622 ON THE PRICE OF FOREIGN PRODUCE. 



interruption of those commercial relations which had hitherto 

 united so closely the south-west of France and the greater 

 part of England. 



The price of French wine is more than doubled after the 

 Plague, and concurrently with these circumstances. It had 

 increased largely after the commencement of the fourteenth 

 century, from causes which I have no means of interpreting, 

 other than by the fact that most of the purchases were made in 

 small parcels. But from the middle of the fourteenth century 

 the price is always high. Nor, if we may judge by one entry, 

 is the rise to be assigned solely to the fact that most of the 

 rates are records of retail purchases. From the large quantity 

 purchased at Wye in the year 1370, it will be seen that the 

 rate even of this considerable bulk is nearly yd. the gallon, 

 that is, not much less than the average rate for the ten 

 years 1361-1370. 



Towards the close of the period the price of wine certainly 

 fell, though it is never sold at the rates quoted in the last half 

 of the thirteenth century. During the last ten years it costs 

 seldom more than 6d. a gallon, and is occasionally even less. 



Under the year 1388 a considerable entry is given, the 

 authority for which is the book of the Comptroller of the 

 Wardrobe. Here the rate is low, and were it put together 

 with the prices given from other places, some of which record 

 considerable quantities, it would greatly depress the annual 

 average. But purchases on behalf of the Crown were, no 

 doubt, made advantageously, and were certainly quit of all 

 dues and prisages. The rate at which the Wardrobe bought 

 was a little over y. \d. the doz-en gallons. It may be observed 

 that some wine was bought at Oxford in the same year at 4*. 



The rate, again, at which two pipes were bought at Boxley in 

 the year 1390, in the price of which carriage is included, is 

 low, being a little more than 3*. 6d. the dozen gallons. 



It is clear, I think, that except during the time when the 

 trade between France and England was interrupted, French 

 wine was common and cheap. Nor is it reasonable to con- 



