CHAPTER XVII. 



ON THE PRICE OF FOREIGN PRODUCE. 



UNDER this head I have collected all the evidence which I 

 could discover of wine, spices, foreign fruits, sugar, tobacco, and 

 rice, for I am persuaded that not only was all sugar consumed 

 in England imported, but that sugar, more or less refined, was 

 of foreign origin also. Had the accounts, for example, at 

 King's College given details, the series would have been 

 complete. But the officials content themselves with giving 

 the grocer's and the vintner's bill, without specifying quantity 

 and price. Not a few of my entries of wine are extracted 

 from churchwardens' accounts. Similarly the wine entries 

 from colleges have been frequently derived from the chapel 

 expenses. The King's College Commons books, more im- 

 perfectly preserved than any other of the records of this 

 College, become uninstructive as time goes on. Still I am 

 in hopes that the collections I have made may not be without 

 interest and significance. 



It has already been stated, that almost certainly all vege- 

 tables, except those of the commonest and poorest kinds, were 

 of foreign origin, at least in the first half of the period before 

 me, and that most of them came from Holland. I have 

 commented on those already, and I refer to the facts in order 

 to anticipate any objection in my reader's mind as to the 

 arbitrary limitation which the present chapter assumes. 



WINE. Most of the entries are of retail prices, and of 

 purchases from vintners, who sold by draught. Wine is not, 



