A REPORT PRESENTED TO THE Lords of thE COMMITTEE of HIS MAJESTY'S PRIVY COUNCIL FOR TRADE, RESPECTING THE AGRICULTURE AND THE TRADE IN CORN, IN SOME OF THE CONTINENTAL STATES OF NORTHERN EUROPE. BY WILLIAM JACOB, Esq., 〃 COMPTROLLER OF CORN RETURNS. LONDON:-1828. MY LORDS, IN obedience to your Lordships' instructions, as communicated to me by Mr. Lack, under date of the 15th August, I proceeded without delay to the Continent. I first reached the kingdom of the United Netherlands, passing, without much stay, through Rotterdam and Amsterdam. As the provinces of North and South Holland, in which those cities are situate, produce but little corn, I hastened over them, and Utrecht, Guelders, Friesland, Overyssel, Drenthe, and Gröningen. From thence I entered the kingdom of Hanover, by the province of East Friesland, at Embden; and then proceeded through the duchy of Oldenburgh to Bremen, and from that city across the Hanoverian province of the same name to Hamburgh. I travelled from Hamburgh through the central and southern parts of the duchies of Mecklenburg Schwerin and Mecklenburg Strelitz, and by the shores of the Baltic, till I reached Lubeck. As that part of Germany consists chiefly of arable land, and contains a population almost exclusively agricultural, though I visited the cities of Ratzeburg, Schwerin, Güstrow, Rostock, and Wismar, my time and attention were chiefly directed to the rural affairs of the district; to which I was invited by the reported extent of its surplus corn, by the boasted superiority of its agricultural management, and by the many intelligent cultivators, to whom I had been amply supplied with means of intimate communication. From Lubeck I passed to Copenhagen, by the Baltic Sea; and from that city, travelled through the islands of Zealand and Fünen to Jutland, and then through the other continental provinces of the Danish dominions, viz. Sleswick and Holstein, till I again reached Hamburgh. I pursued my journey from Hamburgh, by passing VOL. XXIX. Pam. NO. LVIII. 2 A through the kingdom of Hanover, in a southerly direction, by Zell, to the capital; and thence by Einbeck, Gottingen, and Münden, till I entered the principality of Hesse Cassel. Passing through that country, and part of the dominions of Hesse Darmstadt and Nassau, I reached the Rhine at Coblentz, and from thence hastened on to Brussels. The alternate year, for conducting the government of the kingdom of the United Netherlands at the Hague, had commenced when I reached Brussels; and every person and document, from whom information was likely to be obtained, was removed to that city. I was therefore induced to proceed there a second time. From thence, by Antwerp and Ghent, through the most productive portion of the kingdom, I reached Calais, and returned to London. The condition of the roads, in the countries I passed through, would scarcely deserve notice in this report, if no other consequence were attached to it, than the annoyance to the traveller from the slow pace at which he advances, and the lengthened halt at every change of horses; but, as connected with the subject of the cost of supply in corn, it becomes of importance; and still more so, when the parts of a country in which the greatest surplus of grain is produced, are very distant from the ports at which it can be shipped to other countries. In the eastern parts of the kingdom of the Netherlands, with the exception of one stage from Assen to Gröningen, the whole of the roads from Deventer to the frontier are nearly in a state of nature; consisting of deep sand, without the aid of any hard substance to improve them. Beyond the frontier, in the Hanoverian territory, the soil becomes gradually more compact; and after passing the Ems, it changes to a heavy clay. Those roads are equally left to the operation of the elements; when wet, they are scarcely passable: when becoming drier, they are stiff, and require great exertions from the draught cattle; and even when quite dry, in the summer, though better for travellers, they are full of holes, formed by the water in hollow places. The bad state of the roads, though it adds to the expense of export, has not so great an influence in Gröningen and Friesland, as in Mecklenburg and Holstein. The chief kinds, or indeed the only kinds, of grain, of which those two districts have a surplus, are oats, and a small portion of beans. These are raised on the marsh lands, on the borders of the sea-shore, or on the sides of the rivers; so that there is scarcely any quantity requiring land-carriage beyond the distance of 15 or 20 English miles. In Mecklenburg the roads are equally neglected, being either deep sand or loamy clay, both requiring great exertions to draw wheelcarriages, and both equally left in a state of nature. As the best wheat and rye lands are at a considerable distance from the shipping ports, the cost to the grower is generally enhanced, increasing according to the distance in a compound ratio. Some of the best farms are distant from any shipping port, 40 or even 50 English miles. The time when horses can be best spared to draw the corn to a port is the winter, when the roads are frozen; but even then, they are hardened into a rough state; from their great breadth, are never well and equally trodden; and from the variable nature of the climate, in the coldest winter, sudden thaws, with rain and sleet, succeed to as sudden frost and snow. In Denmark, the main roads over the islands are very good; but in the continental provinces of Jutland, Sleswick, Holstein, and Lauenburg, they are in a most neglected state, which renders travelling tedious, even in the most favorable weather. The fertile province of Holstein supplies the greater part of the corn that is exported. The eastern and western sides of it are bordered by the Baltic Sea, or by the river Elbe; but it contains a large extent of productive land in the middle district, from whence corn must be conveyed, by these very bad roads, to a distance of 40 or 50 English miles, before it can be shipped. Much of it is carried a still greater distance; for that which grows nearest to the Baltic, finds a better market at Hamburgh than at Kiel or Lubeck. A gentleman with whom I had the pleasure to become acquainted in Holstein, who possesses a fine estate about 20 miles from Kiel, 30 from Lubeck, and more than 60 from Hamburgh, told me that he commonly sent his waggons loaded with corn to the latter city. I found some other proprietors and cultivators in that neighborhood, who adopted the same practice. They were induced to it from the freight and insurance being lower from Hamburgh than from the Baltic ports, but chiefly because from that city it could be sent with less delay to any distant markets, that might, for a short period, open themselves for its reception. The state of roads in countries which export corn deserves attention when, calculating the cost of production, less on account of the slow pace of travelling on them, than on account of the small quantity of corn which each team of horses can draw. Thus, for instance, in England, the usual load of a waggon with four horses is ten quarters of wheat, weighing about 4,800lb, whereas in the districts, the roads of which are noticed in this report, the usual load is not more than half that weight. As this branch of the cost of production is of vast importance in times of scarcity, when very distant land-carriage to the water-side is required, and as the principles which regulate it are applicable to all such countries, and to all the several kinds of grain, it may not be amiss here to introduce the calculation furnished by a very enlightened and accurate gentleman, whose personal acquaintance I had the pleasure to make during my journey, but whose character and attainments had been previously known to me. It is sufficient for the present purpose to remark, that this proprietor and excellent cultivator of a good estate in Mecklenburg, gives the following cal culation, grounded on the real cost of his expenses of conveyance, on an average of 5 years. The estate in question is distant 5 German, or 24 English miles, from the market-place to which its surplus corn must be carried. The regular load on this estate for a waggon with 4 horses is 2,400lb. weight, or 40 Rostock sheffels of rye, being nearly equal to 45 imperial bushels, of 53lb. weight; but for the subsistence of the cattle backwards and forwards, 180lb., or about 3 bushels and a half, of the corn must be carried, and deducted from the quantity to be sold, which will then be 41 bushels. The expenses in money, on each journey, on an average of the last five years, for the keep and wages of the men, and various small incidents, is found to amount to 4s. 8d.; and the value of the corn carried for the horses, at the price of the place where, if not consumed, it would have been delivered for sale, taken at 3s. the bushel, amounts to 10s. 6d., thus making a deduction of 15s. 2d. on 411 bushels. The amount, then, of the 41 bushels, at 3s., is Net produce - 109 4 The expenses of conveyance thus amount to somewhat more than 13 per cent. on the sum which the cultivator receives for his rye. No addittional charge is made in the statement for the wear and tear of carriages, harness, or cattle, nor any for the loss of the manure made by the horses, for the interest on the capital which is invested in cattle and implements, and gradually diminished in value; nor is any notice taken of the expense of maintaining the horses and men for those portions of their time, when by inclement weather, or other circumstances, they are doomed to remain in a state of inactivity. For a journey of 10 German or 48 English miles, as it would occupy twice the time, the food to be carried for the horses would be 360lb. weight, and the quantity of corn to be actually sold would be only 2,040lb. or 38 bushels. The expense of the men would be doubled; thus the sale would be 38 bushels, at 3s. Cost of conveyance And the net produce S. d. 114 0 30 4 83 8 If the distance to the market be still further extended, it will appear, by calculation, that the net produce is gradually diminished with the distance, till it finally disappears, and the transport of grain must consequently cease. Supposing 500 bushels of corn be worth 3s. per bushel at the market, or 1,500s., The net produce would then be thus, after the conveyance to the following distances :— 5 German, or 24 English miles, 1,313 net produce. 10 15 48 1,136 968 This calculation would lead to the same conclusion, if, for a journey of 24 English miles, it were assumed, that 15 waggons, each carrying 2,400lb. of corn, were attended by a sixteenth, carrying likewise 2,400lb. for the subsistence of the cattle, instead of each waggon carrying the provender for its own team. This digression respecting the rate of expense on the conveyance of corn, founded as it is on the practical experience of a very accurate person during a series of years, though it may be tiresome can scarcely be deemed improper, because the countries which afford the largest surplus of grain are as ill accommodated with roads as those of East Friesland, Mecklenburg, Sleswick, and Holstein. It serves also to show the cause of the vast difference in price observable between some districts and others of the extended empire of Russia. It may assist us to account for the famines which in past periods have desolated some parts of the interior of India, and other portions of the world; and it affords a practical reason for the people of Andalusia, in Spain, drawing their supplies of wheat and flour from the United States of America, when wheat was there at 4s. 6d. per bushel, whilst on the plains of Castile it was not worth more than 1s. 6d. the bushel. Although it may be most advantageous to take a view of the agricultural state of the kingdom of the Netherlands in a mass, in a later portion of this report, yet some notices of a local nature may here be introduced. Utrecht is both a rich and fertile province, contains numerous manufacturing and mercantile establishments, and a population, according to the recent returns, of one person to two 4-10ths acres. There are, however, in this portion of the kingdom, considerable tracts of land that could only be cultivated from their being distributed among small occupiers, who subsist, in the condition of daylaborers, by performing the whole of the requisite work with their own hands. Between the cities of Utrecht and Amersfort there is a considerable extent of such land, which, I was informed on the spot, had been recently let at four stivers the morgen, or little more than two |