ABSTRACT
Till 1624 no animal is specified. In that year goat’s hair is specified at a price (10s. per cwt.) materially above the prices of other entries (6s. 8d. and 5s. 6d. per cwt)., but in following years goat’s hair, or sometimes kid’s, when specified, is at the same level as unspecified hair. From 1642 loose hair is commonly bought in two qualities specified from 1651 onwards as “ goat’s ” and “ ox,” with the former generally about twice the price of the latter to 1726 when a considerable drop in the price of goat’s hair and rise in the price of ox hair brings the latter slightly above the level of goat’s hair to 1750, when purchases of ox hair end. Spun hair is specified as goat’s in 1629 and 1635 and with few exceptions from 1652 onwards ; a few entries of spun ox hair occur at a lower price. There seems to be no serious danger in treating the unspecified entries both for loose and spun hair as substantially continuous with the later prices for goat’s hair. The ox hair prices are not printed but loose goat’s and ox hair are compared below in common years in decades. Exponents show the number of years represented when less than 10.
