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Changes in the Ownership of Land in Ross-shire. 301
a republic, aiul the restoration of the inonarcliy— it will not soein
unrcasoiialile to suppose that tiu- prospciity oi' the country may
have been alleeted l)y the general turmoil, and the security of property
have been so shaken that some fall in rents might naturally
luive been anticipated. Tt is tiu^ extent of the fall which is at first
sight surprising. The cause for surprise diminishes, however,
when we reflect that in this year (188G) rents are suffering a similar
reduction consequent on a fall in prices. I have had no opportun-
ity of consulting books of reference in regard to rents or prices
during the time of the Connnon wealth, but a friend has referred
me to an extract from the audit-books of Eton College, published
in David Macpherson's Annals of Connnerco (18()5), where the
price paid at Windsor for wheat and malt of the first quality is
given for a great part of the seventeenth century. Unfortunately,
the quotations for the years lG4:2-4() inclusive, are missing, and T
have not succeeded in finding other sources of information. In
IGI:7 tlie average price of the quarter of wheat (which at Windsor
contained 9 bushels) was 73s. 8d.; in 16i8 it was 85s., from which
point it fell steadily to 26s. in 1 654, when it began to rise again.
In 1660 the average price was 56s. 6d. In Windsor market,
therefore, the value of wheat in the six years succeeding 1648 was
depreciated to the extraordinary extent of nearly 70 per cent.
and, notwithstanding the rise which tlien took place, its price in
1660 was about 33 per cent, below that of 1648. Assuming that
the high prices of 1647-48 were to some extent current as early as
1644, and that the range of prices in Scotland and Kngland did
not materially differ, the fall from the rent of 1644 which we find
in the valuation of 1660, would be sufficiently accounted for by
the variations in the price of agricultural produce, of which wheat
may be taken as an indicator. I have little doubt, therefore, that
the valuation of 1660, equally
actual value of the time.
with that of 1644, represents the
I here give a statement of the valuations of 1643 and 1660
side by side for each of the parishes in Ross-shire, premising however
that I have a doubt whether in all cases the parish areas are
identical in the two valuations. The adjoining {parishes of Gair-
loch and Lochbroom for instance, taken together, show a fall of
about 25 per cent., but while the fall in one had been 45 per cent.,
tlie other had an actual increase of 8 per cent. Where there is
no reason to suspect discrepancies in the parochial areas, it will
be noticed that the greatest reductions on the old valuations
generally occur in the low-lying arable parishes; whence we may
conclude that there had been a greater depreciation in the price
of corn than in the price of cattle. Here is the statement :
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