ON THE PRICE OF GRAIN. 231 



tinuously high. Barley follows the fall in wheat. Oats too are slightly 

 cheaper, but rye is dearer than it was the year before, the entries 

 coming from Devon and Essex. Beans, peas, and vetches are not 

 apparently affected. The average price of malt at Cambridge over 

 the whole year is 4^. g^d., but the general average is greatly exalted 

 by the high price at which best malt is sold at Sidmouth. This and 

 the preceding year must have been characterised by continual rain, 

 the latter in the west, the former in both east and west, though the 

 east seems to have suffered most. 



1430-1. Prices suffer a considerable fall. The harvest appears 

 to have been generally good, though the southern and eastern sides 

 of England show generally the highest prices, as at Battle and 

 Hornchurch, at each of which 8,$-. was reached, this being the price 

 paid for a large quantity of wheat at the former. Barley falls 

 correspondingly, as also do oats, the quality of which, to judge from 

 the price of meal, must have been good. Malt at Cambridge is at 

 3^. iof</. on the average of the year, at Ormesby 3^. io</., the general 

 average being raised by the cost of that bought at Coleshull parsonage. 

 The price of beans, peas, vetches, and pulse is low. 



1431-2. The information is fairly extensive, prices being generally 

 low, the highest at Coleshull, near the Cotswolds. Wheat is very 

 cheap at Cambridge, only touching 43. once in the year. Barley is 

 proportionately cheap, as also is drage, which appears again this year. 

 Oats are at a lower price than in any year in the present century, 

 indeed since 1387 ; and oatmeal is cheap. Malt is in fair proportion 

 to barley. In the thirty-three entries from Cambridge it stands at 

 3-r. 8J</., and in two considerable sales from Castre in Norfolk, at 

 3-$-. 8d. There is nothing to note about the scanty entries of peas 

 and vetches. 



1432-3. The information is of the same character with that of 

 the preceding year. But prices suffer a considerable rise, especially 

 in the west and south. The Lullington produce is credited to the 

 bailiff at IQJ., the highest price recorded. But wheat is at gs. at 

 Hornchurch, and 8s. at Sutton-at-Hone. Barley is not so much 

 affected by the seasons as wheat is, the entries being numerous and 

 significant. The average of the Cambridge malt prices is 4^. *\d. on 

 twelve purchases, the College having, contrary to custom, bought their 

 malt in large parcels. There is a considerable rise in the price of 

 oats, which are sold in large quantities from Sutton-at-Hone, in Kent, 

 and at Embleton in Northumberland, whence also comes a very high 

 price of beans and peas. Rye is cheap in Norfolk and dear in Essex, 



