482 ON THE PRICE OF MATERIALS. 



the date at which these volumes close. The purchase is 

 chiefly of cramps and bars, those of Newgate, called locket 

 bars, being very substantial and carefully wrought. In the 

 earliest entries the cost is 42$. the cwt. In the second, from 

 1671 to 1692, it is at an average of 36 s. zd. In the third it is 

 35 s. &/., or taking the three together by the ton at 37 iSs. i id. 

 In the country iron seems to be dearer. In 1676 bars cost the 

 Norwich chapter 56^. a cwt. and two chimney dogs are bought 

 at the rate of 37^. ^d. 



The greatest variety occurs in the cost of forging anchors. 

 In some cases, as in 1592, only the cost of the iron is given, 

 and the entry has not included the labour. In 1600 the rate 

 varies from 56^. &/. the cwt. to 27^., in 1626 from 33^. to 413. 

 There is a great variety also in the cost of iron dogs, bought 

 frequently in the dockyards, at prices ranging from 26^. the 

 cwt to 44s. 4d. I have no means of determining what these 

 articles are. I find a kitchen dog nine and a half pounds 

 weight quoted at Winchester in 1651 at the rate of 37^. ^d. 



But though the annual averages present such very various 

 prices, they are corrected in the decennial and general averages, 

 as the cheap products are set off against those which are 

 dearer. I make no doubt that in this form the entries which 

 I have collected indicate pretty closely what a purchaser in 

 the seventeenth century would have to pay for wrought iron 

 articles, and that the general average for the whole time would 

 not be disturbed if five times as much evidence were discovered. 



It is clear that during the thirty years 1633-1662 inclusive, 

 iron was considerably heightened in price. Common and 

 ordinarily cheap articles are very much dearer, for prices are 

 nearly doubled in 1640, 1644, and 1645, 56^. a cwt. for iron 

 bars being an enormous price. I know nothing which will 

 account for this. The Sussex iron-works were in their fullest 

 activity, as I have pointed out above (p. 73), in the last of 

 these decades, when a notable rise in the assessment of Sussex 

 to direct taxation is published. Of course if the quality was 

 very high and the cost of refining or puddling was increasing 1 , 



