ON THE PRICE OF SALT. 435 



The general average at Cambridge is 1 8s. 4 \d. for the whole 

 period, at Oxford 23*. 8$d. for the same. If however we omit 

 the last ten years, when the price is heightened by excessive 

 taxation, the average for no years at Cambridge is i6s. o\d. t 

 and at Oxford 22 s. o\d. This difference I think may be taken 

 as a general estimate of the cost of carriage by the quarter 

 from London to Oxford, about 1 20 miles by water, and less 

 than half by land. Now salt was by statute 1 declared to be 

 56 Ibs. to the bushel, and a quarter would therefore be four 

 cwts. It would therefore cost $os. to convey a ton of such 

 goods as salt from London to Oxford, or about $d. a ton per 

 mile by water, or nearly 6\d. by land. 



From 1668 to 1693 inclusive, the price of salt at Cambridge, 

 with very trivial variations, is unchanged at 1 8s. 8d. the quarter. 

 It is difficult to resist the conclusion that these are contract 

 prices, and that the corporation of King's College must have 

 arranged with some dealer for a regular supply at a fixed 

 price. Prices at Oxford, as far as the records of expenditure 

 survive, are nearly as stationary. 



In vol. iv. p. 410 it will be seen that the average price 

 of salt from the time when I assumed that the rise in prices 

 certainly began (1541) till 1582 was from 4^. yd. the quarter 

 to xoj. i of*/., or, if one takes the last twenty-two years, it stood 

 at 12s. 8d. From this price, as compared with the averages 

 given in the tables at the end of this chapter, it will be seen 

 that it was not till about 1636 and onwards that prices steadily 

 went upwards and remained at a higher level. 



But in the tables contained in my earlier volumes, I drew 

 my averages of salt from all sources of information, of course 

 principally from Cambridge and Oxford. Hence to make the 

 parallel complete, one should unite the Eastern and Midland 

 prices. This would give an average of 21 s. o\d. for the whole 

 period, or omitting the decade during which the war taxes 

 were put on, of 19*. o\d. Now for the last forty-two years 

 of vol. iv. (p. 292) the average price of wheat was i$s. io\d. t 



7 & 8 Will. III. cap. 31. 

 Ff 2 



