PATROONS AND LORDS OP THE MANOR 43

our currency and a florin to forty cents, it is easy
to calculate the cost of living in the decade be-
tween 1630 and 1640 as set down in the accounts
of Rensselaerswyck. A blanket cost eight florins,
a hat ten florins, an iron anvil one hundred florins,
a musket and cartouche box nineteen florins, a
copper sheep's bell one florin and six stivers. On
the other hand all domestic produce was cheap,
because the tenant and patroon preferred to dis-
pose of it in the settlements rather than by trans-
porting it to New Amsterdam. We learn with
envy that butter was only eight stivers or sixteen
cents per pound, a pair of fowl two florins, a beaver
twenty-five florins.

How hard were the terms on which the tenants
held their leases is apparent from a report written
by the guardians and tutors of Jan Van Rens-
selaer, a later patroon of Rensselaerswyck. The
patroon reserved to himself the tenth of all grains,
fruits, and other products raised on the bouwerie.
The tenant was bound, in addition to his rent of
five hundred guilders or two hundred dollars, to
keep up the roads, repair the buildings, cut ten
pieces of oak or fir wood, and bring the same to the
shore; he must also every year give to the patroon
three days' service with his horses and wagon;