EMPLOYED IN AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY. 475 



calculating the various weights employed in registering sales 

 and purchases of iron. I have been constrained to exercise 

 considerable selection in the facts from which I have derived 

 my averages, and should perhaps explain the circumstances 

 under which I have thought it best to make omissions or to 

 interpret the facts which have come before me. 



1282. The entry of wrought iron from Oxford is calculated at 

 half of value quoted for raw material. The proportion of half the 

 price for material and half for labour exercised on it is so general, 

 that such an estimate may be safely adopted. 



1283. The petrse from Oxford are reckoned at eight to the 

 hundred. The Katherlow entries, as has been the case with all Irish 

 notices, have been omitted from the calculations. 



1286. The daker of Helthwayte is taken to be 10 Ibs. 



1294. The entry of Spanish iron from Ospring has been omitted 

 from the reckoning. The price is excessive, quite inconsistent with 

 the general rate at Ospring, where prices are usually low, and is pro- 

 bably a clerical error of the scribe who wrote the original account. 



I 333- The price of Tendale blooms is omitted from the average 

 taken. The entry is important as well as authentic ; nor is there any 

 reason to believe that the weight of these masses differed from those 

 quoted from Boxley in the same year, and derived, it seems, from 

 Kent or Sussex. But the price is so low that it would have disturbed 

 the average, and given the appearance of a depression which was 

 not real. 



1342-4-5. Certain entries given from Heyford, and described as 

 pieces of wrought iron, have been omitted, though if they be taken as 

 before, at half the price quoted, they would not be excessive. 



1350-1-3. The Tendale blooms are omitted for the same reason 

 as that given above. The reader, however, will observe that the rise 

 in price, as compared with the rate of 1333, is fully 100 per cent. 



1360. The Oxford entry has been ignored. At half the price it 

 would give the same rate as at Eastwood. 



1361-4-5. The Sheppey prices are omitted from the calculation. 

 They represent manufactured iron, and, in some cases, articles on 

 which considerable labour must needs have been spent. It is pro- 

 bable that in the cost of bolts and latches, two parts out of three in 

 the former, and three out of four in the latter case, are due to the 

 smith's work. 



