पृष्ठ 544 / 2651

It was in no condition to refuse anything to the country

gentlemen, from whom it was, at that very time, soliciting the

first establishment of the annual land-tax.

The value of silver, therefore, in proportion to that of corn,

had probably risen somewhat before the end of the last century;

and it seems to have continued to do so during the course of the

greater part of the present, though the necessary operation of

the bounty must have hindered that rise from being so sensible as

it otherwise would have been in the actual state of tillage.

In plentiful years, the bounty, by occasioning an extraordinary

exportation, necessarily raises the price of corn above what it

otherwise would be in those years. To encourage tillage, by

keeping up the price of corn, even in the most plentiful years,

was the avowed end of the institution.