The grain price series so far considered all provide a relatively coarse description of price movements; the fiars courts and town councils generally only set prices on an annual basis. Whilst this is of little consequence with regard to the assessment of longer-term movements, short-term price fluctuations, notably those within the year, are effectively obscured. For an insight into these, however, it is possible to turn to the quite remarkable series of monthly market prices recorded in the Caledonian Mercury and Scots Magazine. These chart the price of wheat, oats, barley and pease in East Lothian markets from 1721, and the price of oatmeal, peasemeal and bearmeal in Edinburgh from 1741. Such is the quality of this evidence that it not only provides a rare opportunity to trace in detail short-term price fluctuations, but also to examine both the relationship between those prices and the annually struck fiars and also the character of the annual cycle of grain price fluctuation. There are, however, a number of interpretative difficulties associated with this data which must be addressed before turning to the actual price series.

The bulk of this price data has been extracted from issues of the Scots Magazine. Prices of first, second and third wheat, oats, barley and pease begin to appear regularly in a small table headed simply ‘Haddington Prices’ from the March issue of 1741.