

ON THE PRICE OF GRAIN. 247 



purchase. It is dear at Coleshull and Sion, compared with other 

 places. Wheat meal at King's College is $s. \d. Barley is low 

 priced in Cambridge, but malt, coming from a wider area, is at a 

 higher though proportionate rate. Oats and meal are cheap. Rye, 

 as in the previous year, is as dear as wheat at Finchale. Beans are 

 not found, and peas only at Cambridge, where they are cheap. 



1488-9. The price of wheat is nearly unchanged, and the area of 

 the entries is wide. The average at Cambridge, in this year Peter- 

 house, is &s. io\d. against the general average s. 6d. Barley is high 

 in Durham, but both it and malt are low in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, 

 and Kent. Oats are generally dear, but oatmeal does not rise pro- 

 portionately. One entry of rye is proportionate. Beans and peas are 

 at average prices. 



1489-90. The entries are few. Wheat is dearer. Barley and 

 malt are at corresponding rates, but the barley entries are low. The 

 malt is chiefly from Sion. Oats are cheap. Rye is very dear in one 

 place. Beans and peas are proportionate. 



1490-1. The entries are few. Wheat is cheap. Barley is dear. 

 Oats are cheaper, especially in Finchale. One entry of pulse, a rare 

 kind of grain at this time, has been found. 



1491-2. The entries are more numerous. The price of wheat 

 is considerably above the average at Sion, where 381 quarters are 

 purchased at an average of 8^. 2d.; and at Norwich, where 215 

 quarters reach even the higher price of Ss. 6d. But it is cheap at 

 Cambridge, where the average from all entries is 4^. 1 1 f< It seems, 

 from the contrast between the price of that bought for consumption 

 at Sion and that bought for seed, that the value rose with the summer. 

 Barley is not dear. Malt (521 quarters) is bought at Sion at 5^. i\d., 

 but it is cheap elsewhere, most of the entries coming from the eastern 

 counties. Oats are at about the average price. Oatmeal, from two 

 entries, is *js. 2d. Rye corresponds to wheat. Beans, peas, vetches, 

 and tares, are at fair prices. 



1492-3. The evidence is not abundant; but prices at Cambridge, 

 London, Wearmouth, and Wymondham, are fairly equal. The 

 Cambridge average is 4$. i\d., the general average 4$. %d. Wheat 

 is therefore cheap. Rye is also cheap, to judge from the price of 

 1 6 quarters malted. Barley is dear at Wearmouth, cheap at Wymond- 

 ham. Malt at Cambridge and Sawtry is cheap, at Wymondham dear, 

 the entries at the latter seeming to imply that the quality of the barley 

 was not high. There is only one entry of oats, in which the grain 

 is very cheap. I find no entry of oatmeal, beans, or peas. 



