ARTICLES EMPLOYED IN AGRICULTURE. 401 



discovered nearly so frequently in the fifteenth and sixteenth 

 centuries as it was in the fourteenth. 



Thirteen entries of steel by the garb give an average before 

 1540 of >]\d. Eleven entries of steel by the sheaf in the same 

 period supply an average of $\d. One by the wisp is yd. Four 

 by the burden give 3.5-. 6d. One by the gad is 35. ^d. The gad 

 and the burden seem to be identical, or nearly so. In 1436 

 Osemond is sold by the barrel at los. ; in 1452 at io.y. 6d. In 

 1457 and J 45# stee l is s ld by the barrel at 15.?. In 1465 

 Osemond is bought at Stourbridge at 9.$-. 4^. the barrel. But 

 in 1510, Osemond is bought by the prior of Hickling at 

 53^- 3^- t ne barrel. In 1527 the same article costs izs. 6d. at 

 Bardney. It is hardly possible that the barrel of 1510 could 

 have contained the same quantity as the other barrels did. 



In 1566 steel is bought by the cwt. It is nearly double the 

 price of iron, i.e. zis. %d. to us. In 1571-2, it is bought at 

 ^d. the pound, i.e. 37.$-. ^d. the cwt. In 1574 it is zis. %d. the 

 cwt., this being the last entry in the accounts. 



The price of iron is not to be taken alone, but with that 

 of nails. These will be treated, the evidence being very 

 copious, when I come to deal with building materials, and 

 they will be found to illustrate the facts which I have 

 been able to collect for raw iron and for ironwork, priced by 

 weight. 



The comparative scarcity of steel prices suggests that the 

 work of steeling tools, for which this article was especially 

 used, was undertaken by the local smith out of his own stock 

 of materials. This is further implied in the fact that tools of 

 various kinds, agricultural and mechanical, are purchased from 

 the manufacturers, and though they do not appear so fully as 

 to justify separate treatment and separate tables, I shall be able 

 in a subsequent chapter to deal with them with sufficient ful- 

 ness for the purpose of my enquiry. The fifteenth century and 

 at least the first quarter of the sixteenth was an epoch of almost 

 unbroken prosperity, in which farmer and artisan were equally 

 successful in improving their condition. 



VOL. IV. D d 



