CHAP. XII. 



COMMODITIES. 337 



Europe, a family of such distinction as to need 

 seven horses could be supported at little more 

 than one hundred pounds of our money for a 

 year. 



When the order of the Knights Templars was 

 abolished in England in 1310, and their vast 

 wealth seized by the crown, the allowance made 

 to the members of that community appears to 

 have been very disproportionate to the rank 

 they had held, and the profusion in which they 

 had lived. The grand master was assigned a 

 pension of six shillings a day, and each of the 

 knights one shilling, of our money. 



Although wine was a commodity of foreign 

 growth, yet its consumption must have been 

 large among the more opulent classes of the 

 community, and the price of it at various periods 

 must be an indication of the value of money. 



According to the Chronicon, the price of the 

 Rochelle wine in the reign of King John, in the 

 year \2\ 6, was 31. per ton, the ton being then, 

 as now, nearly two pipes. Anjou wine was 

 Si. i2s. and the best French wine 4/. per ton. 

 In Rymer's Fcedera (vol. i. p. 36) we find, in 

 1236, the retail price of wine to be sixpence per 

 gallon. In 1313 in S tow's Survey is an ac- 

 count from the cofferer or treasurer of the Earl 

 of Leicester, who seems to have been the 

 most expensive person of his age: his annual 

 consumption of wine is stated to be three 



VOL. i. z 



