HEMP. 427 



picked, and the finer fibres selected for the better kinds of 

 hempen fabrics. It is probable, too, that the great difference 

 between the value of the two kinds of bundle or garb, given 

 under the year 1305 from Halvergate, is due to a similar 

 difference of quality. 



Before the rise in prices consequent upon the Plague, and 

 affecting all commodities on the produce of which considerable 

 labour was expended, it seems that the price of hemp ranged 

 from a halfpenny to three farthings the pound, and that after 

 that time the price was raised by about 50 per cent. A similar 

 inference could be gathered from the price of rope, which 

 before the same epoch stands at about id. the pound, and 

 afterwards is generally quoted at i\d. So, again, the cheaper 

 garb of Halvergate is sold at is. in 1305, and in 1361 two 

 hundred bundles are sold at Boxley at if. 6d. 



The stater at Staverton in 1278, which I imagine was the 

 old hundred-weight of 108 Ibs., is put at much the same rate; 

 being on the whole, on this hypothesis, at or about a halfpenny 

 the pound. This weight, however, is not given in Ducange. 

 If, however, it be the case that hemp was worth from a half- 

 penny to three farthings the pound in the first part of our 

 period, its value in money of the time, as reckoned by the 

 quantity in which this article is generally measured, would be 

 from ^4 ly. ^d. to j7 the ton, and after the Plague it would 

 have generally stood at from .^9 6s. 8d. to ^n 13^. 4^. for the 

 same quantity. 



Flax is only mentioned once, and then on the Halvergate 

 estate. The entry, however, is interesting, first because it 

 points to the fact that some of the Norfolk manufactories were 

 supplied with raw material of home growth, and next because, 

 if we conclude that the proportionate price of this article was 

 generally that which is implied in the present case, flax was 

 three times the price of coarse hemp. Such a proportion, 

 however, is not maintained at present, the ordinary ratio 

 between the two articles approaching more nearly to that 

 which is to be gathered from the contrast between flax and 



