244 ON THE PRIUE OF GRAIN. 



Hall average is 4*. 3^. Barley is represented by Finchale only. 

 Bigg is returned from Wearmouth. Malt at King's Hall is very 

 cheap, and large contracts are made at an average of 2s. Sd. Oats 

 are also cheap (82 quarters being bought at Finchale), as is proved 

 by the price of meal at Cambridge. Rye is not found. Beans and 

 peas are cheap, if one can judge from a single entry of both. 



1475-6. Wheat is dearer, especially at Cambridge, though the 

 price, 5^. 6d., is only a fraction higher than the general average. 

 The King's Hall account only is preserved. Barley is cheaper than 

 the year before, and malt in Cambridge and elsewhere in the eastern 

 counties is remarkably low, a large purchase at King's Hall being 

 made at is. io\d., and the average being 2s. 2d. Oats vary in price, 

 the Finchale purchase being made at is. 6d. Rye corresponds to 

 wheat. Beans and peas are cheap, 



1476-7. Wheat, returns of which are derived from King's Hall 

 and King's College entries, the latter of which are dated, is 

 cheaper. The average at the former is 4$. Sd., at the latter 5,?. 3^., 

 the price being slightly higher in the winter than it is in the spring 

 and summer. Barley and malt are hardly altered. Oats are at 

 nearly the same price. Beans are also unchanged, but peas in the 

 two quotations given are cheaper. 



1477-8. The information, though not extensive, is wide. Wheat 

 is much dearer. It stands at 6^. Sd. at Heyford, at 7-r. $d. at Coles- 

 hull, the highest price at Cambridge being 6 s. nd., and the average 

 5j. gd. It appears to be on the whole cheapest in east England. 

 There is a price of wheaten flour at 8j. given from Canterbury. 

 Barley is nearly as cheap as in the previous year, and malt, of which 

 Cambridge alone supplies a price, is 2s. 6$d. Cheddar however 

 gives at once a price of drage and drage malt, and of bere malt, 

 distinctions which imply that bigg or bere and drage are not at least 

 identical here ; bere malt being quoted at 4^., drage malt at 2s. Sd. 

 Oats are cheap at Finchale, beans at Cheddar. But a price of beans 

 and peas from Jarrow is too great to furnish the basis of an average. 



1478-9. Wheat is still at a high price, and universally so. The 

 average is nearly unaltered. Barley is cheap, but the price of malt is 

 high, indicating that the quality of the grain was low. The only 

 entries of malt are at the two Cambridge Colleges, in each of which 

 the purchases are made at exactly the same average, 4^. -$\d. Oats 

 are cheap, but meal is higher. Rye is only represented in the west, 

 as also beans. I conclude that the summer of this and of the pre- 

 ceding year was wet, and that though the quantity of corn grown \vas 



