SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. 43 



where he dwells of a rise on those occasions from a mark to 

 twenty pounds, and says that the surveyor * is a man of that 

 reach, that men employ him to overreach others/ To this 

 the surveyor answers that the price of corn has risen to its 

 present pitch, and that the rent of land had risen, because of 

 the competition (he calls it the emulation) of farmers to get 

 the profits of so great a rise, and quotes Stow as to low prices 

 in the days of Henry the Sixth 1 . He further alleges, when 

 he is invited to consider the impoverished condition of the 

 farmer at present, that the husbandman is himself to blame, 

 because he has abandoned a frugal and austere life for one of 

 comparative luxury and extravagance. 



The price of corn had no doubt greatly risen about this 

 time. Between 1606 and 1618 (in which year the last edition 

 of Norden's work was published) wheat never fell below 305-. 

 a quarter, and in five of the thirteen years it was above 40^., in 

 one of them going above 50^. Now a rise in the price of 

 agricultural produce does not by any means necessitate a rise 

 in the rent of land, for it may be due to deficient harvests, 

 and it maybe accompanied by a correspond ing cost in produc- 

 tion. The rent can only rise by the legitimate operation 

 of competition, when the cost of production is so diminished 

 as to make the profits of the husbandman abnormally great. 

 I conclude therefore that these profits had materially increased, 

 and were obvious to those who wished to occupy land, and 

 that in this competition we see that agriculture had made 

 notable progress during the later part of the sixteenth century. 



The next three dialogues in Norden's book deal mainly 

 with the art of scientific land measuring. But the last gives 

 us some information as to that part of agriculture which deals 

 with the improvement of land. The surveyor discourses of 

 the proper way in which land should be drained, and refers to 

 successful experiments made by Captain Loveli and Mr. 



1 Stow, according to Norden, speaks of wheat sold as low as is. a quarter at 

 Royston in this reign. I have not registered such a price, but have found it at a*. 

 1405 and 1444. 



