498 ON THE PRICE OF MATERIALS. 



tries most of them are of material not cast. Thus in the first 

 entry we are told that the metal cost $d. a pound, the casting 

 4,d. In 1591, bell-metal is at %d. the pound, and the old at 

 4^. But in 1598, a new bell is bought for a Canterbury 

 parish at &/. In the next year King's College buys at 6d. ; here 

 material for smelting. In 1600, All Souls College buys a new 

 bell at is., and sells the old one at $d. In 1602 and 1607 

 small quantities are bought at 6d., in 1611 at %d. and is. In 

 1 6 1 6, a hundredweight costs Sexy. In 1617, New College buys 

 406 Ibs., evidently cast, at a little under 125^. $d. the cwt. 

 Seven entries between 1618 and 1659 are at J s. a pound, or only 

 a fraction below it. In 1 665, bell-metal costs i s. id. at Eton ; and 

 in 1674, bell-metal, evidently worn out, is sold at gd. and icd. 



After the Parliamentary party got the upper hand, an order 

 was issued that the use of organs should be discontinued in 

 churches, and the newly introduced Puritan fellows, at once 

 began to sell the organ pipes, which they seem to have dis- 

 posed of judiciously, so as not to glut their market, for they 

 sell for six years running at a shilling the pound. The pipes 

 were probably pure tin. The organ-pipes at Eton are also 

 sold, or at least 200 Ibs. weight of them, in 1645 at lid. 



Under the year 1677 will be found two purchases of anti- 

 mony in London, the former at a little over 275-. $d. the cwt., 

 the latter at 24^. But the former price includes the barrel in 

 which the metal was packed. These purchases were made by 

 the University Press for type-founding, the Press having at 

 this time a great reputation for its very numerous and excellent 

 founts of type. 



In 1689, Eton College bought two pounds of quicksilver at 

 $s. for the purpose of making a barometer. 



There yet remain certain prices of metals which are given 

 by Houghton in the first few years of his publication. They 

 are of lead, copper and block-tin, to which in one year he 

 adds milled lead, gold, silver, and, during the troubles of the 

 recoinage, guineas. 



From these accounts we find that in London the average 



