SIR HOWARD VINCENTTo ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer what has been the effect on the price of bread at Liverpool and other centres of population of remitting since 1st July the £7,000 per diem previously obtained for the public revenue by the registration duty on foreign grain, meal, and flour for the use of the British market; and if there are any figures to show that such remission has diminished the number of paupers and vagrants.
(Answered by Mr. Ritchie.) I have no information as to any recent change in the price of bread, except that at Liverpool at the beginning of this month there was a rise, which was due, I am informed, to peculiar local circumstances. It is evidently not connected with the corn duty. The repeal of the duty on the material from which bread is made tends, of course, to postpone and reduce any rise in the price of bread, and to accelerate any fall which may occur from other causes. I see that a well known trade journal stated a fortnight ago that the abolition of the duty on corn had made futures lower.