444 ON THE PRICE OF FOREIGN PRODUCE. 



claret during the last decade, while friendly relations with Spain 

 account for the drop in the price of Spanish wine during the same 

 period. The war of Cromwell with Spain and the close rela- 

 tions between the Stuart kings and Louis XIV will, I presume, 

 account similarly for the dearness of sack between 1653 and 

 1692. The price of sack between 1653 and 1662 is very high, 

 and there are very few entries of muscadell during this decade. 



The prices of all foreign produce were, apart from causes 

 which can be discovered from history, affected by the practice 

 of privateering, and the risks of wreck. Writers of the seven- 

 teenth century are full of complaints as to the abuse by 

 neutral and even by nominally friendly nations of rights 

 claimed on the high seas. The Dutch in particular, as far as 

 their trade was concerned, commented with bitterness on the 

 manner in which the English Government winked at or 

 encouraged outrages and even piracies on their merchant 

 vessels, and on the losses which the commerce of Holland 

 suffered from these discreditable practices. Besides, though 

 the famous Navigation Act may have seriously injured the 

 Dutch, it does not seem to have been a great stimulus to the 

 mercantile marine of England. English commerce and Eng- 

 lish shipping grew, but not so rapidly as to prove that this 

 Act in question could be credited with the result. But in the 

 absence of anything beyond general information, we cannot 

 determine the extent to which fluctuations in price can be 

 assigned to those incidents. 



Imperfect and broken as my annual averages are, I am of 

 opinion that the general results may be depended on, that the 

 price of wine rose slowly during the first seventy years of the 

 period, and was enhanced more rapidly during the next forty, 

 though not, except in the case of sweet wine, to a very great 

 extent. It is noteworthy that for some time the price is 

 almost stationary, or marked by very trivial fluctuations. 

 Thus from 1602 to 1626 the price of muscadell is uniformly 

 4s. the gallon, while between 1621 to 1640 claret is never 

 above 2s. 8d., and sometimes a little below it. In short, the 



