668 ON THE PRICE OF FOREIGN PRODUCE. 



English merchants or foreign importers, was plainly on the 

 increase 1 . 



RAISINS. Information on this kind of foreign fruit is by 

 no means so plentiful as that for currants. Occasionally the 

 price is higher than that of currants, as in 1490, when a 

 small quantity is bought at Sutterton at ^d. the pound, while 

 currants at Cambridge are in large quantity only z\d. But 

 the general proportion of value is, I am confident, fairly re- 

 presented in the first and second periods ordinarily taken, 

 though the rise in the price of raisins is less than that of 

 currants. 



Were it possible to disintegrate certain double entries, 

 and to arrive at a fair interpretation by weight of certain 

 merchantable quantities, it would have been possible, due 

 allowance being made for purchases in bulk, to have made 

 considerable additions to the annual register of the price of 

 raisins. These difficulties are as follows. 



It was customary, from the early part of the fifteenth century, 

 to make purchases of figs and raisins together. The earliest 

 name for this kind of assortment is copyl, or copla, the first in 

 1411, when it is priced at 95. 10^., the second in 1416, when 

 the quantity costs los. 8d. Both are bought at Cambridge. 

 In 1427 the term used is 'sett,' also at Cambridge, and the 

 price is 9^. I think that these two words are synonymous, as 

 is also the third, c sort,' which is first used in 1438, and is said 

 to contain two frails of figs and one frail of raisins. But in 

 1443 the word appears to be used of figs only, the Buckingham 

 family at Writtle having purchased two sorts, half a frail, a 

 piece, and eight pounds in gross for $2s. 6d. Again, in 1494, 

 Sion buys two sorts and one frail of figs for 17^. id. In 1491 

 the same monastery bought figs by the sort at 6s. ^d. 



In 1449 tne sort f ' fr" 11 ^ ' is 9 s - 4d- "> in J 453> three sorts of 

 figs and raisins are at 8s. \\d. ; in 1460, 8s. ICY/. ; in 1465, 14^. ; 

 in 1466, IQS. 6d. ; in 1467, ios. 6d. ; in 1468, 8s. 6d. ; in 1472, 

 $s. ; in 1476, i2s. ; in 1482, I2s. ; this last entry confirming the 



1 For the state of Greece and its trade in the sixteenth century, see Finlay, v. 126. 



