CHEESE. 405 



comparative rate, as in 1365, 1309, 1312-153 131 7, 131 8, 

 though in these cases the rise about the average rate is not so 

 excessive as that of wheat in some of these years. Omitting 

 these years, the price of the wey exhibits very little fluctuation. 

 The year 1324-5 was one which several accounts mention as 

 characterized by a particularly severe drought, but there is no 

 great increase in the price of the article. The years 1316-18 

 appear to have been not only marked by severe scarcity, but by 

 a general murrain among horned cattle. (Vol. ii. p. 606. ii.) The 

 Cheddington bailiff reports a drought in 1330, the Boxley 

 bailiff one in 1333, the Kingesnod bailiff one in 1343, the 

 Whaddon and Wolrichston another in 1361, and a similar 

 report is presented in 1374 and 1376 from Sharpness and 

 Heghtre. But in none of these cases is there any appreciable 

 effect produced on the price of cheese. Generally when note 

 is taken of the seasons, the statement is merely explanatory of 

 an unusual consumption of iron, but I have not found any allu- 

 sion to the effect supposed to be produced on the yield of milk 

 for dairy purposes. 



When note is taken of the decennial averages we shall find 

 that during the twenty years 1311-1330 the price of cheese 

 is exceptionally high. These are the dear times to which 

 allusion has been made so frequently. But though there is an 

 increase in the price, it is only about n^ per cent, above the 

 average of the whole 140 years ; nor is there any very marked 

 enhancement of the customary rate in the period 1351-1370, 

 which in other commodities is a time of general dearness. 

 But such a set of facts is quite in accordance with the rules 

 which we may recognize as dominant in the price of the 

 secondary necessaries of life. The period alluded to, 1351- 

 1370, was no doubt a time of considerable scarcity. Corn 

 prices were generally high, stock was dear, wages were greatly 

 enhanced. But the rise in the price of labour was due to 

 a scarcity of hands, that of corn to a series of harvests which, 

 had the numbers of the population been unaltered, would have 

 induced distress similar to that of 1310-1321. The rise in 



