LAND CARRIAGE. 769 



I cannot but conclude that the conveyance of these goods was 

 the office of the common carrier. 



The year before, Lord North, who had made great pre- 

 parations for doing his part as an Englishman during the 

 time of the threatened invasion, of the Armada, had goods, 

 27 cwt. in weight, sent down to him from London. Now 

 Kirtling is in Cambridgeshire, near Newmarket, and fully sixty 

 miles from London, even by modern roads. Lord North pays 

 at the rate of $ a cwt. for the articles sent him. The charge 

 to him then is at the rate of is. a ton per mile. Of course it 

 is possible that, the occasion being urgent, Lord North was 

 willing to pay an extra price for speedy delivery, especially 

 as the weight of his purchases was in excess of an ordinary 

 load. 



In 1588 Lord Pembroke gets a parcel, weighing 28 Ibs., sent 

 from London to Huddersfield. The distance is 188 miles, and 

 the price paid for carriage is 4s. %d. Now this is at the rate 

 of i8j. 8</. the cwt., or >i8 13^. ^d. the ton. Had a ton of 

 goods been dispatched at this rate, the charge would have 

 been nearly is. a mile. But a small parcel would of course be 

 charged at a heavier rate than a large consignment of goods. 



In 1591 Shuttleworth buys 1 18 Ibs. of hops and six couple of 

 ling at Stourbridge fair, and has them sent to Bolton. It is 

 reasonable to infer that the two purchases together weighed 

 i\ cwt. They are forwarded to him in September. If I am 

 right in my estimate of the weight which should be assigned 

 to the fish, he gets them conveyed at 5*. a cwt. ; and taking the 

 distance at some twenty miles shorter than that from London, 

 he pays the same rate that he did in 1588. 



In 1592, in May, he has a ton of iron sent him from Liver- 

 pool, and pays los. ^d. for the conveyance. Now it is about the 

 same distance from Liverpool to Smithills that it is from 

 Chester. But we may conclude that iron in bars was sent at 

 a cheaper rate than wine would be. If we take the distance 

 to be fifty miles, the cost of carrying the iron is at i\d. the ton 

 per mile. 



VOL. V. 3D 



