592 PAPER, PARCHMENT, INK, BOOKS, ETC. 



durable and workmanlike character than modern material. It 

 varies a little in size, but is generally of demy folio, though 

 occasionally larger. I do not find, however, that larger paper 

 is much dearer than that of less dimensions. Occasionally 

 I have been able to measure the sheet, as the account has 

 informed me that the paper purchased is used for the accounts 

 which I have inspected. In the earliest of these entries (1532) 

 in which the size of the paper can be determined, the half-sheet 

 in folio is 15 J inches by n. Here it is $s. ^d. the ream. 

 In 1536 demy, 12^ inches by 8^, is only is. 8d., and at the 

 same time and place other paper, designated as ' small,' is 3^. 

 The word can hardly apply to the size, but perhaps to the fine- 

 ness of the wiring. In 1540 it is 12 inches by 8f, and next year 

 at the same or almost exactly the same measure. In 1542 and 

 1543 I find it to be 13! inches by 9!. All these purchases 

 are made on account of the royal works by Needham the 

 controller. In 1551 the King's College paper measures 12 

 inches by 8, the last entry of which I have been able to take 

 the measurement. 



Under the year 1533 we are told that the ream contained 

 twenty quires. If such a measure was universal, as is probable, 

 breaking bulk led to a serious increase of cost, the dealer being 

 unwilling to sell small quantities except at a greatly enhanced 

 price. This I presume was to be expected in articles for which 

 there was only a very scanty or pccasional demand, and in 

 which therefore the dealer could hold the purchaser very much 

 to his price. The same causes will explain the very various 

 rates at which the same article is bought at different places, 

 and at different parts of the same year. Thus in 1414 paper 

 costs zd. a quire at Didesham, $d. at Oxford. I cannot identify 

 the former place. 



The difference of price by quire may possibly be explained 

 by the purchaser having on certain occasions procured the 

 remnant of a ream which, some part of the quantity being sold, 

 was left on the dealer's hands. Sometimes indeed there is no 

 material difference in the price by the larger and the smaller 



