250 ON THE PRICE OF GRAIN. 



barley and malt point to the fact that the quality of the barley must 

 have been very low. 



Oats are dearer than in the previous year, the general average 

 being 15^. 8f</. as compared with 14^. 3</., the highest price of the 

 whole twelve years being recorded in this. They are dearer at every 

 district but the South-west, where they are exactly at the rate of 

 1697. There are fourteen localities which give an average of over 20^., 

 the highest being Chichester, where they are at 28^., and are con- 

 siderably dearer than malt. In London the average is 20^. 3^. They 

 are comparatively dear too in places where they are ordinarily cheap, 

 as at Pembroke, Exeter, and Hereford. The crop was no doubt a 

 very short one. Rye is also dearer than last year, on the general 

 average, there being a fall in two of the districts only, the Home and 

 the South-west, and a rise in all the others. 



Beans and grey peas are about 2s. a quarter dearer, the principal rise 

 again being in the North, the only fall being in the Eastern district. 

 Beans give the highest average this year for the whole twelve, and peas 

 being nearly at the highest. White peas are almost unchanged, but they 

 are dearer in the Northern district. The highest price of beans is 

 42s. io\d. at Richmond, and the next 41*. 2\d. at Ripon, both in 

 York. The highest price of grey peas is 38^. 4%d. at Derby; the next 

 at London, 34^. i o\d. The highest price of white peas is at Richmond, 

 46^. 4%d. ; the next at Liverpool, 43^. *\d. At London, beans are at 

 31^. 3j</., and white peas at 40.?. 2\d. At the two South-western 

 ports of Pembroke and Plymouth white peas are at 4. 2d. and at 

 4is. 4d. This year is the last of the great scarcity, one which was 

 not indeed so scarce as certain periods in the earlier part of the 

 century, but one which was remembered perhaps most of all by con- 

 trast with the plentiful years of which England soon had experience. 



1699-1700. The price of wheat falls everywhere, nearly 17^. a 

 quarter in the Home markets, nearly 14^. in the Eastern, nearly 12.?. in 

 the Midland and Southern, nearly gs. in the South-western, and nearly 

 us. in the Northern. In no place is the price at 50^., a common rate 

 for the seven past years, except in 1694. The highest average of 

 the year is at Liverpool, 48 s. iof</. ; the next at Derby, 48.$-.; 

 the next at Rumford, 46s. ^d. In London the average is 38^. 6d. 

 In twenty-six localities out of fifty-three given in Houghton's list the 

 price is below 40^., the lowest being Pembroke, 33^. 4<, the next 

 Newmarket, 35$. ioj</. At Cambridge the price is 38^.; at Oxford, 

 43^. 2d. ; at Reading, the nearest town to Windsor, 44^. i \d. ; at South- 

 ampton, the nearest to Winchester, 42^. \d. In the corn rents, the 



