36q Dr. Parry's Essay on the Nature, Produce, Origin, 



pence, and a sheep at five-pence; so that the latter was at somewhat more than 

 one-fifth of the price of the former,* Sheep were therefore still comparatively 

 scarce. 



In the reign of Henry I. between the years i lOD and 1 135, there was a more 

 extraordinary disproportion. An ox was valued at one shilling, and a ram or sheep 

 at four-pence.t At this time, and probably from that of William the Conqueror 

 till 1298, the 28th of Edward I. an actual pound weight of silver contained only 

 twenty shillings; and , the penny being still, as before, the 240lh part of a pound, 

 •was -jJjth of a shilling. The price of the sheep in this instance was therefore one- 

 third of that of the ox. In another part of the same reign, certain sheep were six- 

 pence each, or half the value of the above ox. J 



It was during the life of Henry I. that the Telarii, or weavers, of London and 

 Oxford, seem to have been first distinctly mentioned in our records. They are 

 represented in the Exchequer accounts as paying to the Crown fines for their 

 guild or incorporation; which proves that they must at that time have been 

 numerous. ^ 



Those of Lincoln and Huntingdon, are spoken of as paying similar fines in the 

 5th year of King Stephen, anno 1139, and those of Nottingham, York, and Win- 

 chester, in the 5th and following years of Henry II. annis 1 158 et seq. || 



Henry the lid. appears to have been very desirous of increasing the breed of 

 sheep, and of establishing the woollen manufacture in England. It was, probably, 

 with this view, that, according to Stow, about the year 1172, he ordered that if any 

 cloth were found to be made of Spanish wool mixed with English wool, the Mayor 

 of London should see it burnt. ^ 



In 1 184, the 29ih of Henry II. 66 oxen are said to have been sold for £tS. qs, 

 or 5s. 6d. each; and 500 sheep at 10 jd. each; or the sixth part of the price of 

 each ox.ll The proportion of sheep was now, therefore, probably insreased ; and 

 nine years afterwards, wool was become so current a commodity of the kingdom, 

 that a part of the ransom of Richard I. when a prisoner in Austria, during his re-, 

 turn from the Hbly Land, was wool borrowed from the Cistercian monks. 



* Clironicon preciosum, page 64. t Ibidem, page 69. 



J Ibdem, page 71. 



§ Madox, History of the Exchequer, page 23Z. || Ibidem, page 233. 



(g Madox, Baronia Anglica, cap. xlv. 



