SUGAR. 463 



quantities, now much larger, by which it is bought. In the 

 earlier times, rich people bought it by the pound, or at most 

 by the loaf, a loaf of sugar being a favourite present to a dis- 

 tinguished personage. Even such an opulent person as Lord 

 Spencer buys stocks of sugar by the loaf, though on two 

 occasions, 1613, 1614, the weight of the twenty loaves bought 

 is given. In 1664 it is first bought (and without the designa- 

 tion of loaves) by the cwt. at 84^. It is again purchased in 

 the same manner in 1697. Sugar is bought by the pound of 

 sixteen ounces. 



In vol. iv. p. 676, I have referred to the weight of sugar- 

 loaves, in so far as they appeared in the fifteenth and the 

 greater part of the sixteenth centuries. Similar weights are 

 given in the period before me now. But during this period 

 the weights of the loaf are very various. I have found one 

 towards the close of the period (in 1700) amounting to 56 Ibs. 

 5 oz., the highest weight, and others the year before as low 

 as 4 Ibs. i oz. The weight tends to lessen as time goes on. 

 In 1604, two loaves of Barbary sugar, bought at 2s. the pound, 

 are each at 24 Ibs. 5 oz. The average taken from twenty-six 

 entries of sugar-loaves gives a medium weight of nearly 

 jo Ibs. ioj oz. The great variation in the magnitude of 

 these products is probably to be assigned to origin, and to 

 the interpretation which the refiners put on what was likely 

 to be the most marketable size. 



There is but little variety in the spices and fruits which the 

 colleges and ordinary gentlefolks purchased. There are 

 however some other products, mostly foreign, or at least com- 

 pounded from foreign products, which are registered in the 

 accounts spices, fruits, preparations of sugar, condiments and 

 drugs. To these during the last seventy years is to be added 

 tobacco. 



The commonest of these is aniseed. I have found it from 

 1585 to 1620 in twelve years. The price varies between 

 is. id. and 6d. the pound. The average of the whole is \o\d. 

 Three entries of turnsole give a little over 2s. %d. the pound, 



