658 ON THE PRICE OF FOREIGN PRODUCE. 



I shall now proceed to deal with the various spices of 

 Eastern or foreign origin, of which entries are found in the 

 third volume, and of such similar products as were of European, 

 possibly of home growth. After this I shall treat of foreign 

 fruits, and lastly of sugar and of confectionery. 



PEPPER. The most common and the most important of 

 Eastern products is this spice. I have numerous entries of the 

 article, more by far than were registered during the earlier 

 period, and these entries would have been, except perhaps for 

 one period, continuous, had it not been the practice, especially 

 with the bursars of the Oxford colleges, to enter the annual 

 purchase of spices in an aggregate sum, and therefore in a form 

 wholly useless for my enquiry. 



I have given the entries in the nominal quantity of a dozen 

 pounds, in order to avoid unmanageable or inconvenient 

 fractions in the averages. The price of pepper varies con- 

 siderably during the same year and at the same place. Thus, 

 at Netley Abbey, in 1455, & ran g es from 15.$-. the dozen to 

 9^-. 6d. Proximity to the great fairs and purchases made at 

 convenient times would be elements of cheapness, occasional 

 demand or inconvenient and sudden emergencies of the con- 

 trary. This is illustrated by the Oxford purchase in 1411 of 

 half a pound at Ss. The cause of this was the fact that 

 Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, visited the college of which 

 his predecessor was the founder, and as his appearance might 

 have been unexpected, and the college was certainly unpro- 

 vided with the spice, the society felt itself obliged to give 

 whatever the local apothecary ventured on charging for his 

 small stock of the condiment, as it had to entertain the King's 

 brother, an authoritative Visitor, and possibly a benefactor 

 in future. Still, in the year 1412 pepper was 34^-. a dozen, 

 and in 1414, 29.?. 1 1<, prices which were rare even in the last 

 half of the fourteenth century. Again, in 1418, it was 2,8s. 6d. 

 on the average. 



Pepper is high during the twenty years 1411-30. It then 

 falls in value, and is very cheap, relatively speaking, between 



