CHEESE. 407 



previously been general and full, and the consumption cannot 

 be increased by the enlarged supply. When, however, the 

 consumption has been partial or scanty, the loss of one body 

 of customers may be met by the possibility of demand on the 

 part of another body, or by the fact that those who used an 

 article scantily before can use it plentifully now. And both 

 facts, no doubt, were operative in the present case. The 

 diminution in the population brought the possibility of using 

 certain articles within the reach of a different class of persons 

 from those who used them before, or perhaps the rise in the 

 rate of wages gave these persons the opportunity for a more 

 plentiful use of these commodities. 



There is, I think, no trustworthy evidence of any superiority 

 in the produce of cheese from particular districts. The merits 

 of dairies, or of areas to which some dairies have given special 

 values in the market, were unknown. Sussex produce, indeed, 

 seems to be slightly higher than that of other localities, and 

 Kent prices are always high. The rate at Hornchurch is a 

 little in excess of general values, but Hornchurch possesses 

 meadows of considerable fertility and richness, and, more im- 

 portant still, is in the immediate vicinity of London. Even 

 at that time, as we shall constantly have occasion to recognize, 

 every kind of article was dearer in the neighbourhood of 

 London than elsewhere. On one occasion only, that is in 

 the year 1399, is the price of Hornchurch cheese inferior to 

 that of Wolrichston. 



The outgoings of the manufacture of cheese could not, pro- 

 portionately to the value of the produce, have seriously affected 

 the profit derived from the dairy. Cattle were, no doubt, some- 

 what dearer, and therefore a dairy farm implied a larger capital 

 at the close of the period before us than at its commencement. 

 But as much of this outlay was returned by the sale of the 

 animal when the surplus stock of the farm was sent to market, 

 no great loss could have ensued from such a cause. The two 

 articles, indeed, which were needed for the production of 

 cheese, salt and pressing-cloths, had, as we shall see below, 



