PEPPER. SAFFRON. 659 



1431-80, the price being frequently Sd. a pound. Once in 

 1445 it is as low as >j\d. The entries also are numerous, and 

 suggest that when the article was accessible it was purchased 

 in considerable quantities. Still, throughout this comparatively 

 cheap period, when during the fifty years the average price was 

 izs. q^d. the dozen pounds, against ijs. id., the general 

 average for the 140 years, 1401-1540, a pound of this spice 

 cost more than two bushels of wheat. 



In the twenty years, 1521-40, which followed on the capture 

 and conquest of Egypt by the Turks, the average price of pepper 

 is 2,33. id. the dozen, or about 35 per cent, above the average. 

 In 1541-50 it falls, though not to the old prices. During the 

 decade 1561-70, it is again very dear, one entry being at the 

 rate of 643. the dozen. At the conclusion of the period it 

 becomes decidedly cheaper, owing, as I think, to importations 

 by the long sea passage. 



In 1573 and 1576 an article styled 'case' pepper is found. 

 I conclude that the term merely refers to the manner of pack- 

 ing. In 1443 I ft* 10 * an entry of 'long' pepper, which may be 

 the drug still known by the name. It is double the price of 

 common pepper at the same place. 



SAFFRON. It is convenient to deal with this article here, 

 though it was not unfrequently of English growth, as the 

 accounts specify. This drug or spice is nearly as common in 

 the accounts as pepper is. I have estimated it by the apothe- 

 caries' pound of twelve ounces, by which, as the internal 

 evidence of the entries proves, it was always sold. Our 

 ancestors believed that the drug was a protective or prophy- 

 lactic against the plague, and probably the price rose and fell 

 as those who could purchase the article were alarmed at the 

 contingency of a visitation from the deadly and dreaded 

 disease which was from time to time endemic in England 

 after the year 1349. I cannot, however, trace such an effect 

 on the price of saffron during the years 1477-8-9, 1486, 1508, 

 1521, 1545, 1555-6, 1577, and 1579, in each of which years 

 some one account or the other (see Notes, Political and Social, 



Uu 2 



