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In years of great scarcity, indeed, the bounty has generally been

suspended. It must, however, have had some effect upon the prices

of many of those years. By the extraordinary exportation which it

occasions in years of plenty, it must frequently hinder the

plenty of one year from compensating the scarcity of another.

Both in years of plenty and in years of scarcity, therefore, the

bounty raises the price of corn above what it naturally would be

in the actual state of tillage. If during the sixty-four first

years of the present century, therefore, the average price has

been lower than during the sixty-four last years of the last

century, it must, in the same state of tillage, have been much

more so, had it not been for this operation of the bounty.