ARTICLES EMPLOYED IN AGRICULTURE. 399 



Spanish iron is generally dearer than Weardale metal, the 

 article with which it is frequently contrasted, the proportion of 

 the former to the latter being, as a rule, 6 or 6^ to 5. Some- 

 times, however, Weardale iron is dearer than Spanish. In two 

 years (1471, 14/3) Finchale priory buys three kinds, Weardale, 

 Spanish, and Luk or Lukeys metal. Another kind of iron 

 is described as Amyas (1527, 1528). In the first of these years 

 it is dearer than Spanish, in the second cheaper. 



In the latter part of the period we find English, Spruce, and 

 Spanish, the latter being distinguished as Bilboa, Seville or 

 Siviletto iron. Spruce appears to be iron from the Scandi- 

 navian peninsula, which regularly supplied England with part 

 of what she needed for consumption (supra, p. 145). Bilboa 

 iron appears to be slightly cheaper than that of Seville, but 

 Spanish and Spruce are generally of the same value, and both 

 appear to be, at least in the later period, forty per cent, dearer 

 than English produce. 



Besides raw forged and wrought iron, there are a few entries 

 of cast iron. The shot of 1513 and 1546 was probably of this 

 material. The ordnance of 1570-1579 is stated to have been so. 

 There is a story to the effect that cast iron was an invention 

 of the seventeenth century, and due to the skill of Dud Dudley, 

 a base brother of the great Worcestershire ironmasters of that 

 town. But my accounts show a far earlier origin. It is pro- 

 bable that Dudley merely introduced improvements into the 

 process. 



Wrought iron, during the earlier part of the period, is gene- 

 rally bought by the pound, even when the quantity purchased is 

 considerable, and the product elaborate. Thus the cranes 

 employed to raise stone and timber for Mertqn College tower, 

 each weighing 267 Ibs., and bought between 1448-50, are pur- 

 chased respectively at id. and i\d. the Ib. These were very 

 dear years on the whole. The contrast between raw and 

 wrought iron at the end of the period is very instructive, and 

 when compared with that of the earlier time, throws light on 

 the condition of labour. 



