Then, just as quickly as the surplus had appeared, it vanished. Four events consumed the bounty. First, a series of massive conflicts gripped Europe and crippled the regional grain trade. Between the Seven Years’ War in 1756 and the end of the French-Napoleonic wars in 1815, England was either engaged in global conflict or preparing strenuously for it. Second, during the eighteenth century, England’s population nearly doubled, to nine million. Third, rapid industrialization after 1760 shifted workers and
