646 ON THE PRICE OF FOREIGN PRODUCE. 



chases of claret, though it is by Malmsey, and by claret in hogs- 

 heads. It may be that the disturbed state of France, which 

 was, from this time to the battle of Pavia, at war with nearly 

 all Europe, was the cause of the dearness. But, on the other 

 hand, French wine by the hogshead and tun is not dear. In 

 the next decade six years are again represented by retail prices 

 of French wine, the average being for the whole time us. l\d. 

 the dozen gallons. Here one year is dear, 1537, for the entry 

 from Magdalen College of 18 gallons at ^d. is impossible, and 

 must be a clerical error, though it is copied from the college 

 account book. But the price of wine by the tun does not vary 

 materially from the average price, except in the years 1530 and 

 1531, when it is relatively high, large purchases being made 

 at Durham. It is noteworthy that during the whole of this 

 decade Malmsey or sweet wine is very cheap. 



Entries of all kinds of foreign produce are very scanty 

 between 1540-50. This decade comprises the period in which 

 the most copious issues of base money were made, and in 

 which, as it appears, the English people were impoverished, 

 and foreign trade almost annihilated. If, as seems certain, 

 the Vinum Creticum was Gascon wine, and the cade was half 

 the hogshead, as is highly probable, the price by the tun is 

 <) $s. in 1545, and 9 in the year 1547. I have taken these 

 prices as trustworthy, and included them in the account. 



In 1555, when retail prices are again discovered, and con- 

 tinued with some breaks to the end of the period, prices, 

 though liable to considerable fluctuations, are permanently 

 raised to double, and in the last part of the period to treble, 

 the original rates. I have no entry of French wine by the tun 

 between 1561-70; but, judging from the price by the gallon, 

 the tun must have been worth about 12 ic\r., for the average 

 by the gallon would give 17 6s. 6d. the tun. Now, wine sold 

 at an average of %\d. the gallon, would be worth by retail 

 8 iSs. 6d. the tun ; and, by parity of reasoning, wine sold by 

 retail at is. $%d. the gallon, or 155. lod. the dozen, would be 

 worth in bulk about 12 12s. %d. Could I have interpolated 



