ON THE PRICE OF GRAIN. 241 



pations as to the character of the coming harvest. In this year the 

 average price of wheat in the Home markets is 43 s. 5 \d. t the highest, 

 and in the North 29*. 8$d., the lowest. Now the Cambridge corn 

 rent average is 345-. 2c/., while Houghton gives 35^. 2\d. But the two 

 rentals of Lady Day and Midsummer at Cambridge give an average 

 of 35^. Houghton's price at Oxford is 44.$-. $\d., the Lady Day rent 

 being 45^. \d. Winchester does not come into Houghton's returns. 

 Here the average for the whole year is 42^. %d. ; of four entries 

 between Lady Day and Michaelmas, 47*. The nearest place to 

 Winchester in Houghton's list is Newbury, where it is 44^. The 

 Portsmouth assise in April is 38*. ; and the nearest place to this in 

 Houghton is Chichester, with an average of 36*. ^d. Lastly, the price 

 of wheat at Windsor on Lady Day is 48^.; at Reading, the nearest 

 point by water to it, 44*. Sd. 



I have dwelt on these details as regards the price of wheat in the 

 collections which I have made, and the returns supplied to Houghton 

 by his correspondents, with the view of showing how slight is the 

 discrepancy between the returns supplied to the financial authorities 

 at Oxford, Cambridge, Winchester, and Eton, and those supplied by 

 the collections for husbandry and trade. They prove that the corn 

 rents and the returns can be depended on, and that Houghton's cor- 

 respondents were trustworthy. 



There is no marked indication to the end of June that the antici- 

 pation of the coming harvest was unsatisfactory, and therefore I 

 conclude that the bad weather which undoubtedly affected the next 

 harvest must have come late. This is suggested by the fact that the 

 Cambridge corn rents, which alone give August prices, make these the 

 highest of the year. For the rest, the highest wheat price is found at 

 Exeter, 481., London being 40*. 1 1 \d. The lowest is Berwick-on- 

 Tweed, where wheat is only iSs. Sd. a quarter, almost every other 

 kind of grain being equally low in this market. I cannot but think 

 that the generally low prices which will be found to prevail in the 

 Northern markets and the highest prices in the Thames valley are due 

 to the very unequal distribution of money in England, a fact sufficiently 

 notorious to be commented on in the literature of the time. 



In the South and South-west barley and malt are dearer than in the 

 Home markets. I conclude that the barley harvest was plentiful, for 

 it is cheap in the Midland markets, and especially in Derby, then, as 

 Houghton tells us, a principal locality for brewing, where they are 

 generally at a high price. Oats are dearest in the Home markets, 

 cheapest in the Northern and Midland, the lowest price, 6s., being 



VOL. V. R 



