OIL. SPICES, CONFECTIONERY, AND MEDICINES. 62$ 



and its employment becomes more frequent from this date. 

 I cannot but think that its importation was connected with 

 the high prices which prevailed at the beginning of the four- 

 teenth century, and that it was rarely used before that 

 time. 



The evidence is sufficient to justify the formation of a table 

 in which decennial averages may be stated, and to enable us 

 to compare its price before and after the great event which 

 has hitherto affected almost all articles. It seems that the 

 average before the Plague may be taken at is. o\d. the gallon, 

 and at is. ^\d. after it, that is, the rise was about 35 per 

 cent. The price of oil is singularly uniform after this event, 

 becoming only a little cheaper towards the end of the four- 

 teenth century. Such a uniformity cannot, I think, be ascribed 

 to any other causes than a steady and sustained demand and a 

 corresponding supply. 



Oil is not, all things considered, dear. Care, however, 

 seems to be taken of the stock, perhaps only in accordance 

 with the prevailing economy of the age. Oil used for the 

 religious offices of college or monastery was put into the 

 custody of the sacristan or other official having analogous 

 duties. Thus the entries derived from Boxley and Bicester 

 are taken from the sacristan's accounts. In the case of the 

 latter official, we find that two locks and four keys are pur- 

 chased in order to protect the sacristy and oil-chest, one pair 

 of keys being no doubt intended for some other official of 

 the society, who having a joint right of entry into the room 

 and inspection of the chest in which the oil was kept, was 

 able to exercise supervision and check over the responsible 

 keeper of this article. 



SPICES, CONFECTIONERY, AND MEDICINES. Some of these 

 articles are of Eastern origin, and were imported into England 

 by Italian merchants, who had received them from India and 

 other tropical countries by the Red Sea, or by those overland 

 routes which are described by Sanuto and adverted to above 

 (chap. viii. p. 147), or perhaps by another road indicated by 



s s 



