The Bread Crisis in Britain, 1795-96

Is. 2d. This was exceeded in 1799 when Is. 3'd. had to be paid.3 However, bread prices were controlled over a large part, but not the whole, of the country by a system which produced local differences without controlling the quality of the priced commodity. To the sub- stantial section of the community which baked at home, what mattered was the price of wheat or flour, not that of bread. In ten war years (1800, 1801, 1805, 1806, 1808-13) wheat prices reached levels higher than in 1795-96.4 However, inflation had supervened; prices only fractionally higher did not represent a greater real cost.