less than a halfpenny. French and German wines were eightpence the gallon. Spanish and Portuguese wines a shilling. This was the highest price at which the best wines, might be sold; and if there was any fault in quality or quantity, the dealers forfeited four times the amount.[1] Rent, another important consideration, cannot be fixed so accurately, for parliament did not interfere with it. Here, however, we are not without very tolerable information. 'My father,' says Latimer,[2] 'was a yeoman, and had no lands of his own; only he had a farm of three or four pounds by the year at the uttermost, and hereupon he tilled so much as kept half-a-dozen men. He had walk for a hundred sheep,
- ↑ 28 Hen. VIII. cap. 14.The prices assessed, being a maximum, applied to the best wines of each class. In 1531, the mayor and corporation 'did straitly charge and command that all such persons as sold wines by retail within the city and liberties of the same, should from henceforth sell two gallons of the best red wine for eightpence, and not above; the gallon of the best white wine for eightpence, and not above; the pottle, quart, and pint after the same rate, upon pain of imprisonment.'The quality of the wine sold was looked into from time to time, and when found tainted, or unwholesome, 'according to the antient customs of the city,' the heads of the vessels were broken up, and the wines in them put forth open into the kennels, in example of all other offenders.—Guildhall MS. Journals 12 and 13.
- ↑ Sermons, p. 101.
have taken much beer into their houses suddenly goeth to the sanctuary, some keep their houses—some purchase the king's protection, and some, when they die, be reckoned poor, and of no value, and many of your said beseechers be for the most part against such debtors remediless and suffer great losses.'
They offered to supply their customers with sixteen gallon casks of single beer for eleven pence, and the same quantity of double beer for a shilling, the cask included. And this offer was accepted.The corporation, however, returned two years after to their original order.—Guildhall Records, MS. Journal 13, pp. 210, 236.