ON THE PRICE OF GRAIN. 257 



oats and meal. Rye is at corresponding prices to wheat. Beans and 

 peas are rather dear. 



1529-30. The average price of wheat hardly varies from that of 

 the preceding year. As before, the price is higher in the autumn 

 than it is in the following summer. The average is 8s. 6^d. at 

 Cambridge, and gs. 6d. at Sion. The Wardrobe prices are high, 

 I have found no price of barley for this year, but malt does not vary 

 materially (the entries are at Cambridge and Sion) from the prices of 

 the previous year. Oats are rather cheaper, and the price of meal at 

 Sion is unquestionably lower. Rye has not been found. Beans and 

 peas do not materially vary from the prices of the year before. 



1530-1. Wheat is a little lower in price. The average of Sion is 

 7-r. 2d., of Durham only 5^. ^d., the sales here being large. I con- 

 clude that prices were high in the west and south, and low in the east 

 of England. The highest price registered at Sion is 1 1 s. ^d., and this 

 apparently late in the year. Barley and malt are at corresponding 

 prices, though the rate at which Sion buys its large quantities of the 

 latter article does not vary throughout the whole year, being always 

 4^. 8d. Oats are practically unchanged, and the price of meal is 

 slightly lower. Rye is rather low, the only entries being from 

 Durham. Beans and peas are cheap. 



1531-2. Wheat is a little cheaper, but is still dear in Cambridge, 

 the highest price in this locality being 15^., and the average IQS. 2\d. 

 It does not appear to be so dear in London, where the Wardrobe 

 price is *\s. 8d., and the charge incurred for Mary Tudor's household 

 is, on an average of the year, 9-$*. 6d. In other places it is much 

 cheaper. Barley and malt, the evidence coming from several and from 

 distant quarters, are both very dear, nearly up to the price of wheat, 

 and this especially in the north, where wheat is cheap. Oats are also 

 dear, but are found only in Mary Tudor's household book. 



1532-3. The average is still a little lower. The Cambridge wheat 

 prices are at an average of 7*. \\d., the general average being 8s. 

 The Durham entries are at lower rates, a little below >js., but the 

 quantity bought is not large. The Sion entries are much higher, the 

 wheat bought, over 337 quarters, is at an average IQS. 6d. The 

 wheat bought for Elizabeth Tudor's household (the great queen was 

 then an infant, but with a costly establishment) is at 7^. 4%d. Barley is 

 at corresponding prices, but malt is proportionately rather dearer than 

 barley, the Sion average being 8s. 3f</., and the general being 6s. 

 io\d. Oats are dearer, and so is oatmeal. Rye is bought at 

 Durham, and is so dear, that one is inclined to suspect a double 



VOL. IV. S 



