XIV 



INTRODUCTION. 



other times the paper has been cut by the binder, or it 

 has crumbled away, or the ink has smeared, or for some 

 other reason the figure cannot be given at all, or only 

 with incertitude. In other places there is only too 

 much reason to believe that the figure has been repeated 

 from day to day out of carelessness or indifference. 

 There is also the undeniable fact that at times wholly 

 different figures are given for the same day by two 

 newspapers. It must be understood therefore that the 

 absolute accuracy of these prices cannot always be 

 depended upon, especially in times of peace and quiet. 

 They are, however, undoubtedly right in times of excite- 

 ment or rapid change. 



With these tables the History of Agriculture and 

 Prices in England is brought to a conclusion. Planned 

 in the year 1860, the work has occupied some forty-two 

 years of preparation and publication, and even now it is 

 not completed in the way that its author intended. 

 The difficulty of finding the material, the immense mass 

 of figures that has eventually been found, and the labour 

 of transcribing, arranging, and tabulating, has required 

 more time and more diligence than was imagined when 

 the work was begun. It has worn out one life, and has 

 claimed several years of another, and yet the subject 

 is but sketched in outline. For the picture to be painted 

 in the fullest detail the hand of the artist is wanted, 

 with the application, the imagination, and the sympathy 

 of the designer who has gone, but among the many 

 books that are published yearly there will, I trust, be 

 some in the preparation of which the simple records 

 in these volumes will be found useful. The representa- 

 tion of the economic as well as the political aspect of the 

 lives of our ancestors is worthy of the consideration of 



