This chapter, which is devoted to the category of cereals and pulses, will examine a group of products that was also often given the generalised label of ‘sundry provisions’. This will include wheat and its derivatives (flour and biscuits), oats, groats, malt and peas. The list was not drawn up according to whether a cereal or a pulse belong to a certain genus – for example, hops are not considered in this chapter – but because the items on the above list were all provided by a single body of merchants, consisting of eighty-four individual suppliers and five merchant associations, resulting in a headcount of eighty-eight individuals.

A greater understanding of this sector will be provided by an examination of the evolution of each market in terms of prices, followed by an analysis of how many merchants were involved in each market and to what extent real competition prevailed.

The Evolution of Different Segments of the Market in Terms of Prices and Quantities

Wheat, flour and biscuits

Between 21 April 1756 and 24 November 1762 the Commissioners in London organised no fewer than 104 auctions in order to provide the Navy with wheat – eighty-eight contracts were destined for the victualling of London, sixteen others for Plymouth.

Figure 9.1 illustrates the various parameters operating in terms of the eighty-eight London contracts. Wheat was bought on a monthly basis. Each delivery was for a pre-established quantity, usually of 2,400 quarters, and had to be delivered ‘in a month by weekly proportion’, i.e. one quarter of the quantity was due every week.