HC Deb 24 August 1843 vol 71 cc1012-3
Mr. T. Duncombe

begged to say a few words, in order to remove an impression created by what had passed on a former occasion with respect to the price of bread in the metropolis. He understood that what had been said by the right hon. Baronet had caused considerable alarm and some indignation amongst a numerous and respectable body of men—the bakers of the metropolis. They maintained that the price of bread had risen and fallen with the price of wheat, and by a reference to the weekly averages of the price of wheat, their statement would be found to be borne out. The weekly average of wheat for the six weeks preceding the 7th of July was 49s. 10d.; the price of flour was 42s. a sack, and bread was 7½d. the loaf. The average on the 12th of August was 61s. 2d. for wheat, flour 53s. the sack, and bread 9d. a leaf. Since the 12th of August the price of wheat had fallen 3s. It should be observed that there were two prices for bread, the higher and the lower price, and he understood the extreme price to which bread rose was from 6½d. to 8d., the bread which was sold by the bakers at what was called the West-end for 9d., being bread which they had previously sold for 7d. When the price of flour fell 3s. or 4s. the sack, it only reduced the price of bread by a halfpenny a loaf. The right hon. Baronet had recommended Gentlemen to deal with such parties as only charged a fair price. He believed the competition in the trade was so keen, that there need not be the slightest alarm of any advantage bring taken of the public. At all events, the right hon. Gentleman's doctrine ought to be carried much further, and to go the length of recommending all to buy wheat and flour in any part of the world where they could get them cheapest, and not to confine them to England, or the limits of the metropolis. He believed the statement of the bakers, to which he had referred, to be perfectly correct.

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