Unlocking the agricultural economics of the 19th century

The Corn Returns - market data from the 19th century and beyond - represent a valuable resource for economic historians looking at the emergence of modern agricultural markets. A project to make these records digitally available will help solve some of the big questions about the economics of the age. Much of 19th century political economy rested on contemporaries' interpretations of this data, which was as ubiquitous for them as stock market prices are for us today." - —Dr D'Maris Coffman Two hundred years ago the price of British-grown grain - a commodity vital to the baking of bread and the brewing of beer, two items representing household staples, particularly for the poor and working classes - reached an all-time high. We know this because, just as today's media reports on the movements of the stock market, listing prices and trading volumes, so too did newspapers of the late 18^th and early 19^th century report on agricultural markets. Known as the Corn Returns, these reports set out the volume and average price of the main corns (wheat, barley, rye, oats, beans and peas) sold in a given week. The inflated price of wheat in Britain in 1812 (50 per cent more than average and twice what it had been a decade before) was mainly the result of Napoleon's Continental Blockade. In 1806, frustrated by his inability to invade Britain or overcome the formidable Royal Navy, Napoleon Bonaparte issued legislation, known as the Berlin Decree, which forbade France and her allies from trading with the British.