DURING THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES. 135 



No rise in real rent was possible in England from the time 

 at which my enquiries commence to the period at which these 

 two volumes close, for the very sufficient reason that no progress 

 whatever was made in the art of agriculture as practised in 

 England during the 324 years comprised in the four volumes. 

 In point of fact, England during the whole of this time im- 

 ported largely some of the materials which were absolutely 

 requisite for her agricultural industry ; and as it is a law in 

 prices that the money value of foreign goods, and of articles 

 bartered against those foreign goods, is constantly controlled by 

 the foreign exchanges, the exaltation of home products to the 

 consumer was to a great extent counterbalanced, as far as the 

 profit of the agriculturist was concerned, by the relative in- 

 crease in the price of labour, and the absolute increase in the 

 price of materials. 



Still it is not easy to account for the facts contained in the 

 following table of the rentals of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. 

 I might have supplied similar information about other estates, 

 but the facts would have had the same meaning, and it happens 

 that the series is unbroken between 1558 and 1584 inclusive. 

 It is during this period that the full effect of the rise in prices 

 is felt, money values being enhanced, to speak roundly, three 

 times. But it will be seen that there is no rise in the rents, 

 and as I have noticed, there is no trace of those gratuities on 

 the grant of new leases, which under the name of fines became 

 so important an item in corporate revenues and in some 

 settled estates. During the last two years the effect of Eliza- 

 beth's statute in directing a reservation of part of the rent in corn 

 or in its price is discernible, though as a fact, the totals received 

 are below the average in those two years. But the reservation 

 of corn rents was by no means unknown. It was the constant 

 practice with the wealthier Cambridge colleges to lessen their 

 establishment charges, long before the statute of Elizabeth, by 

 demanding corn at fixed prices in lieu of money rents, a pre- 

 cautionary measure which they doubtlessly adopted from the 

 Eastern counties' practice. 



