CHAPTER XXVII. 



ON THE COST OF CARRIAGE. 



THERE is a general impression that in medieval times com- 

 munication between places was infrequent, and carnage dear. 

 I have attempted in the seventh chapter to shew that the 

 former view is erroneous; and I hope to be able in the pre- 

 sent chapter to give such information on the cost of carriage 

 as will modify the latter. 



The records which have furnished me with evidence as to 

 prices supply also materials for determining what were the 

 charges at which goods, both light and heavy, were conveyed. 

 It would have been possible to have largely increased the state- 

 ments given in vol. ii. pp. 600-5, but ** was unnecessary to 

 give more than a selection. Nor will it be needful to com- 

 ment on all the cases which have been quoted. The reader 

 may, if possessed of local information, arrive at far more exact 

 conclusions than I can pretend to. It will be sufficient for 

 me to interpret a few of the entries in a rough and general 

 way, but on a single and intelligible principle; and I shall 

 also confine my inferences to those entries which give the 

 cost of land-carriage, since there is some difficulty in defining 

 what was the precise distance traversed, or, more important 

 still, what was the time occupied in water-carriage. 



Perhaps I may be allowed to recall the attention of my 

 reader to the fact that the midland and eastern counties were, 

 as far as the resources of the soil and the art of husbandry 

 permitted, fully occupied by an active and laborious popula- 



