# When Romania Fed England Ten harvests, two free ports and one Danube mouth with only 9 feet of water: how Brăila and Galați came to send hundreds of thousands of quarters of wheat to 1840s England. Answer: Between 1843 and 1852 the Danube sent the world an average of 439,000 quarters of wheat and 564,000 of maize a year, in 1,417 ships; London paid 50 shillings the quarter in 1843, 69 shillings and 9 pence in the famine year 1847, and 38 shillings and 6 pence in 1851. ## The gate opens (1829–1837) A peace treaty abolishes the Turkish monopoly, and two Danube towns become free ports. On 14 September 1829, the peace of Adrianople gave Wallachia and Moldavia full freedom of trade and navigation on the Danube: the Turkish monopoly and the duty to victual the Ottoman Empire ended, and Brăila returned to Wallachia after nearly three centuries. Privileges followed: Brăila became a porto-franco in 1836, Galați a free port in 1837. Odessa had held the same regime since 1819, and now the two Danube mouths took ships from her: Austrian steamers already linked Vienna to Constantinople, calling at Brăila and Galați, while Greek and Italian houses — Argenti, Ralli, the Genoese Pedemonte brothers, settled in 1831 — built fleets of their own. Traders needed nobody's leave to sell to the highest bidder: Brăila's grain, cattle and salt went to whoever paid the best price. By 1834 the Principalities' trade had grown so suddenly that the House of Commons in London heard Galatz was driving Odessa out of the market. > Galatz was becoming the great depot of all the grain of the Danube, and driving Odessa out of the market. > — Karl Marx, 1853, on Patrick Stewart's evidence before the Commons ## London buys (1846–1852) Parliament cuts the duties on foreign wheat, and the price of English bread starts depending on Danube harvests. From 1828, England taxed foreign wheat on a sliding scale: 23 shillings of duty at a price of 64, 16 shillings and 8 pence at 69, a single shilling at 73 and above. Merchants gambled on its jumps, and bread stayed dear. In 1846, Robert Peel — convinced by Richard Cobden and the Anti-Corn-Law League and hastened by the failure of the potato crop in Ireland — ended the history of the corn laws with the famous act of 1846: the maximum duty fell at once to 10 shillings under a price of 48, and from 1 February 1849 all foreign wheat entered at one shilling the quarter. The effect reads in prices: the quarter of English wheat cost on average 54 shillings and 8 pence in 1846, 69 shillings and 9 pence in 1847, then 44 shillings and 3 pence in 1849 and 38 shillings and 6 pence in 1851. Meanwhile the grain frenzy of the late 1840s was fed above all by the Black Sea. > Put an effectual end to the history of the corn laws by the famous act of 1846. > — Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1911, the Corn Laws article ## The Sulina bar (1836–1861) All the Danube's wealth passes through a single river mouth, guarded by Russia and only 9 feet deep. On 7 February 1836, a Russian ukase set a quarantine — in fact a custom-house and a fort — on one of the islands at the Danube mouths: vessels were stopped, searched and taxed, and refractory ones were taken to Odessa. London and Glasgow merchants filled the House of Commons with petitions. On 20 April 1836, Patrick Stewart told the House that no less than 5,000 tons of British shipping would be seized. And the charge that Russia was wilfully leaving the Sulina bar — the only navigable route to the inland ports — uncleared poisoned relations with the western cabinets until after the Crimean War. Only the European Commission of the Danube, authorized by the Treaty of Paris of 1856, seated at Galatz under chief engineer Charles Hartley, tamed the bar: from 9 feet in 1856 to 19 in 1871 and 24 in 1900. In 1861 the river's 3,084 vessels averaged only 146 tons register. > British shipping, to the amount of not less than 5,000 tons, would be seized and marched off to Odessa. > — Patrick Stewart, House of Commons, 20 April 1836 ## Who kept the money (1831–1900) The wheat sailed down the Danube; the money stayed in few hands: estates, trading houses, shipowners. The Organic Regulation left the peasant about 70% of the harvest of the plot he leased on the estate, but revenues came from highly productive agriculture based on peasant labour. Others took the trade margin: the Pedemonte house turned over 14 million lei in the early 1840s on 2.4 million of capital. After 1856, transport won most: freights from Galați and Brăila to North Sea ports fell from 50 shillings to about 12 shillings and 6 pence per ton, and sailing ships of at most 200 tons register gave way to steamers of up to 2,600 tons. Between 1857 and 1867 an average of 450,000 tons a year entered the Danube, one-third of it British; by 1896 the total had reached 1,800,000 tons, three-fifths of it British. In thirty years the Danube trade grew fourfold, and British tonnage eightfold. > Freights from Galatz and Braila to North Sea ports have fallen from 50s. to about 12s. 6d. per ton. > — Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1902, the Danube article ## The flows: harvest by harvest - 1843: Danube wheat 430, Danube maize 262, Odessa wheat 843, London price 50s. 1d., Danube ships 1099 - 1844: Danube wheat 514, Danube maize 302, Odessa wheat 909, London price 51s. 3d., Danube ships 1384 - 1845: Danube wheat 495, Danube maize 282, Odessa wheat 1280, London price 50s. 10d., Danube ships 1296 - 1846: Danube wheat 438, Danube maize 500, Odessa wheat 1408, London price 54s. 8d., Danube ships 1555 - 1847: Danube wheat 572, Danube maize 938, Odessa wheat 2017, London price 69s. 9d., Danube ships 2215 - 1848: Danube wheat 273, Danube maize 436, Odessa wheat 1410, London price 50s. 6d., Danube ships 1123 - 1849: Danube wheat 291, Danube maize 591, Odessa wheat 1127, London price 44s. 3d., Danube ships 1175 - 1850: Danube wheat 424, Danube maize 273, Odessa wheat 980, London price 40s. 3d., Danube ships 896 - 1851: Danube wheat 418, Danube maize 997, Odessa wheat 719, London price 38s. 6d., Danube ships 1668 - 1852: Danube wheat 531, Danube maize 1055, Odessa wheat 1362, London price 40s. 9d., Danube ships 1756 ## Brăila set Europe's wheat price — False for 1843–1852 Between 1843 and 1852 the price was made in London, out of English harvests and duties: 54 shillings and 8 pence in 1846, 69 and 9 in 1847, 38 and 6 in 1851. The Danube ports took the price, they did not make it — they were some among the market's suppliers, beside Odessa, which sent 12,055,000 quarters of wheat in ten years against the Danube's 4,386,000. Brăila's agricultural exchange is a next-century story; for the years on this page, no inspected document shows Europe's price being born on Brăila's quay. ## Rich country, poor people — Partly true The peasant kept about 70% of his own plot's harvest, but the wheat for sale grew on the estate, with peasant labour, and the trade money stayed with the landlords, with houses like Pedemonte — 14 million lei of turnover — and with the shipowners. The saying itself has no documented origin in the inspected sources: we use it as a question, not as evidence. ## Russia blocked the Danube mouths on purpose — Unproven Something else is documented: the ukase of 7 February 1836, the searches and fees, the merchants' petitions, and the charge of neglecting the bar — the source itself says “incrimination”, meaning allegation. No document inspected here proves intent: neglect, helplessness or strategy — the file stays open. ## Sources and method - Adrianople, 14 September 1829: free passage of the Straits; the Principalities shed the grain obligations to the Porte - Brăila returns to Wallachia in 1829; porto-franco status in 1836 - Galați, free port in 1837 (revoked in 1882); English vice-consulate since 1805 - The Pedemonte house, 1831; own fleet in 1839–1840; 14 million lei turnover in the early 1840s - The 1828 sliding scale: 23s. duty at 64s., 16s. 8d. at 69s., 1s. at 73s. and above - The 1846 act; one shilling from 1 February 1849; the 1869 abolition - English wheat per quarter, 1843–1852, chiefly after T. Smith of Melford - The quarter: 8 bushels; the quarter of wheat: 480 lb - The ukase of 7 February 1836; the Commons, 20 April 1836; Stewart's 5,000 tons - The alleged neglect of the Sulina bar, the only navigable route; the European Commission after the Crimean War - Sulina: 9 feet in 1856, 24 in 1900; Hartley directs the works from 1856 to 1872 - The Commission authorized by the Treaty of Paris (1856); seat fixed at Galatz - Peasants keep about 70% of their plot's harvest; revenues from agriculture based on peasant labour - Galatz–Braila freights to the North Sea fall from 50s. to 12s. 6d. per ton - Sailing ships of at most 200 tons register replaced by steamers of up to 2,600 tons - 450,000 tons a year (one-third British) in 1857–1867; 1,800,000 (three-fifths) in 1896 - Wheat and maize exports, Danube and Odessa, in 1,000 quarters, 1843–1852 (Table 6) - The printed Odessa shipping average (1,058) does not match the cells; the site recomputes 1,051 - The game sells at the real London prices; the Brăila end is unknown, the fee and tokens are rules