Note 66n — INDEX
Reading edition
[171] See table at end of volume. The shrinkage of prices which occurred in the fifteenth century was due to the scarcity of precious metals.
[172] Thorold Rogers, History of Agriculture and Prices, iv. 128. The rent of arable land on Lord Derby's estate in Wirral in 1522 was a little under 6d. a statute acre; of meadow, about 1s. 6d.—Cheshire Sheaf (Ser. 3), iv. 23.
[173] Thorold Rogers, op. cit. iv. 3.
[174] Thorold Rogers, op. cit. iv. 39.
[175] Cullum, Hawsted, p. 187. The amount of seed for the various crops was, wheat 2 bushels per acre, barley 4, oats 21/2.
[176] By 4 Hen. IV, c. 14, labourers were to receive no hire for holy days, or on the eves of feasts for more than half a day; but the statute was largely disregarded.
[177] See England in the Fifteenth Century, p. 105: 'The undrained neglected soil, the shallow stagnant waters which lay on the surface of the ground, the unhealthy homes of all classes, insufficient and unwholesome food, the abundance of stale fish eaten, and the scanty supply of vegetables predisposed rural and town population to disease.'
[178] Cunningham, Industry and Commerce, i. 448.
[179] McCulloch, Commercial Dictionary (1852), p. 412. In 1449 Parliament had decided that all foreign merchants importing corn should spend the money so obtained on English goods to prevent it leaving the country.—McPherson, Annals of Commerce, i. 655.
[180] Cunningham, Industry and Commerce, i. 191.
[181] Much of the weaving, however, was done in rural districts.
[182] See 3 Edw. IV, c. 5; Rot. Parl. v. 105; 22 Edw. IV, c. 1.
[183] Cunningham, op. cit. i. 456.