560 ON THE PRICE OF TEXTILE FABRICS. LINEN. 



are bought for this purpose by the bolt, though once or twice 

 Poldavy is purchased at a very cheap rate for sacking. Danske 

 is a cheaper canvas by the bolt than Ipswich is. Besides these, 

 there is a considerable purchase of navy canvas by the yard 

 in 1627. 



The highest price of Ipswich canvas is in 1619, when it costs 

 33^. ^d. the bolt. But this is the cheapest year of Vittery 

 canvas, for it is only i\ 7^. icd. the bale, in which year it is 

 also bought by the yard. It appears that Ipswich canvas 

 began to rise in price after 1620 and 1621. The Ipswich bolt 

 seems to contain, if one compares the year in which it is bought 

 at once by the yard and bolt, about seventeen yards, while the 

 bale by the same test would be rather over 264 yards. 



An average taken from sixteen years' purchases of Ipswich 

 bolts is nearly 26s. 8d. Another, taken from thirteen years of 

 Noyales bales, is nearly 18 2s. 8d. An average from four 

 entries of Vittery bales is 19 2s. id., and one from ten entries 

 of Vittery canvas by the yard or ell gives 14 s. \\d. the dozen. 

 There are only three entries of Danske Poldavies, the average 

 price of this article being 19^. ^\d. the bolt. It is clear from 

 a comparison between the prices paid in this period with those 

 of the earlier part of Elizabeth's reign, that the cost of sail- 

 cloth was distinctly declining ; and this is no doubt due to the 

 improvement in the manufacture of all those fabrics which the 

 immigrant Flemings effected. 



The following tables give annual averages of second-best 

 table-linen, of inferior, of ordinary and of superior napkins, of 

 inferior Holland, of the commonest canvas, of shirting and 

 sheeting and of towelling, all by the dozen ells or yards, or, in 

 the case of napkins, by the dozen pieces. The decennial 

 averages contain also those of the choicest table-linen and the 

 dearest Holland. 



