PRICES OF ALE AND BEER. 549 



Crown was purchasing at fictitious sums in the later period. 

 Seven entries of pipes, i.e. half tuns, between 1438 and 1492 

 give an average of 9.?. ic*/., which does not differ markedly from 

 the proportionate price of the tun in the earlier time. 



An average of forty entries of ale by the barrel, principally 

 London purchases, between 1405 and 1540 gives 3.$-. /\d. These 

 are prices of the best quality in the year. There are, with the 

 exception of one year, to which reference will be made here- 

 after, only a few entries of ale and beer by the gallon, when the 

 rate ranges from id. to i j</., and is generally id. 



There are seventeen entries of beer by the barrel between 

 the years 1444 and 1532. The average price is is. 6\d. 

 Between 1560 and 1580 there are twelve entries with an 

 average of 6s. *]\d. This beer is of the best quality and is often 

 called double beer. Single beer is found twelve times between 

 1501 and 1532, and is at an average of is. the barrel. Penny 

 ale is is. ^d. the barrel in 1518. Another measure or quality, 

 ' sixteens,' is found at Oxford only. Six entries between 1562 

 and 1580 give an average of is. $\d. There are also three 

 entries of ale by the dozen, in 1478, at is. 6d., in 1482 at 

 is. 6d.> in 1490 at is. icd. 



In 1507 there are several entries of ale bought on a journey 

 at various inns, and one large purchase at Thornbury. Here 

 the prices are generally very high, except in London where they 

 are cheap. It was to be expected that travellers should pay 

 high prices at inns, and in fact the price is generally double 

 that at which the article was bought elsewhere, for the highest 

 is $\d. a gallon. The year 1507 was the cheapest for corn 

 prices in the century. 



These prices of beer are however dubious, for it is not certain 

 that the quality was uniform. Still it will be found that they 

 have some correspondence with grain prices. Thus, for in- 

 stance, 1576 was a very dear corn year. Here the price of beer 

 by the barrel and of sixteens was the highest recorded, and ale 

 by the quarter is high. 1573 is the dearest year in Elizabeth's 

 reign, prices of corn being nearly as high as in 1556, and in 



