672 ON THE PRICE OF FOREIGN PRODUCE. 



more frequently bought in the earliest period of my enquiries 

 than the particulars suggest. 



The price of dates by the dozen pounds is high in the decade 

 of 1461-70, owing to the highly-priced entries of 1463, 4, and 

 1466. Sugar is also dear in these years, and as the dates were 

 certainly Egyptian produce, as sugar in the main was, we 

 have here co-ordinate phenomena which may well represent 

 some fact in local history, or some dearth of produce, or some 

 interruption of Egyptian trade ; for the medieval price, as 

 I have often had to observe, is a record of facts. 



The price of dates rose with all kinds of produce from the 

 south-east of the Mediterranean after the conquest of Egypt. 

 As was also the case generally with these kinds of produce, 

 there is a slight recovery in the decade 1541-50, the price 

 rising again in the next decade, and being highest in the last 

 twelve years. The averages struck between the two parts of 

 the period included in these volumes, and so often referred to, 

 correspond to those of other Eastern produce, and supply the 

 material for certain general inferences, to be commented on 

 hereafter. 



PRUNES. This kind of fruit, called also Damask prunes at 

 the end of the period, was not found in the thirteenth and 

 fourteenth centuries, and has only occurred twice in the 

 fifteenth, viz. in 1406 and 1443. Prunes are frequently found 

 in the sixteenth. They are bought by the pound, the hundred- 

 weight (first in 1552), and by the barrel, probably of a 

 hundredweight in 1532 and 1533. 



The earliest entry is at the highest price which has been 

 found, 6s. a dozen. But in 1443 tne 7 are at 2S - ^ n ^ e seconc ^ 

 decade of the sixteenth century they are cheapest. In the third 

 they are dear. In the fourth cheap again. Thenceforward 

 they are under the influence of the general rise in prices. For 

 the forty years, 1501-1540, the average is 2s. the dozen ; for 

 the last forty-two, 1541-1582, 2s. \\\d. Prunes are found 

 during thirty years of the sixteenth century. 



If the barrel of prunes, as seems probable, is the hundred- 



