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These, however, though the highest, are by no means the only high

prices which seem to have been occasioned by the civil wars.

The second event was the bounty upon the exportation of corn,

granted in 1688. The bounty, it has been thought by many people,

by encouraging tillage, may, in a long course of years, have

occasioned a greater abundance, and, consequently, a greater

cheapness of corn in the home market, than what would otherwise

have taken place there. How far the bounty could produce this

effect at any time I shall examine hereafter: I shall only

observe at present, that between 1688 and 1700, it had not time

to produce any such effect. During this short period, its only

effect must have been, by encouraging the exportation of the

surplus produce of every year, and thereby hindering the

abundance of one year from compensating the scarcity of another,

to raise the price in the home market.