), 3433 Port Tanac — Si {W. Moesworih, 23 March 1795, 6.8.0 HLO. 43/4; Neveage — Genclonan’ Macazine, © (C740), Pe 456, aad Vieidus sources fa PALO, SB. g6/Sty IN ‘Nagthumberiard Ret. Ov and Neweaste Cty Archives Od; Gloucestershire, 1765 PRO., PC. 1/84gt; Paneyn, £795 = PRO. HO. 43/34‘THE ENGLISIC CROWD IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 115 ‘Het eura Squce Hoardun’s gamer, 4 he wil, Hie Ss ers Ta Now teen the Prong and Pitchfork taey prepare ‘An al me iiplemetes of est war ‘el he runrldee ed ‘Pes Gorning bam and Pull dawn smal Wiltnetber orm proce nor belies i But were the poor really so silly? One suspects thet the mallers and dealers, who kept one wary eye on the people andthe other on the ‘uaximization oftheir profits, knew better then the poctastes at chele ssericires, For the poor had their owa sources of information, ‘They ‘worked on the docks. They moved the barges on the canals. They Grove the carts and manned the wollgatss. They worked in the ‘ranatics and the mills. They often knew the local facts far better than the gentry; in many actions they went unerringly to hidden supplics of grain whose exiseence the J.P, in good faith, denied. If rumours often grew beyond all bounds, they were always rooted in atleast some shallow soil office. ‘The poor knew thatthe one way ta ‘make the rich yield was co twist cheir arms. WI Initiators of the riots were, very often, the women. In 1693 we learn of @ great nuraber of women going to Northampton market, “with Knives stuck in theie girdles to force corn at their own rates" In an export riot in £737 at Poole (Dorset) it was reported: “The Numbers consist in so many Women, & the Men supporting them, & Swear, if any one offers 10 molest any of the Women in their Proceedings they will raise a Great Namber of Men & destroy both Ships & Cargoes”. The mob was raised in Stockton (Durham) im 1740 by 2 “Lady with a stick and a horn”. At Haverfordwest (Pembroke) in 1795 an old-fashioned J.P. who attempced, with the help of his curate, to do bartle with the colliers, complained that “tae ‘women were putting the Men on, & wete perfect furies, Thad some strokes from some of them on my Back..." A Birmingham paper described the Saow Hill riots as the work of “a rabble, urged on by fucious women”. In dozens of cases it is the same — the women pelting an unpopular desler with his own potatoes, or cunningly combiaing fury with the calculation that they had slightly greater jgwmunity than the men from the retaliation of the authorities: “the ‘women told the common men”, the Haverfordwest magistrate said of 1 Anan, Gontansnent: oF Histo Sercancs, on the Praunt Searesy (broad- sheet, 1880).6 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER 50 the soldiers, “that they fnew they were in their Hearts for them & ‘would do them no hurt." ‘These women appear to have belonged to some pre-history of their sex before its Fall, and to have been unaware that they should hhave waited for some two hundred years for their Liberation, (Southey could write as a commonplace, in 1807: “Women are more disposed to be mutinous; they stand less in fear of law, partly from ignorance, partly because they presume upon the privilege of their sex, and therefore in all public tumults they are foremost in violence and ferocity”,)""* They were also, of course, thase most involved in face-to-face marketing, most sensitive to price significancies, most experienced in detecting short-weight or inferior quality.” Ic is probable that the women most frequently precipitated the spontaneous actions. But other actions were more carefully prepared. Sometimes notices were nailed to church or ina doors. In 1740 “a Mach of Fuarball was Cried at Ketring of five Hundred Men of «side, bucthe desighn was to Pull Down Lady Betey jesmaine’s Mills”. At the end of the century the distribution of hand-written notices may have become more common, From Wakefield (Yorks.), 1795. "To Give Notice ‘To ail Women & inbabitance of Wakefeld they are desired to moet atthe ‘New Churct s+ on Friday nose st Nine O'Clock. ta state the price af By desire ofthe inhabitants of Halifax ‘Who wel mest thers there From Stratton (Cornwall) 1802 “To all the aboucing, Men and Tradegmien ithe Mundeed of Swaton that 2g ling to tae there Wife gel Cid fom the Desa onion of being STARVED ro DEATH by the unfecling and Griping Farmner ‘Assemble all emeadiacely and match In Dreadhll Areay to the labiaio: 4 Northampton ~~ Coleadar Stave Papers, Domestic, 1693, p. 3373 Poole — rpeporal of Chit ead Ketebares merhamty exceed ip ins Newest, 41/104 Stockton ~ Ealwaed Goddard, 24 May ¢740, seMay t737. Baty SB clea Ake ess hady wh « Suck d's hors goog owe Norton t ste hie people took the hoon from her, She wing ery i antage Zi she while a flowed igo due Towgytssing a he People she col Grdered dhe Woman tobe ulken up.» Sheall she way Croing out, Darn fos Wo! qases Bammnyiamn commit any Ri gr Disorder ia fern tne Otte ab We focaon omit o Boson “They then contracted for wheat, at ros. and 125, the bushel, supplying ittoa“List of the Poor” at 8s. until harvest. (60 bushels weekly over this period will have iavolved a subsidy of between £100 and {,200.) “By these Means we restored Peace, and disappointed many loose, disorderly Fellows of the Neighbouring Parishes, who appeared ia ‘the Market with their empry Bags, expecting to have had Corn without sot Nowcane ~ advettnsent 24 June 149 in City Archives Of De of Richmond, t3 Apr. 1795, BRLO., WO zitopa; Devon — fare Colengge, 25 Maw tbo 100, gH. om , ““126 Past aND PRESENT NUMBER 50 Money”. John Toogood, setting down this account for the guidance Of hs Sons, concluded it with the advice de sasuod th Ene Biden ar noc’ cove Bye en you to be escaped in Farmer pase went rem 2 ene Jane eee ean Chip iowa he Gothiiw fe Peart It is within such a concext as this that the function of riot may be disclosed, Riot may have been, in the shert term, counter- productive although this has not yet been proved. But, once again, riot was @ social calamity, and one co be avoided, even at a high cost. ‘The cost mighe be to achieve some medium, betneen soarog “Tzonomic™ pice in the market, anda Uuditonal “Tora” preset byahe crowd: “hac medium might be found bythe intervention of paternaisy by che prudential self-restant of farmers and dealer, OF by, buyinglof a. portion of the crowd through chatises and Subsidies,” As Hannah More earalle, in the persona of the seen tious Jack Anvis when citsuading Tarn Hod feom et So Fil work the wie dy, anton Suny Tl ek Se Sct sea teens orl ea ‘Thofedberie 2 dnd set gc ep ce puddings and pee ° Derry darter, Derry down, indeed. and even Tra-la-dee-bum-deeay! However, the nature of gentlefolks being what it is, a thundering good riot in the ‘next parish was more likely to oil che wheels of chatity than the sight of Jack Anvil on his knees in church. As the daggerel on the ouside cof the church door in Kent had pur it succinctly in 1630: aoe vu We have been examining & pattera of social protest which derives fiom a consensus as to the moral economy of the commonweal in s of dearth. It is not usually helpful to examine it for overt, arciculate political intentions, although these sometimes arose through ‘hance coincidence. "Rebellious phrases can often be found, usually (one suspects) to chill the blood of the rich with their theatrical eflect. It was said that the Newcastle pitmen, Sushed with the success of ther capture of the Guildhall, “were for puting in practice the old levelling principles”; they did at least tear down the portraits IMS, dle of John Toosood, Dorset Rex. Off, D eof Na MThe Rigt! of, hal? loaf beter than bo bread, es 1795, in Hannah More, Werks (Londae, 1839). pp 86-8‘THE ENGLISH CROWD IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY — 127 of Chaves 1 and fies I and sash ees as. Ry cnet, barge at Healey (Oxon) In 1743 called ow "Long Live the Brcender*sandsrsene te Wood (Sue) in 705 ais wp {rv in te ater iace whch the el ape fd Be Scary id and sah and of gh and dete pert “Sere mahing ll hater eed Ring ele come oe send some ices Peap the ne mene nae tered th shu wat ng, by eae at “the Fench Wate Kore ‘Mn common are_gentrl “eeling” test, fomecatione ceche ich” A ler se Winey (ey) aed the Ste of tke tov tat he poole would no sue “och anne ws far guted Rogues to Starve the Poor by such Hellish Ways on purpose tht they may fol hnsng tse cane sens familys in Pride and extravagance"’. A letter on the Gold Cross at Etta Show Hh (ey sied"Kieriser Sou ige", was perhaps in the mode of rhyming doggecel — ache ao tse tre te BO acs TSU a nl he pent ethan ge Eee eerie de FESR BEETS SO eatame me me a A leer in Colchester in e772 added all eres il, Susie, spears snd che mercies, wane all he aad Rogue otk ce, Ih esd ear ston ed sly iid Ras Ma lg tat ‘The gentlemen of Fareham (Hants.} were warned in 1766 t0 “for a Mob or Sivel war”, which would “pull George from his best down the Rost of songs gus] tnd Soy the St [ea of the Law makers”. “Tis better to Undergo a forrieghn Yoke than. to be used thus”, wrote a villager near Hereford in the next year. And so on, and from most parts of Britam. [Et is, in the main, theorist wich guar ia devaiing way the oi Novena of asses Hesley —D. 6.0. BESS, Balt ies hdr MS sha, eu Bus Pouce Ted Laman ot Sonat po aps tet Sut ot emcee dob Sethe to ea Level vn they ad not ee why some td Bethe Acces poor’ bids fon ass: °128 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER 50 rhetoric of historians as to the deference and social solidarties of Georgian England." nly in 1795 and 800-1, when a Jacobin tinge is frequent in such fetters and handbills, do we have the impression of a genuine under- current of articulate political motivation. A trenchant example of these is some doggere! addressed to “the Broth Makers & Flower Risers” which gave a Maldon (Essex) magistrate cause for alarm: Qn Swill & Grains you wish the poo co be fed ‘And underneath th Gullisine we could wish to act your heads For Think sa teat shame 0 serve the poor 20 — ‘Ani I think few of jour Heads will make & pretty ow. ‘Scores upon scores of such letters circulated in these years. From Uley (Glos.}, “no King but * Constitution down dowa down O facall down high caps and proud hats forever down down ...”. At ‘Lewes (Sussex), after several militiamen kad been exccuted for their part in price-setting, a notice was posted: “Soldiers to Arms"! rite and revenge your extse Gi those bloody numba Pit and Georges For since they ao longer can send you to France ‘Folbe murdeted like Swine, or piet'd by the Lance, ou are sent for by Express eo male a speedy Rerorh ‘Tobe shot lite Grav, or hang’ fa your Turn. At Ramsbury (Wilts) ia 1800 a notice was affixed to a tree: Dowue with Your Luszuaraa Governerent both spittal & remperst Or you. starve rth, Hunger. they have geipp you of bread Chees Mecte &c eee Se Ge. Ney even your Lives have they ‘Taken thousands on theit ‘Bspodions let ee fhurbon Family defend de't owe Caume and ets trie vere they acne from "Dove with your Cacststan Arcot a republick Gr you and Jour feprings are to saree the Remarnace of our Daps dear Brothers wil {Gy down and tic tnder San exes ancl Lave your oppspeing undec Gat ‘Burdea that Blackguard Governszent sich fs na eatala You. ‘od Save tae Poar & own with George Ts But these crisis years of the wats (2800-1) would demand separate treatment. We are coming to the end of one tradition, end the new itadition has scarcely emerged. In these years the alternative form of economic pressure — pressure upon wages — is becoming more vigorous; there is also something more than rhetoric bebind the language of sedition — underground union orgsnization, oaths, the shadowy “United Englishmea”, [a 1812 traditional food riots sities ~ Landon Gazuie, Now 176, 50. 19779; Birmingham PRO, BD, nergy Cache iod Cate Nan rn a 364 Enea ably Jans 1767) no, Fodpos Hereford — sid Ape. 9767, no a TWhsaon— B80, ©. Ue ~ Br Oa. SER BBA OR 8 ie Se are, SEAS no ae‘THE ENGLISH CROWD IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 129 overlap with Luddism. In 1816 the East Anglian labourers do not Spe pl hy te nat min weed td Punt cl They ak fad te ey dif tra a are iyo Eh ee fm af cin age [Se band een sls eect ely ola Staite Daisheneyaatreef tein eres ISfosed sage kt fs ie sek et felt ah d'or sol te cantons io te none tw ig pans he cs ar ey the i poe Coat “Faces anther ston Why 195 and ans ig it aie Hos age Tie tone cn wach ne te fs cumg deed pons pr ef we ion Faria aque tuto par aubty and he ee This equilibrium was dislodged in the wars, for two reasons. First, the acute anti-Jacobinism of the gentry led to a new fest of any form of gums wang) apres wag sega af sedition in price-serting actions even where no such sedition existed the fear of invasion raised che Volunteers, and thus gave to the civil powers much more immediate means for meeting the crowd, not with parley and concession, but with repression.“* Second, such Trees om psi ie tint cea af any local authorities, by the triumph of the new ideology of political coven ‘Of this celestial triumph, the Home Secretary, the duke of Portland, served a5 Temporal Deputy, He displayed, in 100-1, a quite new seo sch aiaSeding dle’ tte osering remonstrating with those locel authorities who still espoused the ald Tartan fo Sopaster tibet again gua acai Oxford. There hed been some affair of setting the price of butter ine ut al ey ped nena cle ra 2 Resapiat oe Ve Chanate Th Tove Caso SSIS papa masts neo Sere as pein sr lay tl chose ols should have made their appearance early this morning”: Sein as smo ret Que atti i Fee oe Hg ant TisRorthc's culate Spnde (We “Rete of Hats Ron) st ae ENN See J. R, Western “The Volunteer Movement as an Anti-Revalutionary we STS ee130 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER 50 some hampers of heir and sling iat ashing 2 posed sod sccutar {orth money othe ener ofthe batter be reckoned of tat desespoon == “Notwithstanding the extreme pressure of the times", the City authorities were of “the decided opinion" that there was “no accasion in this City for the presence of a regular Soldiery”, especially since the magistrates were being most active in suppressing “what they conceive to be one ofthe priacipal cquses ofthe dearness, che offences of forestalling, ingrossing, and regrating . ‘The Town Clerk's lerter was passed over to the duke of Portland, and drew from him a weighty reproof: 1 Graces sou a nae he Mayo rd Magn wie al seuiton enables him ia a more particular manner to appreciate the ‘Siento the pubick mache which mor mere enue fom coments ‘of the Tioeoue procenings which have ten pace fa several part Of ie Kingdom ln comeauence ofthe pretenc scarcity Of Brovisions, so he smal Ihmmelfto be more imredicly called uponta cherie hisewn odgement and ‘Ritrenon in dscctingadegetce mates tobe caken forthe eames: ‘aud ffecual Suppression of such dangerous proceedings, For gress Seah gas ieee ea aha eS fp ct os Sonia aati i cy tate Cea Be ia ase gs eB u'ie ligs Koes orice” QO an at eee IPM ETRE utero rote Ge ame POSE eee hcrterin bea Sei Se Suen SSL ees eae oar ‘of a vlolen: and unjustifable erick on property preqnane with the most Eo ie a Pa ae ne Se Siete tyats Che a tereaeae md a Soe Ge een eer Se ‘Seemed nppesenion snd amma of Se Ones ‘Throughout 1800 and 1801 the duke of Portland busied himself enforcing the same doctrines. The remedy for disturbance was the military or Volunteers; even liberal subscriptions for cheap cora were to be discouraged, 2s exhausting stocks; persuasion upon farmers or dealers to lower prices was an offence against political economy. In April ror he wrote to Earl Mount Edgcumbe, ‘Your Lordship must excuse liberty Taken no pang untied he 3 mention to nave been valuntrily entered into by the Fermens ply the Markets with Com anc other Articles of Provision‘THE ENGLISH CROWD IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 131 ‘The duke had information that the farmers had been subjected to pressure by the county authorities Serene ot ae oa tere tana ig Md”Ein nd ache af ype stich ad anrlty id shony add co and aggravate de "wots w alerts, ind PeaVsentre so eStsrt tue che mere general W suid be sented fe more igjuioun must be the onsequctoy oy whic fe could et fa fo ES azeadel Ushcce i nesesly poten the Eeploymann of Copel ta theFaming Dine ‘The “nature of things” which had once made imperative, in times of dearth, a least some symbolic solidarity between the rulers and the poor, now dicated solidarity between the rulers and “the Employment of Capital”, Te i, perhaps, appcopriate that ic was the ideologist who. synthesized an bystere anti-jacobinism with the new political economy who signed the death-warrant of that paternalism of which, in his more specious passages of rhetoric, hhe was the celebrant, "The Labouring Pao”, exclaimed Burke: “Let compassion be shewa in action", vue let there be no lamentation of thes conan, 1¢ is no relief to ‘tandingt nue aut, sbity ray and eg sould ‘Reomuended to thems al the ret is dowacight (read " ‘Against that tone the notice at Ramsbury was the only possible reply. Ix T hope that a somewhat diferent picture has emerged from this account than the customary one. I have tried to describe, not an involuntary spasm, but a pattern of behaviour of which a Trobsiand {slander need not have been ashamed. Ics dificult to resimagine the moral assumptions of another social configuration. Te is noc easy for us to conceive that there may have bbcen 2 time, within a smaller and more integrated community, whea jt appeared to be “unnacural” that any man should profit from the necessities of others, and when it was assumed that, ia time of dearth, ss olan fbr het P.O, NO. a 29,09 er cos Pond 25 A th PAO HO eB Gass sae Eel wee Co aed ey el BA OR one se ese oe ele ogee fe apy of ys ed of at Spel Rae! Cy af cane bored PO = oe en, wine neh See ig Cte ose lt ‘ep, Re rere Aone ach eee Sroitcasae resces PAST AND PRESENT EMBER 50 pis of nse” ein + sonny le en though there might be less all round. “The economy of the mediaeval borough”, wrote R. H. Tawney, as tele as ump lf sb ee ‘plc lel ae een oe he nineteenth century attached to profits”.\“° These assumptions were under strong challenge, of course, long before the eighteenth. eg hata risa Stent ee Satan Dall ilsIei cl bn Teese satay We Oe pte Se fee cae a ate Dal of Ge tes

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