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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 699: POPULATION RETURNS, ETC.
By Edward Farr
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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

POPULATION RETURNS, ETC.

During this session returns under the population act were laid before parliament. From these returns it appeared that Great Britain in 1801 had a population of 10,472,048 souls, and in 1811 no less than 11,911,644. These results revived the question of population compared with its means of subsistence. It appeared by accounts produced about this time, that during eleven years, from 1775 to 1786, the average quantity of grain imported was 564,143 quarters, from 1786 to 1798, 1,136,101 quarters, and from 1799 to 1810, 1,471,000 quarters. The average prices were in the first period named thirty shillings per quarter, in the second forty shillings, and in the third sixty shillings. During the last year no less a sum than £4,271,000 went out of the country to purchase subsistence for its inhabitants. It must be remembered, however, that at this period vast tracts of land remained uncultivated, and that the science of agriculture was but imperfectly understood.