ON THE PRICE OF FARM PRODUCE. 365 



in the accounts. It occurs in two forms, by the pound and by 

 the hundredweight, the price of the article being naturally 

 cheaper when the purchase is made in bulk. In the later years 

 of the period it is very often purchased by the cwt. only, and 

 the price by the dozen Ibs., which has been taken in order to 

 avoid the fractions which would result from drawing the 

 averages from numerous entries, has been estimated from the 

 sales in bulk. 



Much of the wax purchased by monasteries and parish 

 churches was of home origin. But it was also imported, princi- 

 pally from the Baltic. It is likewise probable that large purchases 

 made at fairs, as at Stourbridge and Ely, were of foreign origin. 

 This foreign wax is known in the accounts as ' Boleyn,' or 

 'Poleyn' (1460-1461, etc.), and is known to have been a pro- 

 duct of Livonia, and other districts east of the Elbe. Some- 

 times the wax is purchased made up for consumption, and entries 

 are frequently found of waste wax or droppings, and of the cost 

 of making it either from the raw material or the re-melted and 

 purified waste. The accounts in the pre-reformation times also 

 contain numerous entries of an article cheaper than wax, 

 known as torch, and of lichinum, which appears to be wick. 

 Cotton, raw or twisted, is also to be found, and several entries 

 have been copied into the list of sundries. 



The average price of wax in the early part, i. e. the first 140 

 years, is 6s. $d. the dozen, and scarcely varies from that which 

 was derived from the averages of the period contained in the 

 first two volumes. The slight rise of a third only is effected 

 in the last 42 years, and this mainly during the last 32 years. 

 Even here, however, the rise is little more than that of 10 

 to 6. It is highly probable that north-eastern Europe, from 

 which this article was obtained, did not feel the effect of the 

 fall in the value of silver till long after western Europe was 

 brought under its influence. 



The cessation in the use of wax for ecclesiastical purposes 

 in all countries where the Reformation became dominant, i. e. 

 in north-western Europe, must have affected the price of this 





