CHAPTER VII. 



AVERAGES OF PRICES. 



THE principles on which the averages of prices are drawn in 

 the following chapters are generally the same with those which 

 were adopted in the two volumes previously published. Later 

 experience has shown that I was right in anticipating that 

 sales of small quantities were as exact indications of market 

 prices as any fuller or larger entries would be, and that they 

 were as good guides to the state of demand and supply as 

 transactions on a very extensive scale. The fact might be 

 illustrated by the sales of wheat, rye, and malt at the Rother- 

 ham and Sheffield mills at the close of the period comprised 

 in these volumes. Here the entries are very numerous, the 

 quantities varying from considerable amounts to very small 

 parcels. But whether the amount sold be small or large, the 

 price, under the same conditions, is at the same rate, the 

 purchaser of a peck paying no more and no less than those 

 who bought several sacks (here the local measure is two sacks 

 to the quarter) at the same time. 



Not infrequently, however, the record from which I have 

 made my extracts gives the average price for the whole year. 

 This is constantly the practice at Sion abbey, the entries from 

 which are very instructive and very copious, though unfor- 

 tunately the series is exceedingly broken. Beyond the value 

 of such copious and accurate accounts, the Sion series has a 

 special importance, as it records the prices of wheat, malt, and 



P 2 



