Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/264

 It pleas’d God, to ſend a very plentiful Year of Corn and Fruit, but not of Hay or Graſs; by which means, Bread was cheap, by Reaſon of the Plenty of Corn: Fleſh was cheap, by Reaſon of the Scarcity of Graſs; but Butter and Cheeſe were dear for the ſame Reaſon, and Hay in the Market juſt beyond White-Chapel Bars, was ſold at 4 l. per Load. But that affected not the Poor; there was a moſt exceſſive Plenty of all Sorts of Fruit, ſuch as Apples, Pears, Plumbs, Cherries, Grapes; and they were the cheaper, becauſe of the want of People; but this made the Poor eat them to exceſs, and this brought them into Fluxes, griping of the Guts, Surfeits, and the like, which often precipitated them into the Plague.

But to come to Matters of Trade; firſt, Foreign Exportation being ſtopt, or at leaſt very much interrupted, and rendred difficult; a general Stop of all thoſe Manufactories followed of Courſe, which were uſually bought for Exportation; and tho’ ſometimes Merchants Abroad were importunate for Goods, yet little was ſent, the Paſſages being ſo generally ſtop’d, that the Engliſh Ships would not be admitted, as is ſaid already, into their Port.

This put a ſtop to the Manufactures, that were for Exportation in moſt Parts of England, except in ſome out Ports; and even that was ſoon ſtop’d, for they all had the Plague in their Turn: But tho’ this was felt all over England, yet what was ſtill worſe, all Intercourſe of Trade for Home Conſumption of Manufactures, eſpecially thoſe which uſually circulated thro’ the Londoners Hands, was ſtop’d at once, the Trade of the City being ſtop’d. All Kinds of Handicrafts in the City, &c. Tradeſmen and Mechanicks, were, as I have ſaid before, out of Employ, and this occaſion’d the putting off, and diſmiſſing an innumerable Number of Journey-men, and Work-men of all Sorts, ſeeing ~