2/4 ON THE PRICE OF GRAIN. 



Evidence is wanting for 1493, 1512-13, and 1517. This kind 

 of grain sinks below 2s. in 1405-6, 1423-6, 143 r, 1434-6, 



1440-1, 1443-5' H47- 8 > H5 1 -*, H54-5, H57~9' 1 4^a, at 

 which it is at the very low price of is. $\d., 1463, 1465, 1468, 

 14702, i475~ 8 5 I 4 8 5~7) I 4 8 9~"9j I 49 2 1494-6 (in 1492 

 the single entry is at is. 4^.), 1499-1500, 1503, 1506, 1509-10, 

 1514, 1516, after which date it sinks only once, 1522, below 

 the average. 



Between 1541-1582 the average is 5^. 5^., but there are no 

 entries in 1556, the famine of Mary's reign, and 1582. 



For the first 140 years the average price of rye is 4^. 

 The information on this kind of grain is scanty and interrupted, 

 and it almost disappears between 1539 and 1572. Sometim< 

 and once even on an average, it is dearer than wheat, as ii 

 1462, a very cheap year, in 1486, 1490, 1508, 1525, i53 2 ~ J 5: 

 when one entry in each year at a great price is derived froi 

 Durham. I have not ventured on drawing an average for th< 

 latter period. The entries found are few and for the last yeai 

 almost entirely derived from Yorkshire, where corn of all kinds 

 is dear, though their values are generally proportionate. Had 

 the evidence for rye been as abundant as that for other kinds 

 of grain, I have little doubt that the second rate would have 

 been about 1 1 s. yd. for the whole of the country. 



During the first 140 years the average price of beans was 

 3^. 9i^., of peas $s. \od. The evidence is rather broken. For 

 thirty-eight out of these years there is no price of beans, for 

 twenty-two none of peas. During the last forty-two years the 

 average price of beans is 9.$-. i^d., that of peas 8j. 8</. But 

 though I believe that the conclusion arrived at is correct 

 I regret that beans fail for twenty-two years, peas for fifteen. 



During the first seventy years, in which alone there is suffi- 

 cient evidence for an average, vetches arc at $s. y{d., puise at 



2S. lOjdf. 



OATMEAL. My accounts have supplied me with prices of 

 oatmeal, with but few intervals or gaps, during the fifteenth 

 century, fourteen years only being defective, and these chiefly 



