470 ON THE PRICE OF MATERIALS 



at Ospring under the year 1382. Another kind of iron, quoted 

 also in the accounts on different occasions from 1280 to the 

 last year of the fourteenth century, is called Osemond; if 

 indeed this be not, as it seems to be in the later period, a 

 variety of steel. On one occasion a quantity is purchased at 

 a very high price, in order to supply some necessity in Newgate 

 gaol, under the name of Ferrum Normanmcum. 



Steel, sometimes called by its English name, but much more 

 commonly known as c asser' or c acier,' is found even more fre- 

 quently and regularly than iron, and the information supplied 

 is continued with but few interruptions to the close of the 

 period contained in these volumes. It is sometimes called 

 garlok, a term the significance of which has baffled my 

 researches. 



Iron was not, it appears, purchased so freely in the early as 

 it was in the middle part of the period comprised in these 

 volumes. At first it appears that manufactured goods were 

 bought in towns. Soon, however, the bailiff makes purchases 

 of the raw material, and employs the village smith to shape the 

 article served out to him for the various implements needed in 

 -the economy of the farm. In course of time, however, that is 

 towards the latter end of the fourteenth century, the practice 

 of purchasing the raw material is generally abandoned, and the 

 bailiff buys the article needed from the village smith, who seems 

 to have risen to a position of comparative independence. 

 Thus the evidence as to the price of raw iron is deficient 

 both at the commencement and the conclusion of the period, 

 and any estimate which may be made of its value must be 

 derived from a calculation of the customary difference between 

 the raw material and the article upon which further labour 

 has been expended. The former may generally be reckoned 

 at half the value of the latter. 



Iron was employed on the farm for the manufacture ot 

 ploughshares, of coulters (which are very seldom bought), of 

 clouts for cart and waggon wheels, of ploughshoes, of horse- 

 shoes, and oxshoes, and occasionally of nails. The cost and 



