185] THE PRICE OF WOOL 29 



be established that the price of wheat fell as compared with 

 that of wool after this date, the usually accepted version of 

 the enclosure movement would still be inadequate. But as 

 a matter of fact the price of wheat rose steadily after 1490, 

 reaching a higher average in each succeeding decade, while 

 the price of wool wavered about an average which rose very 

 slowly until 1535. The entries on which these w^ool aver- 

 ages are based are few, and greater uncertainty therefore 

 attaches to their representativeness than in the case of the 

 prices of earlier decades, but the evidence, such as it is, points 

 to a more rapid rise in the price of wheat than in the price 

 of wool. Between 1500 and 1540 the average price of 

 wheat was nearly 24 per cent above that of the previous forty 

 years, but the average price of wool rose only ten per cent. 

 There are only nine entries of wool prices for the forty-six 

 years after 1536, but these are enough to show that the price 

 of wool, like that of wheat and all other commodities, was 

 rising rapidly at this time. The lack of material upon which 

 to base a comparison of the actual rate of increase of price 

 for the two commodities makes further statistical analysis 

 impossible, but a knowledge of prices after the date at which 

 the material ceases would add nothing to the evidence on the 

 subject under consideration. 



Sir Thomas Mores Utopia was written in 15 16, with its 

 wxll-known passage describing contemporary enclosures in 

 terms similar to those used in the statutes of thirty years be- 

 fore, and complaining that the sheep 



that were wont to be so meke and tame, and so smal eaters, 

 now, as I heare saye, be become so great devowerers and so 

 wylde, that they eate up, and swallow downe the very men 

 them selfes. They consume, destroye, and devoure whole 

 fields, howses, and cities. For looke in what partes of the 

 realme doth growe the fynest, and therfore dearest woll, there 



