WINE. 619 



up to the time of Edward the Third's French wars it could 

 be obtained at very easy rates. 



Most of the wine consumed in England was of French 

 origin. But other growths were not unknown. The fellows 

 of Merton purchase half-a-gallon of Greek wine in 1337, and 

 some bastard in 1399; and the monks of Boxley buy some 

 white wine, which may indeed have been a white Bordeaux, 

 in 1390. But in every other case the wine was that of the 

 south-west coast of France. This wine is imported in tuns 

 and pipes, and is sold either in bulk or by retail, and in the 

 latter shape either by the sextary or the gallon. There can be 

 no doubt that it could be bought in large quantities at cheaper 

 rates than those at which it was sold by retail. 



The tun contained 252 gallons, the pipe 126. The reader 

 will find under the year 1370 that the bailiff of Wye purchased 

 two tuns and two pipes in the gross for ^28 31. 4^. Reduced 

 to the quantity which I have found it convenient to use in the 

 subjoined tables, that is to a hypothetical measure of twelve 

 gallons, this wine gives the rate of Ss. nd. the doz.en, a price 

 which, if we take into account the cost of carriage and the fact 

 that large quantities will be bought more cheaply than small 

 ones, closely corresponds with other prices returned from 

 Oxford in the same year. So in an earlier year the price of 

 a tun of wine at Forneset is given at <^?i 6s. 8</., the sextary 

 at 6^d. Now the sextary contains six gallons, and wine could 

 therefore be bought in this year, at a place in Norfolk, for a 

 little over i</. the gallon. The rate, however, is a little higher 

 by the tun than it is by the sextary. 



Wine was, of course, much cheaper on the coast, and 

 especially near ports, than in inland counties. Most French 

 wine was doubtlessly imported in autumn and winter, when the 

 roads were worst. We shall see below that the cost of carrying 

 wine was high. The fact that most of the earlier entries are 

 taken from the coast, or from places near the coast, will 

 account, to some extent, for the low prices of the earlier 

 period. Sometimes, however, the tun is sold at exceptionally 



