ON THE PRICE OF MATERIALS 



being 1613, and the localities from which the information is 

 supplied being but little less. 



Most of the entries refer to the purchase of salt. There 

 are, however, three records of manufacture and sale, one of 

 these being that of Sandwick, that is Sandwich in Kent, the 

 other two being from Lymington in Hants. These manu- 

 factories of salt were carried on for the profit of the Countess 

 Isabella de Fortibus or her representatives. The saltern in 

 which the brine was evaporated is called a c wychwerke,' and 

 the produce of each wychwerke is stated under the year 1298 

 to have been eighteen bushels. 



Salt is of various qualities. Once, in the year 1313, it is 

 described at Oxford as grey. Occasionally it is designated 

 as white. It is hard to say whether, when so described, the 

 name is introduced accidentally, or in distinction to an in- 

 ferior kind, which was or might be purchased at the same 

 time. Where white is quoted simultaneously with other salt 

 which is not designated, it is generally dearer. On the whole, 

 the price of such salt as was needed for the dairy is higher than 

 that purchased for the household. But in all probability the 

 difference is a mere variation, or at least due to the fact that 

 salt for dairy purposes would be, and was, bought at that time 

 of the year in which it was likely to bear the fullest price, 

 namely in the spring. 



Salt is also either great or small. Here again great salt is, 

 generally speaking, dearer than small. Great or gross salt was 

 no doubt the larger crystals known now as bay salt, and 

 which are it appears still preferred, in some degree at least, 

 for curing meat and salting butter. Still the difference in 

 price is not always considerable or significant. 



Salt is almost always bought by the bushel. But at Oldinton 

 in Kent it is bought by the mitta, which seems to be a measure 

 of two bushels. Local measures are occasionally found, as the 

 trugg, i. e. two-thirds of a bushel, on one estate in Wales, and 

 the ring of four bushels in Huntingdonshire, though even here 

 the practice is not general. Once only it is sold by the stone. 



