FOREIGN FRUIT. 459 



great raisins or Malaga raisins, and the latter being the 

 cheapest produce. Currants came, no doubt, from Greece, 

 especially the islands on the west, raisins from Spain. Prunes 

 I conclude were a French product. They are often called 

 Damask prunes. All these kinds of fruit, and indeed most other 

 foreign produce, are lacking in the twenty years 1663-1682. 

 The deficiency, I repeat, is owing to the custom of not dis- 

 tinguishing the particulars of the purchase. 



Fruit was bought, I have no doubt, from the grocer, unless 

 the stock was laid in, as it was less than two generations ago, 

 at the fairs. Thus in 1584, Lord North buys his stock of 

 dried fruit, 7 albs, in all, at Stourbridge fair. The Cambridge 

 colleges, dose to this great mart, undoubtedly did so. 



Except during the twenty years 1643-1662, when currants 

 and raisins are greatly raised in price, prices of fruit are very 

 uniform. The upward progress of prices (vol. iv. p. 690) which 

 marked the earlier part of Elizabeth's reign is continued to 

 the end of the century, or even beyond it. Then the price 

 generally declines, but only slightly, till the twenty years to 

 which reference has been made. In the latter part of the 

 period fruit is again cheap, nearly or quite as cheap as it ever 

 was. Of course, during the last decade, prunes are dear, being 

 French produce. 



With the motive as before, of avoiding inconvenient fractions, 

 I have taken a hypothetical measure of a dozen pounds. The 

 result is that the average price of currants is 5^. io\d. the 

 dozen, of raisins 4s. io|*/.,.of prunes 2s. io}*/. Even in 

 periods of comparatively low average prices, there are years in 

 which prices are high. I conclude, for example, that the cur- 

 rant crops in 1597-1599 and in 1601 were comparative failures, 

 and that the ungenial English summer was experienced 

 in parts of the Mediterranean. The five years 1606-1610 

 must have had scanty crops, unless generally increasing dear- 

 ness, perhaps the new book of rates, is to explain it. From 

 1646-1651 the prices are again very high, as we shall see was 

 the case with a good many other articles when we make 



