ON THE PRICE OF GRAIN. 237 



same year. He tells us in his first number that he put out 

 the proposals for the publication in November 1691, and that 

 he intended to obtain if possible a large correspondence on 

 the subject. His design is to give the highest market prices 

 for wheat, barley, malt, oats, rye, beans, and peas, with certain 

 other articles, with the object of informing dealers as to prices. 

 He gives the names of twenty-eight persons who strongly 

 recommended his project, among them being Evelyn, Pepys, 

 Plot, Hans Sloane, Chamberlain of Land Bank notoriety, and 

 Halley the astronomer. After June 27 he gave it up for a 

 time, owing as he tells us to the expense attending his publica- 

 tion. But in summer and autumn he was encouraged by 

 several persons agreeing to suscribe a guinea a year towards 

 the paper, by the prospect of getting more subscribers, and by 

 the likelihood of his being able to sell it at a penny. It 

 commences anew on January 20, 1963, and is continued to 

 September 16, 1703, when he announces that his ordinary 

 business has so much increased, that he cannot spare the time 

 necessary for the due editing of his periodical. As time goes 

 on, he invites advertisements. 



Each number contains a short article on some matter in 

 natural history, agriculture, manufactures, business, geography, 

 social economy, and the like. One series of papers is on 

 stock-jobbing, as it was practised in his day, and time-bar- 

 gains. In short, Houghton was a person of much general 

 information for his times. His essays were frequently re- 

 printed during the eighteenth century ; and till such time as 

 modern science began with Priestley, Cavendish and others, 

 they were looked on as important authorities. The price lists 

 and advertisements, the latter indexed, had only an ephemeral 

 interest. 



The information supplied him is evidently from local corre- 

 spondents, to whom in return for information he sends copies of 

 his publication. It is very likely that he obtained many more 

 returns than those which he records, and that he selected 

 those which he deemed most valuable to men of business and 



