THE PRICE OF LIVE STOCK. 



cows. Sometimes the accounts, as is the case with those of 

 the Battle Abbey home farms, give the price of oxen, described 

 as fat or in good condition, a distinction being also drawn 

 between stall-fed and grass-fed animals. It will be seen that, 

 as in other articles, there is a well-marked depression in the 

 price of the best cow during the thirty years 1471-1500; that 

 the price rapidly rises in the sixteenth century; and that, 

 though the average is 20^. yd. for the first 140 years, it is half 

 as much again, or nearly so, in the twenty years 1520-40, 

 while an excessive exaltation, due in the main to the fact that 

 the purchases are of first-class animals in the last forty-two 

 years, occurs between 1541-1582. The result is that the price 

 of the best ox is 70 s. >j\d. during the latter part of the period, 

 an exaltation which is to be recognised also in the case of the 

 best mutton and the best boar. 



The accounts give information during the latter part of the 

 period as to the weight of the ox. One bought in 1546 weighed 

 3 cwts. 3 qrs. 6 Ibs., and is valued at Ss. id. the cwt. Twenty- 

 nine oxen and steers are bought in 1547 for the navy at an 

 average of a little over 307 Ibs. each, while 142 oxen weigh 

 nearly four cwts. each. The meat is priced throughout at 

 gs. ^d. the cwt. or id. the Ib. In the next year 483 oxen are 

 bought in London, the beef of which is valued at Ss. %d. the cwt., 

 the average weight being 3 cwts. 3 qrs. 2ojlbs. These are fairly 

 representative weights, and fully support the conjecture made 

 in vol. i. p. 328. Now at this time prices had risen notably, 

 i. e. oxen were double the average at which they had stood be- 

 tween 1401 and 1540, and we may therefore conclude that beef, 

 which stood at about a penny the pound in the decade 1541- 

 1550, was not more than a half-penny during the whole of the 

 previous period. During the last twenty years of the enquiry, 

 entries of meat by the stone of 14 Ibs. are frequent. The 

 following are the prices of beef by the stone between 1562 

 and 1582 inclusive: 



