ON THE PRICE OF FISH. 421 



of diet, has now become comparatively rare. White herrings 

 by the barrel are purchased generally by Magdalen College, 

 Oxford, and frequently entered up to 1640, after which date they 

 are very rare. Only forty-four years are represented, all but 

 one of these being precedent to 1641. From a note in 1593, 

 it appears that a barrel of white herrings contained 2 J mases, 

 or mazes, and if we can rely on the price of herrings by the 

 hundred in the same year, the mase must have contained 

 about 500 fish. The price of the barrel fluctuates between 

 17^-. led. in 1583 and $os. in 1639. I have ventured on print- 

 ing such decennial averages as are to be found, for I believe 

 that the general average, including as it does one decade of 

 higher prices, indicates with fair accuracy what was the 

 market price. 



White herrings are also sold by the hundred, i.e. the hundred 

 of 1 20, both at the beginning and end of the period. Here 

 again the decennial averages, in so far as they are forthcoming, 

 designate what I believe were the ordinary market prices 

 with sufficient correctness. Naturally the fish would be 

 cheaper by the barrel than by tale. 



I find in the first twenty years of the period, divers entries 

 of herrings by the mase or maze. Eleven such entries give 

 an average of 12s. \\d. Six entries of red herrings by the 

 cade give an average of 13^. 4*/., three of the quotations being 

 considerably later. These prices confirm the suggestion made 

 in vol.'iv. p. 527, that the mase and the cade contained the 

 same number of fish. 



The cade of smoked or red sprats is also found. Eight 

 entries of these fish give an average of 2s. nd. They are 

 found from 1584 to 1652. Sprats are also found in the earlier 

 part of the period by the hundred. The average from eight 

 entries is 6d., and therefore the cade must have held about 

 500 of the fish, i.e. the cade was a tale as well as a measure, 

 and the cade of sprats contained as many fish as a cade of 

 red herrings. 



SALMON. Fifteen entries of apparently fresh salmon 



