486 ON THE PRICE OF MATERIALS. 



quantity in 1592 and in 1617. In 1656 New College, Oxford, 

 buys a large quantity in exchange for its old lead. In 1604 

 Eton makes a very large purchase in pigs, each of 4] cvvts. in 

 weight But the largest purchases of this College were made 

 in the years 1690-1698 inclusive, when it was engaged about 

 its new buildings. During these years the College purchased 

 no less than 35 tons, 13 cwts., 3 qrs., 2 Ibs., apparently in 

 pigs as a rule, as the price indicates. From the New College 

 entry of 1656 it would seem that the difference between the 

 value of old and new sheet-lead was $s. 6d. the cwt., and that 

 this therefore is the cost of smelting and casting. Had the 

 localities which supplied me with information been more 

 numerous, I have little doubt that the table would have been 

 continuous. As it is, the particulars are quite adequate for 

 inferences. 



Lead is bought by the fother, the ton, the hundredweight, 

 and the pound, by the last-named not infrequently in large 

 quantities. The commonest weights are the hundred and 

 pound. Once (1589) there is the purchase of a webb. But it 

 is as before difficult to interpret this expression, as to whether 

 it is a weight or a shape. In 1597, purchases of ' web lead 

 ready cast' seem to indicate that it was the latter. It seems 

 to be the same as the tela of the fourteenth century. Accor- 

 ding to Halliwell it is a sheet already cast. 



The price of rolled or wrought lead, if I can with certainty 

 assume that all the entries taken under this head are of the 

 article in a fit condition for immediate use, varies very con- 

 siderably. This, as in the case of iron, though in a less degree, 

 is due to the very different degrees of labour and skill needed 

 for fashioning the metal into the object for which it is de- 

 signed. It cost less trouble to run lead into sheets than to 

 mould or smelt it into pipes and to fashion it into gutters. 

 Again, when an order was a very large one, as in the cases re- 

 ferred to above, it is probable that the purchaser dealt on 

 more advantageous terms, though I have noticed that a few 

 pounds are often bought at no higher price than two or three 



