ON THE PRICE OF GRAIN. 261 



frequently more characteristic of the year following an exces- 

 sive price of wheat than of the scarcity year itself. This is 

 probably due to the fact that seed barley was constantly 

 purchased in the spring, and malt was reputed to be improved 

 in value by careful storing. Besides, two centuries ago and 

 more shrewd farmers knew that spring and early summer 

 prices were always highest. The poorer agriculturists forced 

 their produce early into the market, the stronger ones held 

 it back. 



The lowest price of malt, and almost the lowest price of 

 barley, is the year of the lowest price of wheat, 1588 ; and in 

 general low prices of malt followed low prices of wheat, as for 

 example in 1619, when wheat being at 2$s. 5*/., malt is at 

 I4J. 4%d. In 1603, when wheat is at z6s. J\d., malt is even 

 lower, 13^. ii\d. In 1654, the cheapest wheat year of the 

 seventeenth century, the price being 21 s. 8d., malt is at 

 i6s. io\d. It will be seen on examination that when malt is 

 cheap, barley is much cheaper, the reverse relation being ex- 

 hibited when malt is dear. 



The price of oats is unbroken throughout the period. The 

 average for the whole time is 135-. ic*/., of the hundred years 

 14s. 8|<, of the first twenty 9^. 9^., the dearest decade, as 

 indeed is the case with every kind of grain, being that of 

 1643-52. During the first decade, oats are only once as high 

 as los. a quarter and upwards. In the famine of 1596 

 they are at i8j. o\d. t a price which they do not reach again 

 till fifty years afterwards, when the five years of famine occur, 

 when they fully participate in the rise ; as also in 1661. After 

 this date they are never up to zos. and upwards, at which 

 rate they were found before in three years only. There is more 

 difficulty in arriving at a satisfactory estimate of the price of 

 oats than in any other grain, as there are so many kinds and 

 qualities of them ; and except for the occasional returns from 

 Winchester, there are no records of the maximum price of 

 oats, like Houghton's entries, which he expressly states were 

 of the best kind. 



