Galway Prices Rise and Bankrupts Increase, 1791

By Samuel J. Maguire

"Failure among the inferior order of merchants, shop-keepers, etc., are becoming numerous, probably many of these gentry fall off in hope of being whitewashed as the phrase is, in the course of the ensuing Session, by one of those annual acts of insolvency. Which tho' the imperfect state of our law relative to debts and the penalty of non-payment render them in great measure necessary, are yet in their consequences to credit and commerce, not a little injurious. At the sale of new fruit by auction, they produced the following price:

Prices higher than they sold at last year.

The extravagant increase in the price of raw sugar promises a confirmation of the prediction - that it will be 2s. a pound before Christmas.

The above commodity has risen 3s. a hundred.

Brandy at the standard, is now from 13s. 6d. to 14s. a gallon, which a year or two age could be purchased for 6s. 8d. - and rum that was for 5s. 6d. at the same periods, is now 8s. 8d. per gallon. The high price of foreign spirits, has of course raised that of whiskey, our own manufacture. It stands purchasers 6s. 6d. a gallon at present, in the spirit, a price of monstrously high in proportion, as either rum or brandy - so that by their dearness there promises a total disuse of all kinds of spirits, in a short time, amongst society in general.