02V THE PRICE OF GRAIN. 223 



also singularly uniform. The highest price is at Hornchurch in 

 Essex, a place always affected by London prices. The average is 

 4.$-. 4</. Barley at 2s. nd. is, as is usual in cheap years, below the 

 proportion, and drage is rateable to barley. Oats, of which a very 

 large amount of purchases are made at Salisbury, are very cheap. Rye 

 at 3,9. zd. is fairly proportionate to wheat. Beans and peas are low- 

 priced, and pulse, which I have ranged under vetches, is exceptionally 

 cheap at one locality. 



1407-8. The price of wheat, the entries of which are still abun- 

 dant enough, rises a little, the average being 4^. 6f </. As before, the 

 price is highest at Hornchurch. It is also dearer in the west of 

 England. Barley is dearer, and also appears to have been deficient 

 to a greater degree in the west, an inference which seems to be 

 strengthened by the high price of malt. Drage and drage malt parti- 

 cipate in the rise. Oats are also slightly dearer on the average, though 

 large sales of this grain are made in Hornchurch at low prices. Rye 

 experiences a rise which follows closely that of wheat. Beans, of 

 which there is one entry only, are very low. Peas, of which the entries 

 are more numerous, are affected by an analogous rise. Pulse and 

 vetches are represented each by one entry only. Altogether, I 

 conclude that the harvest of this year, though abundant in quantity, 

 was various in quality, the best crop being in the Eastern counties. 



1408-9. The harvest was decidedly scanty, and the anticipation 

 of defective supply must have been formed very early, to judge from 

 the Heyford Warren return of Nov. i . The evidence of the year is 

 chiefly derived from the Midland and Southern counties. It would 

 again appear that the harvest was worse on the eastern side of 

 England ; for the average price of wheat at Cambridge is higher, the 

 entries being more numerous than that of all the other localities toge- 

 ther, for it is 8,?. 2d., while the general average is 7.?. 3^. The 

 highest price of the year is some seed corn at Jarrow, the price of 

 which is us. 8|</. Nine quarters are sold at Hornchurch at ios., 

 2 1 at Wellow at ios. 8d. I have thought it expedient to exclude 

 the Pershore and Wearmouth prices from the average, as they are 

 unnaturally low, and in the latter more probably represent an acci- 

 dental bargain. But I have included that of Aylsham ; though I 

 feel that the whole of the corn entries from this place are suspicious. 

 I am disposed to think that the scarcity was overrated, or that the 

 plenty of the Eastern counties in the next year might have been local 

 in this Norfolk town. The price of barley corresponds generally to that 

 of wheat. Drage, which occurs in two localities only, is at a price which 



