ALMONDS. SUGAR. 675 



7^-. 3<^., also in quantity, the cheaper entries being in London, 

 the dearer at Norwich ; in 1482 at 6s. $d. ; in 1488 at 6s. ; in 

 1492 at 4^. \d. ; in 1494 at 3.$-. i \\d. ; in 1495 at 2s. g\d. the 

 dozen Ibs. In 1498 it is 6s. ; in 1501, 3^. ; in 1503, 2s. 9^., the 

 lowest price reached; in 1505, 3^. ; in 1510, 4^ the dozen. 

 From this point it begins to rise, slowly and with some 

 fluctuations, till, towards the end of the period, the price is 

 occasionally nearly as high as it was during the first half of the 

 fifteenth century. 



The origin of the sugar is not given except on one occasion, 

 1561, when it is exceedingly cheap, and is said to be Barbary 

 sugar. This purchase was made at Norwich, and to judge from 

 the price of the article in the year before, the Barbary produce 

 was probably a very inferior article. It should be observed 

 here that sugar is frequently bought in loaves, the weight of 

 which is sometimes given. The weights will be treated below. 



In my first volume I mentioned that the sugar bought in the 

 thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was designated as Cyprus, 

 Alexandrian, and Caffetyn, the latter being apparently white 1 . 

 It was also clear that towards the close of the fourteenth 

 century the article was becoming dearer. It is 2os. the dozen in 

 1360 and 1376, 22s. in 1377, 19^. in 1387, 24$-. in 1392, iSs. 

 in 1395, and 14^. in 1399. When -Alexandrian and Cyprus 

 sugar were bought, they were the cheapest. 



I have indeed no proof, but I have no doubt, that up to the 

 end of the first twenty years of the sixteenth century, the sugar 

 industry was steadily growing in Alexandria. It was indeed 

 introduced into Madeira in the early part of the fifteenth 

 century, and into the new world shortly after the discoveries of 

 Columbus. It became an industry in Brazil and Mexico early 

 in the sixteenth century. Supplies from these regions would 

 no doubt check the reaction on prices which the conquest of 

 Egypt in 1518 effected, and the almost entire annihilation of 

 the industry. But they were not sufficient to arrest the rise, 

 and thus prices tend upwards till it becomes impossible to 



1 Pharmacographia, pp. 651-2. 

 X X 2 



