THE PRICE OF LIVE STOCK. 



333 



The average price of this beef is nearly 12^. 8<f. the cwt. It 

 is noteworthy that the year 1568, in which the price of beef 

 rises greatly above the average, is not a dear year for wheat. 

 The price of meat must therefore be explained either by gene- 

 rally spread cattle disease, or by a scarcity of pasture. All 

 these prices of beef are supplied from King's College, Cam- 

 bridge, and occasionally, as in 1565, for most of the year, and 

 in 1575, for one quarter, this College having for the rest of 

 the years entered into contracts with its tenants for a supply 

 of meat at old or nominal prices, as it had done also with 

 wheat, and with mutton very frequently. 



I have already commented on the advice given by Fitz- 

 herbert as to the comparative advantage of oxen and horses in 

 husbandry. The reasoning of this author in the sixteenth is 

 very like that of Walter de Henley (vol. i. p. 328) in the 

 thirteenth, is indeed so clear as to justify the impression that 

 the later author was conversant with the work of the former, 

 and that, as I have frequently alleged, agriculture during the 

 later part of this enquiry had not progressed materially from the 

 condition in which it stood during the period comprised in my 

 first volume. 



Cows are occasionally at full prices. One is bought at 

 Brightwalton, in 1401, for 20^. 6^., another at Bromham, in 

 1402, for 14^. 3^., another in 1403, at Alton Barnes, for 15.$-., 

 another at Heghtredebury, in 1407, at 145-., two at Takley, in 

 1409, for 13.$-. 4</. each, one at Jarrow, in 1413, at the same 

 price, three at Hornchurch, in 1417, at 13^-., five at Finchale, 

 in 1446, at iSs., one in 1484, at Banwell, for 13.$-. 4^., one at 



