HOPS. 



THE entries of the price of hops are fairly numerous in most years, and 

 no year is altogether unrepresented. They are chiefly from the usual 

 sources Oxford, London, Halting, and, as years go on and the news- 

 papers give lists of market prices more regularly, the main source of 

 information is the press, notably the Kentish Post. Frequently one year's 

 crop is distinguished from another's in the same market, and, especially 

 toward the end of the period, the locality from which the produce 

 comes is given. For a considerable part of the century private brewing 

 prevailed among large families and corporations, and no doubt to 

 a certain extent among humbler circles, owing, it is said, to the excessive 

 taxation levied on beer at the time of the war with France *. An excise 

 was collected on hops at the rate of id. per Ib. after 1710, not, however, 

 with the result of diminishing the amount used. During the war of 

 American Independence the duty on hops was raised three times by an 

 additional five per cent., but without any further alterations till the end of 

 the century. 



The terms ' fine ' and ' coarse ' cloth refer to the practice of bagging. 

 The brightest and finest coloured hops, which always fetched the best 

 price, were put into pockets or fine bagging, the brown into coarse or 

 heavy bagging, but after 1756 these expressions gave way to the more 

 familiar bag and pocket. The ' bag ' is said to weigh about two hundred 

 and a-half, the 'pocket' about one and a-half*. The writer of the 

 article on hops in the Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, however, seems 

 to treat the difference as a matter of size only, and Mortimer knows 

 nothing of the word pocket at all. In this volume, unless otherwise 

 stated, the price is calculated by the hundredweight. 



1703 



1707 



1 Stephen Dowell's History of Taxation and Taxes in England, vol. ir. pp. 71-3. 

 1 London's Encyclopaedia of Agriculture, p. 863. 



