ABSTRACT
10 PRICES AND WAGES IN ENGLAND when leases fell in for renewal, and after 1576 under the terms of the Rent Act.1 Under this Act one third of every existing rent of the Colleges2 was henceforward to be rendered either in wheat rated at 6s. 8d. a quarter or malt rated at 5s. a quarter.3 Failing delivery of the grain the tenant was required to pay a sum of money equivalent to his corn assignment at the current prices of wheat or malt in Winchester on the market day next before the rent fell due. Henceforward the amount of the rents rose with the upward trend of prices. The income from rents in money and in kind appeared in the Receipts under the headings “ Increment of the Granary ” (1577-1638) and “ Third part of the Rents ” (from 1583-included with Increment of Granary from 1597). The Bursars valued rent grain in the Staurum Account at the low rates prescribed by the Rent Act, while the difference between these rates and current prices was included in Receipts. After an investigation by the High Steward of lands in 1630, rent grain was rated at current prices both in the Staurum Account and under Receipts and grain prices free from artificiality can be given from that year.
