CLOVES. CINNAMON. MACE. GINGER. 629 



taken from these entries is a little above 4*. yd. the pound. 

 As before, this spice is dearest in 1376 and 1377, when it is 

 nearly double the ordinary rate. 



THE HOT GRAINS OF PARADISE, called c amomum' by the 

 Greeks (by the adoption of an Eastern name), are occasionally 

 quoted. The price, however, is low, being only $\d. the pound 

 on an average c . This spice is found only in the earlier ac- 

 counts, but must, I think, from its powerful stomachic qualities, 

 have been purchased at other times; the more so because it 

 could be bought in small quantities by most persons. 



Nine entries occur of GALINGALE, both at the earliest and 

 the latest dates. It is bought for the Wardrobe in 1307, at 

 a very high price (6s. 8^/.); and again, at a rate (3^. 4^.) much 

 higher than ordinary, at Oxford in the year 1345. On other 

 occasions its cost is about is. 64. 



Some of these spices were pounded and mixed. There are 

 five entries, all in early times, of c white powder,' at an average 

 of is. \\d.-^ and one which is styled 'powder' only, at y. y in 

 1315. Mixed spices occur in 1337 at is. id. 



GINGER. After pepper this is the commonest of the spices. 

 Its origin, according to the list of spices found in Sanuto, was 

 the East, and it was carried both by the Red Sea and by the 

 overland passage. It occurs as powdered and whole, but most 

 frequently in the latter form. The dearest entries of whole 

 ginger are in 1344 and in 1392, when it is bought in Oxford 

 at as. 8</., and in London at is. lod. The price is somewhat 

 higher after the middle of the fourteenth century. An average 

 from twenty entries gives a rate of little more than is. 6\d. the 

 pound. Ginger occurs only once before the year 1323, and 

 then among the purchases of the Countess of Leicester. 



It is found in other shapes. Gingerbread in the early part 

 of the period is quoted under three kinds of quantity, by the 

 pound, by the box, and by the c gurda.' Earl Clare buys it 

 in the first and last form. In 1284 one pound is bought at 



The entry 45. the pound under the year 1334, vol. ii. p. 545. iii., is a misprint for 4<f. 



