31 8 MINOR AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS. 



53 s. ^d. From 1595 to 1609 inclusive it is 64^. a quarter. 

 From 1610 to 1624 it is 76.$-., with the exception of one year 

 (1611), when it is 96^. id. From 1625 to 1641 it is 152^., the 

 price being doubled in the year 1625. I cannot account for 

 this sudden and permanent rise ; I merely record the fact. 

 It is possible that the manufacturer had some reason for 

 doubling his charge, and the Fellows were willing to acquiesce 

 in his reason. 



The highest prices of mustard-seed are in 161 1, io6s. 8d. ; in 

 1684, H4S. 8d. ; in 1692, HJs. ^d. ; and in 1696, I28j. 



ONION-SEED. The onion was the earliest vegetable cultivated 

 in England. I have found its seed (vol. ii. p. 174) purchased 

 in England in 1294. Common, nay universal as this potherb 

 was, I have only come across some fifteen entries of it in 

 the accounts which I have examined, and I imagine that most 

 persons saved seed from the second year's growth of some 

 among their plants. The seed is always bought by the lb., and 

 varies from is. >jd. to Ss. for the ordinary kind. Towards the 

 latter end of the period, a large price (from IQS. to izs.) is paid 

 for a kind designated ' best large.' There is one entry of leek- 

 seed in 1654. The average price of the whole fifteen entries 

 is 4s. i id. Onions are also sold by the rope and by the bushel, 

 though I have not found many entries of such purchases or 

 sales. 



HEMP AND LINSEED. There are a few entries of these 

 articles. I have found twenty of the former, eight or nine of 

 the latter, for I am not quite sure that the lintle seed of 1646 is 

 linseed. The first seven entries of hempseed are from the 

 Shuttleworth accounts and in the local measure called the met, 

 six of which go to the quarter. The last five entries are from 

 Houghton. There is a great elevation in price towards the 

 end of the period, for Houghton's entries include the worst 

 years of the scarcity. The average price is 37^. 5i^- The 

 average of the eight entries of linseed is 29 s. ^\d. 



HEMP, FLAX, Tow, YARN. The hemp and linseed was gener- 

 ally, the former almost always, bought in order to procure a 



