Ye price of black pepper

I have just been reading the diary of one of my ancestors, a peasant by trade. Translating the Old English was a bit of a struggle but I think that this is the gist of what he had to say.

Friday November 23 1272

It being Black Friday I went down to ye olde market place to stock up on black pepper. I was very much pleased to get a pound weight of it for only 5 days of my wages. Normally it would have cost me 8 days of labour!

We are still using it!