CHAPTER XIII. 



ON THE PRICE OF GRAIN. 



DURING the period comprised in the volumes now published, 

 the prices of wheat and oats are continuous and unbroken. 

 No information has been procured for the price of barley 

 in the years 1260 and 1265, though a malt price has been 

 found for both. There is another kind of grain, known in the 

 accounts under the name of Drageum, which is clearly of the 

 same character with barley, is exclusively cultivated on some 

 estates, and is frequently malted. Its price is considerably 

 lower than that of barley (hordeum), both when raw and malted. 

 Evidence of the price of rye is wanting during some of the 

 earlier years of the period, and some of the later also. This 

 kind of grain appears to have never been extensively cultivated 

 as an article of food in England; and after the general im- 

 provement in the social condition of the working classes 

 consequent upon the great pestilence, its use is still more 

 limited. Prices of malt are not quite continuous; several 

 deficiencies occurring in the earlier years, even when abundant 

 evidence is found of the price of other kinds of grain. It 

 appears that malt was manufactured in most manors, and 

 hence purchases and sales are generally few and in small 

 quantities. It is plain also that there were two qualities of 

 malt, one called capitalis, the other cursalis ; and again, one 

 kind is distinguished as barley, another as drage malt. Oats, 

 and more rarely wheat, are found malted in the accounts. As 

 a rule, it will be seen that the price of oats follows the rise 



