ABSTRACT
The series of annual average wheat prices, compiled officially from 1771 \ is not in itself a reliable surrogate for the price of bread, but it is an indispensible beginning. Whatever defects, at various places and times, may mar the perfection of the data, the information is broadly national, with spans averaged; and it does indicate commercial trends, given that merchants, millers, and bakers, even if they had bought their own supplies of wheat at different prices, were strongly influenced by the spot market when selling. As the wheat market became ever more integrated, the average spot price not only recorded, but dictated, near uniformity.
