Historical fiction; London (England) -- History -- 17th century -- Fiction; Plague -- Fiction
One at the Custom House; one at Billingsgate; one at Queenhithe, and one
at the Three Cranes; one in Blackfriars, and one at the gate of
Bridewell; one at the corner of Leadenhall Street and Gracechurch; one
at the north and one at the south gate of the Royal Exchange; one at
Guildhall, and one at Blackwell Hall gate; one at the lord mayor's door
in St. Helen's; one at the west entrance into St. Paul's; and one at the
entrance into Bow Church. I do not remember whether there was any at the
city gates, but one at the bridge foot there was, just by St. Magnus
Church.
I know some have quarreled since that at the experiment, and said that
there died the more people because of those fires; but I am persuaded
those that say so offer no evidence to prove it, neither can I believe
it on any account whatever.
It remains to give some account of the state of trade at home in England
during this dreadful time, and particularly as it relates to the
manufactures and the trade in the city. At the first breaking out of the
infection there was, as it is easy to suppose, a very great fright among
the people, and consequently a general stop of trade, except in
provisions and necessaries of life; and even in those things, as there
was a vast number of people fled and a very great number always sick,
besides the number which died, so there could not be above two thirds,
if above one half, of the consumption of provisions in the city as used
to be.
It pleased God to send a very plentiful year of corn and fruit, and 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 Whitechapel Bars, was sold at four pounds per load; but that
affected not the poor. There was a most excessive plenty of all sorts of
fruit, such as apples, pears, plums, cherries, grapes; and they were the
cheaper because of the wants of the people; but this made the poor eat
them to excess, and this brought them into surfeits and the like, which
often precipitated them into the plague.
But to come to matters of trade. First, foreign exportation being
stopped, or at least very much interrupted and rendered difficult, a
general stop of all those manufactures followed of course, which were
usually brought for exportation; and, though sometimes merchants abroad
were importunate for goods, yet little was sent, the passages being so
generally stopped that the English ships would not be admitted, as is
said already, into their port.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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