I.KS MI- MIL 

 PRICES OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE. 



8TOC K 



CATTLE AND BEEF, SHEEP AND MUTTON, PIGS 

 PORK, POULTRY AND GAME, HORSES. 



THE same arrangement of the articles of farm produce has been 

 preserved, except that the heading 'Boars' is omitted, as no entries 

 appear under this head. The record is, unfortunately, even scantier 

 than usual ; only too often no record is found for years together. The 

 authorities consulted by the author are chiefly the collegiate books of 

 Cambridge, and for the London markets the newspapers. The 

 King's College bursars bought beef yearly up to 1746, but after the 

 second quarter mutton is substituted. We are, therefore, almost without 

 Quotations for mutton for the first forty years, and of beef for the remain- 

 der of the century. The London prices begin in 1773, but are not so 

 regularly given as the prices of corn or Bank Stock. The Can 11 and 

 Pclham accounts afford little help. I fee), therefore, the more fortunate 

 in having found among the Cholmeley papers at Brandsby a statement, 

 almost continuous for some years, of the weekly consumption of beef, 

 mutton, and, when in season, pork, giving not only the weight of meat 

 purchased, but in many cases the joint by name. Lamb tod veal were 

 bought also, but, the weight not usually being given, the record is not of 

 so much value, and only a few examples have been printed. There are 

 several instances of the purchase of beef-heads, tongues, both beef and 

 mutton, suet, feet, liver, Ac. Live animals appear every here and there, 

 and the Cambridge record of horses is fairly continuous for some 



. 



Beef and mutton are purchased by the stone or by the pound indif- 

 ferently, but in the London prices the stone is the 'dead stone* of 81b.. in 

 nearly every other case the ' live stone ' of 1 4 Ib. The Cambridge prices 

 are those of the 'fcrcula' or dishes, three of which go to the stone 

 of 1410. 



