CHAPTER XXV. 



ON THE COST OF CARRIAGE. 



IN my earlier volumes, information as to the cost of carriage 

 over distances which could be ascertained from a map on 

 which complete reliance could be placed, was abundant. 

 Though there were very few places which gave me continuous 

 information, yet very many of these accounts, so fully and 

 accurately was the audit rendered, included the cost of trans- 

 porting goods from place to place. In the present volume, 

 a few localities supply continuous information. But the habits 

 of life are a good deal altered. Towns have grown, and 

 local traders have begun to supply goods on the spot 1 . The 

 custom of keeping careful and accurate accounts becomes less 

 common, and expenses are grouped in such a manner as 

 defies all possibility of analysis. Enough however is still 

 discoverable from which to infer as to the charge which 

 carriage added to goods, and by implication what were the 

 conveniences for transmitting goods over considerable dis- 

 tances. In many cases too, householders frequented the great 

 fairs, and bargained for the conveyance of their purcha 

 It is plain also that common carriers either plied their calling 

 between distant places, or that there was a recognised 

 machinery, by which it was safe to transfer, from one carrier 

 to another, goods for delivery. For example, Shuttleworth 

 buys hops and fish at Stourbridge fair, and gets them sent 



1 Numbers of the Oxford tradesmen are named in the college accounts as baring 

 trade transactions with these corporations. 



3 c 2 



