230 ON THE PRICE OF GRAIN. 



taken place. Barley, however, is lower than last year, and seems, to 

 judge from the price of malt, to have been of good quality. I have, 

 however, in my estimate of malt prices, omitted an entry, the amount 

 of which is prodigious, from Sidmouth. There must, I suspect, be 

 some clerical error in the account, for the price is wholly abnormal. 

 Oats have slightly risen in price. Here too I have omitted an entry 

 from Ormesby, a small quantity of French oats having been pur- 

 chased here at a very exalted price, probably as seed, and possibly 

 with a hope of improving the crop. If the latter surmise be correct, 

 this entry is an early instance of an attempt to improve seed by 

 foreign importation. Other prices call for little comment. Rye is 

 very cheap, as are also beans, peas, and pulse, the second of which 

 is very fully represented. The harvest of this year closes a period of 

 extraordinary abundance and cheapness, which has lasted without 

 intermission for seven years. 



1428-9. The average price of wheat is more than double that 

 of the previous year. The rise in price, which amounts to 13^. ^d. 

 at Hoxon and Lancaster, appears to have been due to a wet season, 

 particularly affecting Western England, and as is frequently the case 

 with medieval corn prices, becoming progressively severe as the 

 season advanced, and the prospects of the next harvest could be 

 more or less exactly predicted. On the other hand, though all prices 

 are exalted, it appears that Midland and Eastern England were not 

 equally affected. Thus barley is and remains cheap in Norfolk and 

 the east, but is very dear in the south-west, rising to 8s. at Sidmouth 

 and Stert, and to 6s. at Alton Barnes, while large sales are made at 

 Guyton at from 2,$-. 6d. to 2s. 8d., and at Heveningland in Norfolk at 

 2s. 8d. Oats too, though the price is very variable, show remarkable 

 fluctuations. An entry at Oxford, and another at Stert, seem to 

 indicate that the highest prices were reached generally in the spring, 

 while one at Lancaster towards the end of the year points to famine. 

 The price of rye supplies similar evidence, this grain being sold in 

 Devonshire at 8s. Beans, &c. do not seem to have been similarly 

 affected. Malt would not be so dear indeed it is quite cheap at 

 Cambridge had it not been for the very significant entry from Sid- 

 mouth. As I had included the Sidmouth wheat, I felt constrained to 

 include that of malt in the malt prices. 



1429-30. The evidence is not quite so copious, but is derived 

 from a wide area. Prices slightly decline, but this year the east 

 suffers more than the south, wheat being sold at Cambridge and 

 Hornchurch at IQJ., and the price at the former locality being con- 



