450 ON THE PRICE OF FOREIGN PRODUCE. 



for 6s. id. These purchases are probably for medicinal pur- 

 poses. 



I have not discovered the article again till 1674, when it is 

 bought under its proper name of brandy in this year, in 1682, 

 1684, and in 1690, at 4s. a gallon. In 1693 it is 3^. 6d. ; but in 

 1697 it is iaf -j a d in 1698 and 1699, 12s. a gallon. In 1696 Par- 

 liament imposed heavy duties on French wine and brandy, on 

 the latter 30 and 60 the tun, according to strength, on the 

 former ^25 the tun, in addition to a previous ad valorem tax 

 in 1692 of 25 per cent. This is sufficient to explain the great 

 increase in the price of claret and brandy at the end of the 

 century. 



SPICES. The greater part of the information which I have 

 been able to collect as to the price of this foreign produce is 

 from the Commons books of King's College, Cambridge, 

 though occasionally the records of private expenditure have 

 supplied some facts. It was the custom for the authorities at 

 King's College to buy their spices and fruits at Stourbridge 

 fair, or from some wholesale dealers, and enter the bill in 

 aggregate into their annual account. But when they reached 

 the College, they were put into the keeping of some official, 

 manciple or clerk of the kitchen, to be doled out on the feasts 

 when the spice -box was filled and put on table. This official 

 enters in the Commons books, afterwards engrossed, the 

 amount of spice and fruit employed on each occasion, and 

 debits the College with the amount as against his store. The 

 practice continues, though many of the Commons books are 

 lost, till the outbreak of the Civil War, when the custom is 

 interrupted, the supervision becomes slovenly, and ultimately 

 the practice is dropped. The feasts are generally Michaelmas, 

 November 17 (the day of Elizabeth's accession), altered sub- 

 sequently to November 5, S. Andrew's Day, S. Thomas' 

 Day and the feasts on to the Purification, Lady Day, Easter 

 Day, Whitsunday, Midsummer Day, and S. Bartholomew's 

 Day. Hence to avoid repetition, when there is no change in 

 the price of spices and fruit, I have merely mentioned the 



