ABSTRACT
Until 1584 the range of prices is not as a rule very great and it has appeared sufficient in every year but two to tabulate the mean of the different prices in the year, for all palaces, without regard to quantities which are not always recorded in the extracts. In 1571 and 1572 the range is greater and the quantities are more fully recorded ; the weighted average of the two prices for which the quantities are greatest has been tabulated, as in the later period 1585 to 1639. An abnormally low price of 5s. per M 1563/64* at Greenwich (a palace not otherwise represented in this period) has been ignored, as has also a high price of 12.50s. per M in 1585.*
From 1585 to 1647* the extracts give the quantities bought in nearly every case and the variation of prices in a single year, particularly after 1605 is often considerable, e.g. from 6.25 to 15s. per M in 1606. In most cases the lowest and highest prices of a year relate to relatively small quantities. The weighted average of the two prices at which the largest quantities in each year were bought has been chosen for tabulation, except in 1605, 1607, 1608/09*, 1612, 1614, 1621 and 1629, in which it seemed fairer to take the three prices of largest purchase, and in 1636 and 1644, in which the weighted average of all four prices then recorded has been tabulated. The prices of the Civil War period though tabulated are abnormal and cannot be accepted without reserve.
