258 ON THE PRICE OF GRAIN. 



quarter. Beans are high, though the price seems to imply that seed 

 was exceptionally dear. The same fact must be stated about tares. 



1533-4. Wheat is a little lower. The Cambridge (King's College) 

 accounts are dated from Sept. 30 to Sept. 28, the price falling towards 

 the harvest of 1534. The average is >js. iof</. That of Isleworth, 

 the home farm of Sion, is >js. 2d. That of Lewes is ^s. >]\d. But 

 Wearmouth buys at &s. io%d, Malt and barley are cheaper, the 

 entries coming from Norfolk and Oxfordshire. Oats are dear at 

 Cambridge, and cheap at Isleworth, Lewes, and Hunstanton. Meal 

 is cheap. Rye has not been found. Beans, peas, and vetches are 

 at corresponding prices. 



1534-5. Wheat is cheaper again. The Cambridge average is 

 6s. Sd. That of Lewes is 7*. Of the Wardrobe 7^. ^\d. Barley is 

 bought largely at Lewes at 4^. Malt at Cambridge at 3^. gd. There 

 is an entry at Durham of a small quantity at an impossible rate, 

 unless we are to accept the fact as evidence of a local scarcity, so 

 exceptional as to make the entry untrustworthy. I have therefore 

 omitted it from the average. Oats are dear. Rye, bought at Durham, 

 is very dear. I have entered the amount in the tables, but I conclude 

 that the price must represent the double quarter. Beans are dear at 

 Lewes, vetches cheap. There are only two entries of this kind 

 of grain. 



1 535- 6 - The evidence is very copious. The anticipations of the 

 previous year are verified by the far higher prices which prevail. 

 Wheat is bought at King's Hall once at T 7 s. Sd. At King's College 

 (the entries of which are dated from Oct. 2, 1535 to Sept. 16, 1536) 

 the highest price is on May 20, at 17.9. ^d. The average at King's 

 Hall is i2s. i id., at King's College 13,?. iod., at Lewes it is LOS. gd., 

 at Sion, where the coming catastrophe leads to slovenly accounts, it 

 is los. id. In another place, the locality of which is lost, it is i6.r. 

 in June and July. The other entries which depress the general 

 average are probably prices of accident. In short, there is evidence 

 of panic in most of the corporations which supply me with evidence, 

 and the inference of the year is safe only from its magnitude; for at 

 this time, when chaos seemed imminent and was at hand, it is to be 

 expected that accounts would be full of contradictions, and the market 

 be a mere confusion. The general average, los. 3^., almost certainly 

 represents the market of the year, though it cannot determine the 

 suffering of the poorer classes, who must have been exposed to the 

 worst effects of fluctuating prices for food, and traditional rates of 

 wages. About this time the Wardrobe account of wheat prices be.irins 



