358 



ON THE PRICE OF FARM PRODUCE. 



kept fowls, and therefore purchased only when home supplies 

 were scanty, and the article was dear. But however much prices 

 were exalted in the earlier part of the sixteenth century, eggs 

 were relatively very dear in the third quarter, for the price 

 rises from a little over 6d. the ten dozen to a little over 2s. 6d., 

 an increase which is witnessed in no other article. I cannot 

 but think that the peasantry, in the growing poverty of their 

 condition, ceased to supply these articles, and that the stint 

 led to the rise in price. 



Cheese is bought by the wey or pisa, weighing 224 Ibs., by 

 the stone of 14 Ibs., i. e. the sixteenth part of the wey, and by 

 the pound. In the earlier part of my enquiry, the manor of Horn- 

 church, in Essex, belonging to New College, was still managed 

 by the College, and cheese by the wey is one of the articles 

 produced and sold from the estate. Essex cheese was of good 

 quality, the Sion accounts constantly specifying it, though 

 they do not, unfortunately, often give the weight of their 

 purchases. 



New College gave up cultivation on its own account at 

 Hornchurch after 1428. During the years in which entries 

 of cheese sales from this manor are made, the following prices 

 are recorded, the years in which no sales are made being 

 omitted. 



PRICES OF A WEY OF ESSEX CHEESE AT HORNCHURCH. 



Assuming that the Essex cheeses bought by Sion in 1448, 1481, 

 and 1489 were procured at this rate, i. e. at is. id. to is. 2\d. 

 each, it appears that about nine cheeses went to the wey, 

 each weighing about 25 Ibs. 



