The upward trend of agriculture during the second half of the eighteenth century

After the 1730s or 1740s European grain prices, generally speaking, began to rise. This is evident in figure 49. ¹ Between the 1730s and the first decade of the nineteenth century the price of the chief bread grains, taken in 10-year averages, went up by about 250 per cent in England, 205 per cent in northern Italy, 210 per cent in Germany, 163 per cent in France, 283 per cent in Denmark (on some what doubtful data), 265 per cent in the Netherlands, 259 per cent in Austria and 215 percent in Sweden. In Denmark, the Netherlands and Austria this was the highest point reached in the long-term ascent of prices. In other countries the increase continued into the next decade, bringing the increase from the 1730s in England to 262 percent, in northern Italy to 217 percent, in Germany to 212 percent, in France to 202 percent, and in Sweden to 218 percent. Reckoned in silver content of the coinage, grain prices all over western and central Europe had doubled or more than doubled.