WOOL, HIDES, AND BARK. 411 



cheaper than it was in the seventeenth, ranging from 14^. to 

 2os. the tod. 



HIDES. Eton College supplies me with the price of hides 

 from 1566 to 1640, or seventy-four years. There are also 

 a few entries from other places. Eton College purchased oxen 

 as it did sheep, from remote markets and in considerable 

 numbers, keeping a slaughter-house on its premises and butchers 

 in its service. In estimating the averages of hides, I have 

 omitted inferior qualities. In three entries from Harting the 

 weight of the hide is indicated, the article being sold by the 

 nail of seven pounds, this being from 60 to 65 Ibs., at least as 

 far as the Harting animals are concerned. The price of a 

 raw hide, id. to 2\d. a pound, does not differ very materially 

 from that of a pound of beef. 



The following are the decennial averages for the price of 

 Eton hides : 



1566-1570 ... 7s. %\d. 1601-1610 ... i2s. od. 



T 57 I ~ I 5^ 9-f- i\d* 1611-1620 ... i4s. 6d. 



1581-1590 ... iij. o\d. 1621-1630 ... 15^. i\d. 



1591-1600 ... iis. 6\d. 1631-1640 ... i6s. i\d. 



From this table it will be seen that the price rises regularly 

 with each decade. Generally the College sells the hides 

 quarterly, or at least enters the sales quarterly. Two or three 

 times, as in 1602, 1633, and in 1634, it appears to enter the sales 

 separately. In the first of these there are ten sales entered, in 

 the second fourteen, in the third sixteen. But more frequently 

 the College seems to have sold them all together and have 

 itself struck an average, or entered the whole price received 

 under this head. They also sold the offal, and regularly entered 

 the receipt. 



Raw and salt hides are purchased for the navy at London 

 and Rochester, at nearly the same prices as the Eastern pro- 

 duce. Those at Harting appear to be smaller than the Eton 

 hides. But the Gawthorp hides, if one can judge by the price, 

 are considerably larger than those at Eton. Thus in 1593 

 Shuttleworth sells eight ox-hides at 17*. 6d.< the Eton price 



