ON THE PRICE OF GRAIN. 225 



Beans, peas, vetches, and pulse are also cheaper. Malt is again 

 chiefly represented by Cambridge, at which large purchases are made 

 under very favourable terms. The year, in short, is one of great abun- 

 dance and cheapness, especially in Norfolk, where the summer must 

 have been dry and hot. 



1412-3. The information is more extensive, and prices are 

 almost exactly as before, wheat being at 4,$-. ioftf?. It would 

 seem that the harvest on the east was not quite so copious as in the 

 previous year, but that it was more plentiful in the south and west. 

 Cambridge again supplies full and continuous information as to 

 purchases, generally in small parcels; but it does not buy malt, 

 apparently buying barley for home manufacture. This grain and 

 also drage are lower than in previous years. Oats are cheaper, and 

 rye a little dearer than in the previous year, owing probably to the 

 slightly upward tendency of wheat. Beans, peas, vetches, and pulse 

 are also low. Malt prices are high, and seem to indicate that good 

 qualities of malting barley bore full prices. 



1413-4. Corn prices, though the area of information is not so 

 wide, and Cambridge fails me this year, are lower than before, in 

 some places singularly so, quantities of corn being sold at a very low 

 price. Barley is not quite so cheap as in the previous year, but drage 

 stands at nearly the same price. Rye falls correspondingly with 

 wheat. Oats are sold at the same price as the year before, the 

 evidence being abundant, and the sales large. One entry of oats 

 at a very high price, and said to have been bought for malting, is 

 singular. It has not been reckoned in the averages. Beans, peas, 

 vetches, and pulse stand at prices which might be expected. Only 

 one entry of malt has been found, but the price of barley suggests 

 that malt must have stood at much the same price as is given in 

 the tables. 



1414-5. The range of information is about as wide as in the 

 previous year, Cambridge again supplying entries. The price is 

 slightly lower than in the last series. The evidence is that of a 

 uniformly good harvest. The entries of barley are numerous and in 

 large parcels, some being sold very cheaply. The entries of drage, 

 though scanty, correspond to those of barley. On the other hand, the 

 high comparative price of malt, of which there are weekly entries from 

 Cambridge, suggests that the malting character of the barley was low, 

 a fact which is further implied in the slight difference of value between 

 best and inferior malt in Wilts. Oats are rather dearer. Rye does 

 not materially vary from its natural relation to wheat. Beans, &c* 



VOL. IV. Q 



