ON PRICES GENERALLY BETWEEN 1401 AND 1582. 



volumes, and are contrasted in the two periods which have 

 been taken, must be made in certain subdivisions. The most 

 obvious of these are the prices of home and of foreign products. 

 Under home prices we may take other divisions, those of pro- 

 visions, of labour, and of manufactures. Manufactures, again, 

 may be distinguished according to the importance or dearness 

 of the raw material, and as they derive their value from the 

 labour actually expended in making them immediately mer- 

 chantable. Examples of the former kind are manufactured 

 metals; of the latter, tiles and bricks, stone and boards. The 

 labour, as before, is that of the husbandman or of the artisan ; 

 provisions are vegetable, as corn and hay ; or animal ; or 

 mineral, as salt. Again, manufactured goods are often of 

 foreign origin, and occasionally there is a competition between 

 the English and the foreign producer. Lastly, there are certain 

 articles which are distinctly cheapened by improvements in the 

 process of manufacture. Of these the most noteworthy is glass. 

 But the relative prices of iron and iron goods suggest similar 

 improvements. 



It will be most convenient, in comparing the two epochs, to 

 take provisions first, and to deal with those under the two 

 heads of animal and vegetable products. In all the tables 

 given, the first column is the average between 1401-1540, the 

 second that of 1541-82, the third is the ratio of the rise in the 

 later period, approximately calculated to two places of decimals, 

 the first column being taken as unity. It should be observed, 

 that, in giving the prices of those products which have been 

 most enhanced in value, the entry is of the best price of the 

 year in oxen, calves, muttons, boars, and poultry. 



