174 ON THE PRICE OF GRAIN. 



rent) is 1 8,r ., and the general average is heightened by the prices from 

 Gawthorp in Lancashire and from Worksop in Notts. Barley is 

 little more than half the price of wheat, though some of the entries 

 are for seed. But three of the entries are from the Eastern counties, 

 where barley is always cheap. Malt is found in Oxford, Cambridge, 

 Eton, and Worksop ; but its proportion to wheat is what is customary. 

 Oats and oatmeal stand at proportionate prices. Beans are found at 

 Oxford only, where they are bought during the winter months for the 

 Corpus College stables, as they are indeed continuously, though unfortu- 

 nately the College very often gives a summary of the cost they incurred 

 for the stable by the hand of the groom. Peas are found in Cambridge, 

 in Norfolk, and in Notts. There is nothing to comment on in the price 

 of these kinds of grain. Rye, which is rarely given in my accounts, and 

 will soon disappear entirely, is as usual a little below the price of malt. 



1 584-5. The evidence is derived from several sources. Wheat 

 is on the whole cheaper, and would have fallen still more, had it not 

 been for anticipations of a scanty harvest, which plainly became 

 current as the summer went on. This is especially seen in the All 

 Souls account. This College takes its corn rents on two days, which 

 I have not been able to identify in the accounts. They are probably 

 however Nov. 2 and six months afterwards. Hence the second All 

 Souls corn rent is a fuller indication of how the coming harvest was 

 interpreted than the second general Oxford account on Lady Day. 

 The Kirtling account gives three kinds of wheat : grey, the cheapest ; 

 white, the next ; and duck-bill, the dearest ; the white wheat being a 

 May price, when prices were very apt to rise. Barley is a few pence 

 dearer than the year before, the purchases being generally of seed. 

 Malt follows almost exactly the decline of wheat, the second All 

 Souls entry being at a lower price than the first. Two entries of 

 1599 at Worksop are strangely contrasted. I can better understand 

 the low price of the second, than I can the high price of the 

 first entry. Oats again are cheaper, as is also oatmeal, purchased 

 at Oxford and in Norfolk. Rye comes from Hardwick only, and is 

 at its natural price. Beans are found at Oxford, peas at Cambridge, 

 where they are rather dear, the price being heightened by the last 

 entry. Wheat-flour is purchased at Oxford, now I presume by 

 quantity, for we shall henceforth find that a quarter of flour is not, as 

 in earlier time, the product of a quarter of wheat. 



1585-6. The anticipations of a deficient harvest, evidently enter- 

 tained in the previous summer, are verified during the greater part 

 of this year. The price of wheat is high, comparatively speaking, 



