276 ON THE PRICE OF GRAIN. 



were comparatively cheap, have been found three times, and 

 always at Sion abbey. 



During this period the average price of green peas is 

 5^. n\d. the quarter, that of porridge or pottage peas 5.9. j\ 

 But in the early period the price of the latter, which I take 

 to be identical with the best white garden peas, is higher than 

 that of green peas ; and I conclude that, had the entries of such 

 peas been numerous instead of deficient in the latter part of 

 the period, the price would have remained higher, though not 

 markedly so. In short, garden peas of all kinds were about 

 the price of wheat. 



Garden beans have been found in 1448 (when green peas 

 were very cheap, horse beans and field peas were at very low 

 prices, and wheat, as well as all other grain, was below the 

 average), at 9.$-. yd. ; in 1459, when prices were of the same 

 character as in 1448, at 7^. 4^.; and in 1491, when wheat was 

 rather dearer, but field beans and peas and garden peas were 

 cheap, at izs. These beans therefore (probably what we know 

 now as Windsor or broad beans) were a rarity and a luxury. 



MUSTARD SEED, GARLIC, ONIONS, AND ONION SEED. 

 The price of mustard seed is supplied for 109 years during the 

 period. It fluctuates exceedingly, varying during the fifteenth 

 century between Ss. and S^d. the bushel. But the average 

 of the entries during the first 140 years, the data being 

 numerous enough for decennial calculations, is is. 8d. the 

 bushel, for the next forty zs. \\d. The price of this condi- 

 ment does not, as might be expected, suffer so great an exalta- 

 tion as that of a necessary of life. 



I have discovered thirty-five entries of garlic, bought by an 

 indeterminable quantity, the bunch. The latest of these entries 

 is in 1465, and the general average at which the article is 

 purchased is a small fraction above ^d. 



Onions are sold by the bushel, the rope, and the bunch. I 

 have enumerated all such cases of the former estimate as have 

 come within my view, and collected them in the table given 

 in Vol. iii. p. 205. They are forty-four in all, and range from 



