History of corn milling .. - Centrostudirpinia.it

SOME FEUDAL MILLS. 221
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as a lasting: monument to their wisdom and pru-
1 . • n T 1
c 1 i_
o JEDBURGH
dence. In their preface they state that m 1839 corpora-
they had offered to the corporation to take the
opmion of counsel as to whether any thirlae^e really , \. ?°^^,
^.- , 1-1- existed or not that ; upon this being refused, they Law, 1843.
offered to rent the mills from year to year, or upon
i-11 abolished by
a lease of ^350 a year; and on this being refused,
to grind " all the wheat they required in the way
of trade" at the mills at the usual rate of 3s., and
to pay 2s. 3d. for ''
every boll of flour imported by
them into the burgh." Such an arrangement, need-
less to say, would have resulted in the bakers
finding they needed flour and not wheat in the way
of trade, and this proposal also was rejected by the
council. The late defendants conclude their printed
report with the following: ''The
mean to say that the verdict in
defenders
their case
do not
ruined
the burgh : all they wish to say is that it merely
brought on critical days ; the burgh has been in a
bankrupt state for a hundred years at least ; the
conduct of its rulers has been the same in every
age,
and it is to be feared will continue so till the
present system give place to a free and healthy
competition." This, then, was the close of nearly two
centuries' labour of the Jedburgh council to prevent
the importation of flour into the milling preserve
they had endeavoured to create.
v.