ON THE PRICE OF GRAIN. 239 



Norfolk, the price is low. King's College buys its malt, 304 quarters, 

 at 2s. 6d. on an average, King's Hall a smaller quantity at 2s. 5^. 

 Oats are bought abundantly at Fountains, and are slightly dearer. 

 But the price of meal is low. Rye corresponds to the price of wheat. 

 Beans and peas are low priced. 



Fine flour, called in the accounts ' simila/ is purchased at King's 

 College on two occasions at an average of 1 2 s. $d. the quarter. It 

 may be noted here that the price of wheat flour per quarter does not 

 generally (we shall find it recur frequently at later dates) differ from 

 that of wheat. This fact seems to denote that the bushel of flour 

 merely meant the product of a bushel of wheat, in which quality alone 

 was taken into account in price, and not the quantity of the meal. 



1457-8. The evidence for this year is more general, but not so 

 exact as that of the preceding year. The price of wheat rises, espe- 

 cially in the midlands and the south-west. It is also rather dear at 

 Cambridge, at which town it will be seen that the price of wheat in 

 grain and as meal closely corresponds, for the average of wheat at 

 Cambridge is $s. iof</., that of wheat meal 6s. 8d. The Fountains 

 Abbey average is much lower, 43. $d., and the Heyford price of 

 November is $s. 8d. It appears that the harvest was deficient, but 

 the prospect of the next being good, prices declined as summer 

 advanced. Rye corresponds to wheat. Barley and malt are still 

 cheap, the purchases and sales being large, and prices very low. Oats 

 and oatmeal rise slightly. Beans, &c. are cheap. By an error, the 

 word ' chete/ which seems to be coarse meal, is printed as though it 

 were a locality. It is sold by King's College constantly, and is most 

 likely the same as fine bran. 



1458-9. The price of corn is almost the same as that in the 

 preceding year. The evidence is abundant and exact. Wheat is 

 very cheap in the eastern counties, the average of King's Hall being 

 4J. iof</., of King's College 4*. \d.> while at Ormesby it is even less. 

 But it is dear in the south and west. 8s. at Apuldrum, Coleshull,. 

 and Lullington, and once 8s. 8d. at Yeovil. The price at Heyford 

 also indicates that it was above the average in Oxfordshire. Barley 

 is apparently dearer than usual, but as the prices come mainly from 

 the dearer districts, they are not adequately reduced by the eastern 

 rates. Thus barley is only 2s. $\d. at Ormesby, while at Apul- 

 drum it is 4^. Hence again, the malt sales derived chiefly from the 

 eastern counties give a low rate for this article. The two Cambridge 

 colleges buy their malt at an average of 2s. 5^., and the Ormesby 

 malt is sold at 2$. ^d. Oats are a little lower, and that almost 



