728 ON PRICES GENERALLY BETWEEN 1401 AND 1582. 



forty, or even fifty years, as the case may be. The fact may be 

 detected in nearly all the tables, and there are slight, but only 

 slight, indications that the price of labour was similarly affected 

 by this general prevalence of low prices. 



The price of grain seems to be permanently affected by the 

 base currencies of the years 1545-6. Three years, the middle 

 being very cheap, follow ; but it seems to me distinctly clear that 

 the prices of 1545 15^. 6\d. wheat, 9^. barley, 43. 8d. oats, ics. 

 oatmeal indicate a departure which cannot be assigned to the 

 seasons. Even in 1547, when wheat was for once again 4^-. i id., 

 oats are dear. Thenceforward a rate which is not more than 50 

 or 60 per cent, over the old average indicates a year of plenty. 

 For hay and straw the rise is first noticeable in 1548. The 

 same year suggests the first great rise in the price of cattle and 

 horses. Sheep are really dear for the first time in 1545. The 

 price of fattened boars is nearly doubled in 1551. 



The first great rise in the price of wool is in 1545, when it is 

 at the highest rate which I have registered. In 1547 candles 

 are nearly double the price at which they stood in 1501-10. 

 Cheese and butter appear to be similarly affected at the same 

 time. In 1524 butter was IDS. the barrel; in 1545 it is 26s. 8d. 

 Ox hides are 4.$-. 8d. in 1535, and 6^. in 1548, no entry having 

 been found in the interval. 



The rise in the price of fuel begins generally in 1548, that of 

 sedge, the poorest fuel, gathered by the poorest people, not 

 beginning till 1553. ^ n J 547 sa ^ begins to be double the 

 average, though it is not so persistently, never, however, falling 

 again to less than 75 per cent, above the old price. The rise in 

 the price of lime begins in 1550. My records of iron are 

 unluckily broken, and I cannot discover the rise till 1554, 

 when it was fully affected, there being no entry between this 

 year and 1547, when the price was unaffected. 1 have no entry 

 of the price of hurdles between 1542 and 1551. In the former 

 year they are is. yd. the dozen, in the latter 4^. icd. 



The price of building materials is exceedingly suggestive 

 when taken in connexion with the facts stated above. There 



