438 ON THE PRICE OF SALT. 



at the rate of 22s. 8</., is greatly in excess of other prices in 

 the same place. So are the four bushels bought by Lestrange 

 in 1587, at 28j. the quarter. Nor have I attempted to inter- 

 pret the 'loads' at Worksop. At this place, the hoop of 1600 

 is half a bushel. 



I have as usual appended such entries as Houghton supplies 

 me with at the end of the notes. In 1691 he gives a price by 

 the wey in London, which at five quarters to the wey is i6s. 

 the quarter, and another notice of the wey at Newcastle, where 

 it is just half the price. By the quarter it is i8s. $d. in 1691, 

 19^. id. in 1692, 23 s. 4d. in 1693, 29 s. \\d. in 1694, 33 s. M. in 

 1695, and 29^. 4^. in 1696. These are rather higher than the 

 Cambridge prices, and probably contain the tax, above referred 

 to, which was enacted by the London corporation. Apart 

 from any dues levied on merchandise in London, the price at 

 this port should be lower than elsewhere, for it is certain that 

 all or nearly all the salt was produced at the sea, and therefore 

 could be conveyed by water. 



Besides salt by measure and occasionally by. weight, there 

 are a few entries collected during the first half of the seven- 

 teenth century and a little later of the price of salt stones. 

 These were bought for the pigeon-houses, as I believe rock- 

 salt still is. They all come from the accounts of King's 

 College, Cambridge. I have noted seventeen entries. The 

 price seems to have been exceedingly high, for the lowest 

 price, i s. id. in 1641, is more than the cost of half a bushel of 

 ordinary salt, bought by the College in that year, while the 

 highest price, $s. 4^., is close to the cost of a bushel and a-half 

 at the same place and time. I conclude therefore that they were 

 either specially ordered,orwereonly occasionally offered for sale. 

 The average of all the entries is i s. io\d. The College never 

 bought less than two or three stones, and sometimes four. 



The subjoined table is of the price of salt in the Eastern 

 and Midland districts, the principal source of the former being 

 Cambridge, of the latter Oxford. To these are appended the 

 decennial averages. 



