238 ON THE PRICE OF GRAIN. 



others. He always heads his columns with { best/ and he insists 

 that he records only the maximum price. Thus for instance, 

 under date of April 6, 1694, he says, 'At Brentford, Kingston, 

 etc. there are good sorts of wheat to be bought, but my price 

 is topping/ And again on June 8, when he gives a quotation at 

 ics. at Brentford, he notes that most of the wheat was sold 

 at 8s. 6d. the bushel. He always quotes wheat, rye, beans, 

 and peas by the bushel ; barley, malt, and oats by the quarter. 



Houghton is particular in requesting his correspondents to 

 send him any amount of local measures, and in one of his 

 numbers (No. 26) he gives a statement of such local measures. 

 But he reduces his information to the Winchester bushel of 

 eight gallons, or the quarter of eight bushels. Unfortunately 

 he gives but little contemporary information on the seasons, 

 though he states that the bad harvest 1693-4 was due to wet, 

 and that the scarcity was excessive in France. 



I have drawn the averages from all the entries of the eight 

 different kinds of grain, the facts of which are printed in 

 vol. vi. pp. 101-198, but I have not printed these averages. 

 There are during the twelve years, of which the first two are 

 imperfect, 4864 variations in the price of wheat, 3981 of 

 barley, 3073 of malt, 3635 of oats, 2851 of rye, 2494 of beans, 

 2364 of grey peas, and 2020 of white peas. Thirty-eight 

 localities supply information for the first year, 63 for the 

 second, 56 for the third, 60 for the fourth, 52 for the fifth, 

 53 for the sixth, 56 for the seventh, 55 for the eighth, 53 for 

 the ninth, 48 for the tenth, 50 for the eleventh, and 48 for the 

 twelfth. My reader will therefore conclude that the printing 

 of all these averages would have occupied a considerable 

 space. It was however necessary to draw them. When the 

 number of localities is most numerous, Houghton's corre- 

 spondents had been slackening, or had ceased to communicate 

 with him. In this case he puts another place in. He gives 

 space only when he selects for forty-eight. Hence in two 

 of his years the replies sent him are unbroken. He gets 

 information as far north as Carlisle, Berwick, and Newcastle, 



