[JAMES I]

A good large copy of this important collection of ‘Orders’ by James I intended to regulate the grain market during a time of famine, following the poor harvest of 1622. The original order was published in 1608 but re-issued following the more recent period of dearth. Books of orders were issued on several different occasions, including famine, poverty and plague epidemics. The text records a number of orders to the Justices to ensure the fair and lawful sale of grain and all associated products, such as bread, beer and ale. This includes provisions that all corn brought to market cannot go unsold and cannot subsequently be sold outside the town and faulty bread be sold to the poor to provide relief. Furthermore, millers are unable to become buyers of corn nor sell meal.

“Under Elizabeth I and the early Stuarts the central government through the Privy Council increased its intervention in nearly every aspect of the English economy. The distribution of grain, which had always been subject to local restriction and control, became governed by an increasingly elaborate centralized machinery. Marking what N. S. B. Gras called “the apogee of paternalism” in the history of the English grain trade, the first Book of Orders for the relief of dearth was issued in early 1587 It attributed the high price of grain to hoarding and outlined detailed instructions regarding the disposition of private stocks in crisis periods. As in other areas of royal regulation much was expected of local justices of the peace, who were responsible for particular county divisions. They were to organize juries consisting of “honest and substantial” citizens who were preferably not also large grain stockholders. The juries were to discover and report the stores of grain of each stockholder, the number of persons living in each house, and the number of acres to be sown that year. Justices were then to estimate the individual stocks held in excess of household use and seed requirements and bind the owners to bring the excess to local markets for sale at “convenient and charitable” prices. Market transactions were to be carefully observed, and justices were required to submit monthly reports informing the council of measures take in accordance with the orders and relating the current state of affairs. The dearth orders were issued in each subsequent crisis period until the revolution of the 1640…“ (R. Nielsen, Storage and English Government Invention in Early Modern Grain Markets, p.2-3).