240 
MARKETING THREE HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 
Eighteen Felde Pigeons 
Six Rabbits .... 
Half a hundred Eggs . 
One pottle of fresh Oysters 
Two Colleyfloreys 
Thirty Lettes .... 
Sixteen Artichokes 
Nineteen Oranges and four Lemons 
Pineapple Seeds 
Orangeades, 2 lbs. 
Lump Sugar, 9 lbs. . 
Nutmegs, 7 ozs. 
Synnamon, 1 oz. 
Eight gallons Claret . 
Five pints Caraway 
Three quarts Sherry . 
Three quarts Whight Wine 
Butter, 30 lbs 
Eight bushels Wheat . 
Two hogsheads Beer . 
£ s. d. 
.040 
.042 
.020 
.030 
.030 
.004 
.034 
.012 
.009 
.034 
.090 
.019 
.004 
. 0 16 0 
.026 
.020 
.026 
. 0 15 O 
.020 
.14 0 
In looking over these items, we are struck with the exces- 
sive cheapness of some articles as compared with others, 
although it must be remembered that money in those days 
was dearer, and that population was scanty, and, therefore, 
there was but little demand. For instance, beef is priced at 
something over 1 \d. per lb., and mutton about Qd. In the 
sixteenth century the legislature took a very active part in 
regulating the price of provisions, although it was soon found 
that such interference became practically a serious evil. The 
preamble of this act of 15 32 is curious. It states “ that 
dearth and scarcetie of good, cheape, and plentie of cheese, 
butter, capons, hens, chickens, and other victuals necessary 
for man’s sustenance, happeneth, riseth, and chanceth of so 
many and divers occasions, that it is very hard and difficult 
to put any certaine prices to any such things; and yet, never- 
thelesse, the prices of such victuals be many times enhansed 
and raised, by the greedie covetousenesse and appetites of the 
owners of such victuals, by occasion of ingrossing and re- 
peating the same, more than upon any reasonable or just 
ground or cause, to the great damage and impoverishing of 
the king’s subjects.” By a proclamation of Henry VIII 
the butchers of London were empowered to sell as follows : — 
Beef and pork at per lb., mutton and veal at %d. per lb.. 
This tariff was altered soon afterwards to : — Beef not to 
exceed ■§■ d . per lb., mutton Id., veal 1 d. per lb. Lamb, how- 
ever, was a luxury, for best lamb was 2s. per lb., second lamb 
Is. 8 d., and meanest lamb Is. 4 d. 
Eggs at 2s. the half hundred cannot be considered dear, 
though they were considerably cheaper some seventy years 
