ON THE PRICE OF STOCK AND MEAT. 337 



fifty-six from Winchester and twenty from the Victualling 

 Office. 



Meat, and especially beef, is dearest in early spring, cheapest 

 in the autumn. And here again I may insist on the importance 

 of taking the agricultural year from September to September 

 as a test of produce prices, and not, as is customary, the civil 

 year from January to January. It will be clear that if a year 

 of great scarcity such as 1661 falls in between two average 

 years as this does, the whole of the agricultural inferences are 

 vitiated by adopting the common process of calculating yearly 

 values. Meat was cheapest of all just as winter was beginning, 

 for as yet agriculture had not made such progress among 

 farmers as to supply abundant winter food, and consequently 

 the pickling tub was, and for a long time after my period 

 closes remained, a necessary article in the kitchen or larder of 

 all families which made provision. For this reason, the im- 

 portance of dated purchases in meat cannot be overrated, and 

 thus I have been careful, especially in the Cambridge series, 

 to designate the quarters of the year by which the King's 

 College bursars made up their accounts for the annual audit. 

 Dated purchases are the only means by which agricultural 

 produce may be made to yield evidence, in the hands of those 

 who are competent to treat figures, of the seasons ; and I re- 

 peat here what I said a quarter of a century ago, when I 

 commenced this enquiry, that I am far from having exhausted 

 the inferences which may be gathered from the figures and 

 facts in the volumes of evidence. They are a mine which 

 cannot be easily worked out. 



Besides the record of the price of meat, there is considerable 

 evidence in the early part of the period as to that of suet, 

 used I believe in ancient as in modern times for Christmas 

 puddings and minced meat. As was noticed in earlier volumes, 

 fats, especially the hard fats, are a good deal dearer than meat. 

 Entries of suet occur during the first sixty-three years in forty- 

 three years, but during the residue of the period only twice. It 

 is generally from $d. to ^d. a pound, but is sometimes much 



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