338
PRICES OF WINE
chap, xnv
hundred and seventy-one pipes, which cost2/. 10s. 10|c?. per pipe. It seems probable, fromsome casual remarks, that this wine was drawnfrom the estates belonging to the earl in Anjou,where, like some others of the English nobility,he had extensive possessions. In 1340, the cur-rent value of French wine, according to theFoedera, was 4 1. 10s. the pipe.
By an act of Richard II. in 1381, wines wereto be sold by retail at the following prices, viz.Gascon, Spanish , and Rhenish wine at Is. 3d.per gallon, and Rochelle wine at 10 d. the gallon.
According to Stow’s Survey, the price of Gas-con wine in 1499 was Ql. 11s. 6d. per pipe.
The price of wine seems to have fluctuatedmuch, according to the relative productivenessof the respective seasons, similar to what is seenin this country in the price of cider in thosecounties where it forms the common drink ofthe most numerous class of the inhabitants. Itmay not be the most certain test to apply to thevalue of money, but it seemed improper to omitthe few notices of its price which are scatteredthrough the early records of this kingdom.
Rymer, in the Foedera, gives an account ofa transaction which throws light incidentally onthe prices of several commodities at nearly thelatest time of the period we are viewing, a fewyears before the discovery of America .