ON THE PRICE OF GRAIN. 233 



1437 having had its effect on the markets. Thus, beginning at 

 Cambridge at 4^. and 4^. 4</., the price rises to double the amount, 

 Ss. 8</., before the year is over, and at Ormesby from 4.$-. $d. to gs. 4^. 

 It appears too that these low prices went over the spring, seed corn 

 being cheap. But neither barley, with malt, nor oats are similarly 

 affected, unless we except certain entries of oats at Ormesby late in 

 the year. The price of oatmeal is low. Rye is a little dearer than 

 usual, owing to seed purchases. The price of peas, &c. is low. The 

 sales of barley and malt, derived mainly from Fastolfe's estates, are 

 very large, more than 300 quarters of malt being sold at Ormesby, 

 270 at Grantchester, 100 at Heveningland, and 68 at Caldecotes. 



1437-8. The price of corn rises rapidly. At November it stood 

 at 8s. It rises to I2S. 8d. at Canons Ashby, to 13^. \d. at Horn- 

 church, to i os. at Lullington, which is doubtlessly an average, and at 

 Ormesby. It even reaches i6s. at Sutton-at-Hone. It seems that 

 the southern counties were most affected by the season, which was 

 wet. The price of barley does not rise correspondingly with that of 

 wheat, though traces of scarcity appear towards the end of the year, 

 as well might be. The high price of malt seems to imply that the 

 quality of the corn was bad. Rye, of which the entries are un- 

 usually large, is fully affected by the scarcity. Oats and oatmeal are 

 also dear generally. The price of beans, &c. is not so high as that of 

 other kinds of grain. It is plain that a dearth of considerable local 

 severity prevailed during this year. 



1438-9. This is a year of undoubted famine, the most serious 

 since the great famine of 1315-16, from which it is separated by an 

 interval of 122 years, a period which has recurred so often as to 

 suggest that the germ of a theory as to a cycle of the seasons may be 

 derived from studying the recurrence of famines and dearths. The 

 scarcity besides being very serious is universal or nearly so, though it 

 was probably more intense in some districts than in others, as is 

 proved by the petition presented to the King by the House of Com- 

 mons, praying that inland navigation to distressed districts might be 

 permitted without restraint. The prayer was refused, on the plea that 

 advantage might be taken of the liberty to export corn to foreign 

 countries, a proof that the seasons were as unpropitious on the 

 continent as they were in England. Such information as the scanty 

 chronicles of the time give one show that the cause of the calamity, 

 as is invariably the case in England, was heavy and long-continued 

 rain in summer, with an almost total absence of the normal solar 

 Jieat. The price of wheat, it is true, does not rise to the amount 



