BUTTER. 409 



1315, 1321, 1322-4, the price in the last-named year being 

 double the ordinary average. Similarly high rates are found in 

 1344, 1359, 1369, 1371. But with the exception of the well- 

 known years of scarcity the accounts give no information 

 which should lead us to assign this occasional exaltation of 

 price to drought or want of pasture. It is probable, therefore, 

 that the rise is due to losses of cattle, and we have seen that 

 there is evidence of a great increase in the price of stock 

 during or in the periods which include these high rates. 



There was, however, another set of causes which led to an 

 occasional increase in the price of this article. Butter was not 

 only used for food, but very largely for sheep-dressing. Mixed 

 with tar it formed the antidote to the scab. We shall find 

 below that the price of butter was, on the whole, lower than 

 that of the other fats, and therefore, whenever any exceptional 

 circumstances led to the employment of a larger quantity of 

 the softer fats than was customary, the demand affected the 

 cheaper kinds of produce to a greater extent than it did the 

 dearer article. It appears also that butter was occasionally 

 employed in the manufacture of cart grease, and when this 

 was the case it is easy to understand that under certain 

 circumstances there might be a greatly increased demand for 

 the commodity. 



It is possible that, as the condition of the working classes 

 improved, there was a greater consumption of butter in the 

 labourer's or peasant's family. All fats were dear, particularly 

 when compared with meat. But even when the price of butter 

 became, as we see it does become during the forty years 1341- 

 1380, considerably enhanced, it was still within the reach of 

 those whose earnings had also increased considerably. For 

 though, on the whole, the rise in the price of butter after 

 the famines is about forty per cent., yet, as we have seen 

 above, the rise in the price of labour is considerably in excess 

 of this amount even in the higher, and far larger in the 

 commoner or lower, kinds of labour. Nor do I think that 

 it can be doubted, since, as we have seen, land was so much 



