PAPER. 591 



of Sion Abbey are on paper, as are those of the two most 

 important Cambridge colleges. Still, the short bills sent to the 

 bursars of New College, Oxford, for repairs executed by local 

 artisans on their various estates are almost always on paper, 

 and indicate that the material was familiar, and as we shall 

 see, low priced. The quality is also very good, the material 

 is tough and strong, and is wired and watermarked. 



It is said that the manufacture of paper was not introduced 

 into England till the close of the seventeenth century. The 

 history of English commerce and of domestic industry is full 

 of idle and unfounded stories, the gossip of ill-informed persons 

 being constantly accepted as trustworthy evidence. Thus Mac- 

 pherson quotes an author of the latter part of the seventeenth 

 century to the effect that glass was manufactured first in 

 England in 1557. My accounts give me information about 

 English glass in 1478, and again in 1517. 



I do not find in these accounts any notice of an English 

 manufacture of paper, and I cannot therefore positively con- 

 tradict so highly improbable a statement as the very late 

 introduction of a paper-making industry into England. But I 

 do not find that places which are certainly at a considerable 

 distance from a port paid more for the article than those which 

 are near, provided it be remembered that as a rule small 

 purchases are at a higher rate than larger quantities are. Now 

 Cambridge was far more near to foreign produce than Oxford 

 was. But in 1408 Oxford pays 3^. a quire for paper, Cambridge 

 5</. On the other hand, in 1411 the eastern university pays 

 2/., the midland ^d. In 1454, again, Oxford makes a better 

 bargain than Cambridge. In 1495 Oxford buys a ream of 

 paper at a lower price than Sion, which is practically London, 

 does in 1493, an< ^ m I 53 P avs ^ ess tnan tne king does at 

 Windsor. These illustrations might be multiplied and con- 

 tinued through the period. 



During the greater part of the period again there is scarcely 

 any appreciable difference of quality in this article. It is 

 uniformly good and stout, is indeed of an infinitely more 



