CHAPTER XIX. 



ON THE PRICE OF MATERIALS EMPLOYED IN 

 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY. 



THE evidence supplied by such accounts as have passed 

 through my hands, as to the price of materials, may be con- 

 veniently divided into two heads; one of these including such 

 articles as were employed in the general economy of agri- 

 cultural operations, the other such as were needed for building 

 and manufacture. Under the former may be included salt, 

 tar, lime, iron, and steel; under the latter, laths, tiles, and 

 slates, and the various kinds of nails. The division is not 

 indeed a very strict one, as the lime, purchases of which are 

 recorded, was used as much for building as for dressing land, 

 and on some occasions the iron is manufactured. But some 

 division is needed, and that which has been adopted is perhaps 

 sufficiently characteristic for all the purposes of our enquiry. 



Salt formed an exceedingly important element in medieval 

 economy. It was needed for dairy purposes, but still more in 

 order to cure provisions. The total absence of fresh winter 

 food for cattle, and the impossibility of maintaining the 

 summer stock of sheep and pigs through the winter, led to 

 the practice, to which allusion has been made several times, 

 of killing large quantities of sheep and pigs at about the 

 loth of November, and salting them for winter use. 



The evidence collected for the price of salt is exceedingly 

 copious, being on the whole not much short of that gathered 

 for the price of some kinds of corn, the total number of entries 



