436 ON THE PRICE OF SALT. 



or if one takes only the last twenty-two years, 14^. 9^. But 

 during the hundred and twenty years of the present period, 

 the average price of wheat is 41 s., that of salt as I have said, 

 including the taxes, 2U. o&d. The price of wheat then is 

 raised two and three-quarter times on the narrower comparison, 

 that of salt only about two-thirds above the sixteenth-century 

 rate of 1561-82. 



The urgency of demand and the growth of population, pro- 

 bably fed on inferior food, and chiefly increased in the north 

 of England l , go far to explain the discrepancy. The real, but 

 partial and local improvements in agriculture, aid us a little 

 more, for they point out how it was that a part of this in- 

 creased population had to pay a higher rate for wheaten bread. 

 The demand of those who used it was constant. The numbers 

 of such persons increased. The supply was not, owing to 

 causes referred to in my chapter on the progress of agriculture, 

 equivalent to the demand, and Gregory King's law was con- 

 sequently in full and regular operation. But in the price of 

 salt, demand and supply, due allowance being made for the 

 growth of population, could easily be put in equilibria. If any- 

 thing, the demand declined with the partial but real improvement 

 in agriculture. For it is very likely that the necessity of salting 

 meat was diminished, and it seems clear that the use of salted 

 fish became more infrequent. It is certain too, that the trade 

 in salt herrings and pilchards with the Mediterranean ports had 

 not been as yet developed to any great extent. 



I cannot therefore but conclude that the register of the 

 price of salt is peculiarly instructive. It was a necessary of life, 

 one which the consumers would be glad to stint, and no doubt 

 did, but in what is after all an infinitesimal percentage ; for the 

 consumption of the rich and even the middle classes, especially 

 in the seventeenth century, was trivial in amount, by that 

 which the mass of the population required. We may be sure 

 that the peasantry in the agricultural counties, the miners of 

 northern England, and the weavers in the towns had but little 



1 Su P ra > P- 79- 



