AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS, TOOLS, ETC. 



PLOUGHSHARES. These articles are generally purchased, even 

 in the earliest times, though they are occasionally made. In 

 order to shew the fluctuations in their value more fully they are 

 reckoned in the table of averages by the dofcen. 



The accounts give evidence of two kinds of shares. One of 

 these is very cheap, and must have been very slight ; the other 

 is, as a rule, double the price, or even more. Occasionally 

 these are distinguished as summer and winter shares, the 

 former being generally, but not always, the dearest. As a rule, 

 however, these light shares are local, being found particularly 

 in Norfolk and Suffolk; though sometimes, as for instance at 

 Bungay in 1286, light and heavy shares are found on the same 

 estate. It may be that light shares were used on sandy soils. 



In estimating the average, all shares contained in the 

 accounts at or below 6d. are omitted in the calculations, as 

 being probably of the light sort. On the whole, the information 

 is sufficiently copious for the purpose of selection ; and had the 

 difference been neglected it would not have been possible to 

 arrive at any satisfactory inference for the earlier part of the 

 period. After a time these light" shares are generally disused, 

 or cannot be distinguished, in the general rise of iron articles, 

 from the heavier, though there are occasional instances of such 

 articles at late dates a . 



The price of the heavier kind of shares is nearly doubled 

 after 1350; the last two years of 1341-1350 being, as usual, 

 affected by the exaltation in the price. But the money value 

 of shares is heaviest immediately after the Plague, and in the 

 last ten years has fallen nearly fifty per cent, from the previous 

 rates. On the whole, though I have no doubt that the general 

 averages are sufficiently indicative of the ordinary rate at which 



R The price of the Kibworth share is worthy of note. It is always quoted in the 

 Kibworth accounts as the rental of a certain tenant, and on the face of the roll it appears 

 as if the share was actually paid to the bailiff. But there is reason to believe that it was 

 a money payment, that the commutation was made when the money value of the share 

 was at the rate of 40?., and that it became at last a customary payment. For some time, 

 however, after the Plague, the price of the Kibworth share is considerably enhanced. 

 Ultimately it returns to its old rate. 



