ON THE PRICE OF GRAIN. 



1657-8. The price of wheat is considerably higher, and denotes great 

 scarcity. The wheat rents at Cambridge are at 46^. ni</., while the 

 bakehouse buys at 43^. 2d. in the last two months of the year at very 

 high prices, the coming harvest being anticipated. The Eton rents 

 are at 5u. 5^., those in Oxford at 48s. 8d., while the market averages 

 are at 46^. $^d. The Winchester grants are at 415-. 4</., its purchases 

 at 45-r. 7</. There is an entry at Horstead Keynes at 58 s. 8d., and one, 

 the cheapest in the year, at Hickstead at 34^. Prices rise towards the 

 end of the year. With this year the record of the Oxford market 

 averages ceases. Barley and malt do not rise so notably as wheat 

 does : the average of the former at Oxford is 23^. %\d. The Cambridge 

 malt rents are at 22*. io|</., those of Eton at 27^. s\d., those of 

 Oxford at 24^. 8d. The grants at Winchester are at 28^., the pur- 

 chases at 23.?. $\d. Oats begin at a low price, and begin to rise in 

 July, till by September they are double what they were ten months 

 before. The Cambridge average is 15^-. ^\d. ; at Oxford they are at 

 15^. id. The Winchester average is the highest of all, 17^. id. At 

 Yotes Court, the average from October to September is the lowest, 

 i2s. lod. Meal at Winchester is not so dear, as the price of oats 

 would suggest. It is higher at Horstead Keynes, where oats are 

 cheaper. Beans have not been found. Peas at Biggin are not very 

 dear. 



1658-9. We have now come to what is so characteristic of this 

 century, a succession of years marked by very high or very low prices. 

 In this case we have now four consecutive years of great dearness, the last 

 of the series being beyond parallel in past experience, and reaching 

 to the highest price of the whole period. The Cambridge wheat 

 rents, higher at the beginning of the year than towards its close, are 

 at an average of 52,?. 2\d. The bakehouse purchases are at 48.$-. iod. 

 The Eton rents begin at 8os., and fall to 64^., the average being 

 71,$-. 4d. The Oxford rents are at 6os. io%d., the Winchester entries 

 are at 50,?. i^d. This is the first year for which the Winchester rents 

 have been found, and in course of time I discovered that it was the 

 custom of the College to postdate their corn rents by a year, so that 

 I was able to correct the entry when the record became continuous. 

 It is not, unfortunately, continuous yet. The malt rents at Cambridge 

 give an average of 28,?. 8J</., of Eton 33^. gd., of Oxford 2gs. ^d. 

 The grants at Winchester are at 30 s. 8d., the purchases at 26^. 8d., but 

 the rents, which may belong to 1657-8, are at 24.$-. Oats are very 

 dear. The averages from numerous entries at Cambridge is 19^. i i^d. 

 But they are cheaper at Oxford, being bought in the first and the fourth 



