to what is above written, having respect to the price of corn."

different, their facts, so far as they relate to
the price of corn at least, should coincide so
very exactly.

that towards the end of the sixteenth century it begins to rise again. The prices, indeed, Thirdly, they seem to have been misled too, which Fleetwood has been able to collect, by the very low price at which wheat was seem to have been those chiefly which were sometimes sold in very ancient times; and to remarkable for extraordinary dearness or cheap. have imagined, that as its lowest price was ness; and I do not pretend that any very certhen much lower than in later times its ordi- tain conclusion can be drawn from them. So nary price must likewise have been much low- far, however, as they prove any thing at all, er. They might have found, however, that in they confirm the account which I have been those ancient times its highest price was fully endeavouring to give. Fleetwood himself, as much above, as its lowest price was below however, seems, with most other writers, to any thing that had ever been known in later have believed, that, during all this period, the times. Thus, in 1270, Fleetwood gives us value of silver, in consequence of its increastwo prices of the quarter of wheat. The one ing abundance, was continually diminishing. is four pounds sixteen shillings of the money The prices of corn, which he himself has colof those times, equal to fourteen pounds eight lected, certainly do not agree with this opishillings of that of the present; the other is nion. They agree perfectly with that of Mr six pounds eight shillings, equal to nineteen Dupré de St Maur, and with that which I pounds four shillings of our present money. have been endeavouring to explain. Bishop No price can be found in the end of the fif- Fleetwood and Mr Dupré de St Maur are the teenth, or beginning of the sixteenth century, two authors who seem to have collected, with which approaches to the extravagance of these. the greatest diligence and fidelity, the prices The price of corn, though at all times liable of things in ancient times. It is somewhat to variation, varies most in those turbulent curious that, though their opinions are so very and disorderly societies, in which the interruption of all commerce and communication hinders the plenty of one part of the country from relieving the scarcity of another. In the disIt is not, however, so much from the low orderly state of England under the Plantage- price of corn, as from that of some other parts nets, who governed it from about the middle of the rude produce of land, that the most juof the twelfth till towards the end of the fif- dicious writers have inferred the great value teenth century, one district might be in plen- of silver in those very ancient times. Corn, ty, while another, at no great distance, by it has been said, being a sort of manufacture, having its crop destroyed, either by some acci-was, in those rude ages, much dearer in pro dent of the seasons, or by the incursion of portion than the greater part of other commosome neighbouring baron, might be suffering dities; it is meant, I suppose, than the great all the horrors of a famine; and yet if the er part of unmanufactured commodities, such lands of some hostile lord were interposed be- as cattle, poultry, game of all kinds, &c. That tween them, the one might not be able to give in those times of poverty and barbarism these the least assistance to the other. Under the were proportionably much cheaper than corn, vigorous administration of the Tudors, who is undoubtedly true. But this cheapness was governed England during the latter part of not the effect of the high value of silver, but the fifteenth, and through the whole of the of the low value of those commodities. It sixteenth century, no baron was powerful e- was not because silver would in such times nough to dare to disturb the public security. purchase or represent a greater quantity of la. The reader will find at the end of this chap-bour, but because such commodities would ter all the prices of wheat which have been purchase or represent a much smaller quantity collected by Fleetwood, from 1202 to 1597, than in times of more opulence and improveboth inclusive, reduced to the money of the ment. Silver must certainly be cheaper in present times, and digested, according to the Spanish America than in Europe; in the coun. order of time, into seven divisions of twelve try where it is produced, than in the country At the end of each division, too, to which it is brought, at the expense of a years each. he will find the average price of the twelve long carriage both by land and by sea, of a years of which it consists. In that long pe- freight, and an insurance. One-and-twenty riod of time, Fleetwood has been able to col-pence halfpenny sterling, however, we are told lect the prices of no more than eighty years; by Ulloa, was, not many years ago. at Buenos so that four years are wanting to make out Ayres, the price of an ox chosen from a herd the last twelve years. I have added, there- of three or four hundred. Sixteen shillings fore, from the accounts of Eton college, the sterling, we are told by Mr Byron, was the prices of 1598, 1599, 1600, and 1601. It is price of a good horse in the capital of Chili the only addition which I have made. The In a country naturally fertile, but of which reader will see, that from the beginning of the far greater part is altogether uncultivated, the thirteenth till after the middle of the six- cattle, poultry, game of all kinds, &c. as they teenth century, the average price of each twelve can be acquired with a very small quantity of years grows gradually lower and lower; and labour, so they will purchase or command but

1;

Labour, it must always be remembered, and not any particular commodity, or set of commodities, is the real measure of the value both of silver and of all other commodities.

a very small quantity. The low money price | part of it. In France, and even in Scotland, for which they may be sold, is no proof that where labour is somewhat better rewarded the real value of silver is there very high, but than in France, the labouring poor seldom that the real value of those commodities is eat butcher's meat, except upon holidays, and very low. other extraordinary occasions. The money price of labour, therefore, depends much more upon the average money price of corn, the subsistence of the labourer, than upon that of butcher's mcat, or of any other part of the rude produce of land. The real value of gold and silver, therefore, the real quantity of la bour which they can purchase or command, depends much more upon the quantity of corn which they can purchase or command, than upon that of butcher's meat, or any other part of the rude produce of land.

But in countries almost waste, or but thinly inhabited, cattle, poultry, game of all kinds, &c. as they are the spontaneous productions of Nature, so she frequently produces them in much greater quantities than the consumption of the inhabitants requires. In such a state of tnings, the supply commonly exceeds the demand. In different states of society, in different stages of improvement, therefore, such commodities will represent, or be equivalent, to very different quantities of labour.

Such slight observations, however, upon the prices either of corn or of other commodities, would not probably have misled so many intelligent authors, had they not been influenced at the same time by the popular notion, that as the quantity of silver naturally increases in every country with the increase of wealth, so its value diminishes as its quantity increases. This notion, however, seems to be altogether groundless.

In every state of society, in every stage of improvement, corn is the production of human industry. But the average produce of every sort of industry is always suited, more or less exactly, to the average consumption; the average supply to the average demand. In every different stage of improvement, besides, the The quantity of the precious metals may raising of equal quantities of corn in the same increase in any country from two different soil and climate, will, at an average, require causes; either, first, from the increased abunnearly equal quantities of labour; or, what dance of the mines which supply it; or, secomes to the same thing, the price of nearly condly, from the increased wealth of the peoequal quantities; the continual increase of ple, from the increased produce of their anthe productive powers of labour, in an im- nual labour. The first of these causes is no proved state of cultivation, being more or less doubt necessarily connected with the diminucounterbalanced by the continual increasing tion of the value of the precious metals; but price of cattle, the principal instruments of the second is not. agriculture. Upon all these accounts, there- When more abundant mines are discovered, fore, we may rest assured, that equal quantities a greater quantity of the precious metals is of corn will, in every state of society, in every brought to market; and the quantity of the stage of improvement, more nearly represent, or be equivalent to, equal quantities of labour, than equal quantities of any other part of the rude produce of land. Corn, accordingly, it has already been observed, is, in all the different stages of wealth and improvement, a more accurate measure of value than any other cominodity or set of commodities. In all those different stages, therefore, we can judge better of the real value of silver, by comparing it with corn, than by comparing it with any other commodity or set of commodities.

necessaries and conveniencies of life for which they must be exchanged being the same as before, equal quantities of the metals must be exchanged for smaller quantities of commodities. So far, therefore, as the increase of the quantity of the precious metals in any country arises from the increased abundance of the mines, it is necessarily connected with some diminution of their value.

When, on the contrary, the wealth of any country increases, when the annual produce of its labour becomes gradually greater and Corn, besides, or whatever else is the com- greater, a greater quantity of coin becomes mon and favourite vegetable food of the peo- necessary in order to circulate a greater quanple, constitutes, in every civilized country, the tity of commodities: and the people, as they principal part of the subsistence of the labour- can afford it, as they have more commodities er. In consequence of the extension of agri- to give for it, will naturally pu "chase a great. culture, the land of every country produces a er and a greater quantity of place. The quanmuch greater quantity of vegetable than of tity of their coin will increase from necessity; animal food, and the labourer everywhere the quantity of their plate from vanity and lives chiefly upon the wholesome food that is ostentation, or from the same reason that the cheapest and most abundant. Butcher's meat, quantity of fine statues, pictures, and of every except in the most thriving countries, or where other luxury and curiosity, is likely to inlabour is most highly rewarded, makes but an crease among them. But as statuaries and insignificant part of his subsistence; poultry painters are not likely to be worse rewarded makes a still smaller part of it, and game no in times of wealth and prosperity, than in

times of poverty and depresssion, so gold and silver are not likely to be worse paid for.

ferent in the two countries. The proportion between the real recompence of labour in different countries, it must be remembered, is naturally regulated, not by their actual wealth. or poverty, but by their advancing, stationary, or declining condition.

Gold and silver, as they are naturally of the greatest value among the richest, so they are naturally of the least value among the poorest nations. Among savages, the poorest of all nations, they are scarce of any value.

In great towns, corn is always dearer than in remote parts of the country. This, however, is the effect, not of the real cheapness of silver, but of the real dearness of corn. It does not cost less labour to bring silver to the great town than to the remote parts of the country; but it costs a great deal more to bring corn.

land than in England, because the real recom pence of labour is much lower: Scotland, The price of gold and silver, when the ac- though advancing to greater wealth, advancidental discovery of more abundant mines ces much more slowly than England. The does not keep it down, as it naturally rises frequency of emigration from Scotland, and with the wealth of every country; so, what- the rarity of it from England, sufficiently ever be the state of the mines, it is at all times prove that the demand for labour is very dif naturally higher in a rich than in a poor country. Gold and silver, like all other commodities, naturally seek the market where the best price is given for them, and the best price is commonly given for every thing in the country which can best afford it. Labour, it must be remembered, is the ultimate price which is paid for every thing; and in countries where labour is equally well rewarded, the money price of labour will be in proportion to that of the subsistence of the labourer. But gold and silver will naturally exchange for a greater quantity of subsistence in a rich than in a poor country; in a country which abounds with subsistence, than in one which is but indifferently supplied with it. If the two countries are at a great distance, the difference may be very great; because, though the metals naturally fly from the worse to the better market, yet it may be difficult to trans- In some very rich and commercial coun port them in such quantities as to bring their tries, such as Holland and the territory of price nearly to a level in both. If the coun- Genoa, corn is dear for the same reason that tries are near, the difference will be smaller, it is dear in great towns. They do not proand may sometimes be scarce perceptible; be- duce enough to maintain their inhabitants. cause in this case the transportation will be They are rich in the industry and skill of their easy. China is a much richer country than artificers and manufacturers, in every sort of any part of Europe, and the difference be- machinery which can facilitate and abridge tween the price of subsistence in China and in labour; in shipping, and in all the other inEurope is very great. Rice in China is much struments and means of carriage and comcheaper than wheat is anywhere in Europe. merce: but they are poor in corn, which, as England is a much richer country than Scot- it must be brought to them from distant coun land, but the difference between the money tries, must, by an addition to its price, pay price of corn in those two countries is much for the carriage from those countries. It does smaller, and is but just perceptible. In pro- not cost less labour to bring silver to Amster portion to the quantity or measure, Scotch dam than to Dantzic; but it costs a great deal corn generally appears to be a good deal cheap- more to bring corn. The real cost of silver er than English; but, in proportion to its qua. must be nearly the same in both places; but lity, it is certainly somewhat dearer. Scot- that of corn must be very different. Diminish land receives almost every year very large sup- the real opulence either of Holland or of the plies from England, and every commodity territory of Genoa, while the number of their must commonly be somewhat dearer in the inhabitants remains the same; diminish their country to which it is brought than in that power of supplying themselves from distant from which it comes. English corn, there- countries; and the price of corn, instead of fore, must be dearer in Scotland than in Eng- sinking with that diminution in the quantity land; and yet in proportion to its quality, or of their silver, which must necessarily accomto the quantity and goodness of the flour or pany this declension, either as its cause or as meal which can be made from it, it cannot its effect, will rise to the price of a famine. commonly be sold higher there than the Scotch When we are in want of necessaries, we must corn which comes to market in competition part with all superfluities, of which the value, with it. as it rises in times of opulence and prosperity,

The difference between the money price of so it sinks in times of poverty and distress. labour in China and in Europe, is still great- It is otherwise with necessaries. Their real er than that between the money price of sub- price, the quantity of labour which they can sistence; because the real recompence of la-purchase or command, rises in times of pobour is higher in Europe than in China, the verty and distress, and sinks in times of opu greater part of Europe being in an improving lence and prosperity, which are always times state, while China seems to be standing still. of great abundance; for they could not other. The money price of labour is lower in Scot-wise be times of opulence and prosperity.

Corn is a necessary, silver is only a super-
Auity.

Whatever, therefore, inay have been the increase in the quantity of the precious metals, which, during the period between the middle of the fourteenth and that of the sixteenth century, arose from the increase of wealth and improvement, it could have no tendency to diminish their value, either in Great Britain, or in any other part of Europe. If those who have collected the prices of things in ancient times, therefore, had, during this period, no reason to infer the diminution of the value of silver from any observations which they hard made upon the prices either of corn, or of other commodities, they had still less reason to infer it from any supposed increase of wealth and improvement.

Second Period. But how various soever may have been the opinions of the learned concerning the progress of the value of silver during the first period, they are unanimous concerning it during the second.

From about 1570 to about 1640, during a period of about seventy years, the variation in the proportion between the value of silver and that of corn held a quite opposite course. Silver sunk in its real value, or would exchange for a smaller quantity of labour than before; and corn rose in its nominal price, and, instead of being commonly sold for about two ounces of silver the quarter, or about ten shillings of our present money, came to be sold for six and eight ounces of silver the quarter, or about thirty and forty shillings of our pre

sent money.

And from this sum, neglecting likewise the fraction, and deducting a ninth, or 4s. 1d., for the difference between the price of the best wheat and that of the middle wheat, the price of the middle wheat comes out to have been about L.1: 12: 8, or about six ounces and one-third of an ounce of silver.

From 1621 to 1636, both inclusive, the average price of the same measure of the best wheat, at the same market, appears, from the same accounts, to have been L.2: 10s.; from which, making the like deductions as in the foregoing case, the average price of the quarter of eight bushels of middle wheat comes out to have been L. 1: 19: 6, or about seven ounces and two-thirds of an ounce of silver.

Third Period.-Between 1630 and 1640, or about 1636, the effect of the discovery of the mines of America, in reducing the value of silver, appears to have been completed, and the value of that metal secms never to have sunk lower in proportion to that of corn than it was about that time. It seems to have risen somewhat in the course of the present century, and it had probably begun to do so, even some time before the end of the last.

From 1637 to 1700, both inclusive, being the sixty-four last years of the last century. the average price of the quarter of nine bushels of the best wheat, at Windsor market, appears, from the same accounts, to have been L.2: 11: 0, which is only 1s. Od. dearer than it had been during the sixteen years be fore. But, in the course of these sixty-fou. years, there happened two events, which must have produced a much greater scarcity of corn than what the course of the seasons would otherwise have occasioned, and which, therefore, without supposing any further reduction in the value of silver, will much more than account for this very small enhancement of price.

The discovery of the abundant mines of America seems to have been the sole cause of this diminution in the value of silver, in proportion to that of corn. It is accounted for, accordingly, in the same manner by every body; and there never has been any dispute, either about the fact, or about the cause of it. The greater part of Europe was, during this The first of these events was the civil war period, advancing in industry and improve- which, by discouraging tillage and interruptment, and the demand for silver must conse-ing commerce, must have raised the price of quently have been increasing; but the in- corn much above what the course of the seacrease of the supply had, it seems, so far ex-sons would otherwise have occasioned. It ceeded that of the demand, that the value of must have had this effect, more or less, at all that metal sunk considerably. The discovery the different markets in the kingdom, but parof the mines of America, it is to be observed, ticularly at those in the neighbourhood of does not seem to have had any very sensible London, which require to be supplied from effect upon the prices of things in England the greatest distance. In 1648, accordingly, till after 1570; though even the mines of Po- the price of the best wheat, at Windsor martosi had been discovered more than twenty ket, appears, from the same accounts, to have years before. been L.4: 5s., and, in 1649, to have been From 1595 to 1620, both inclusive, the L. 4, the quarter of nine bushels. The excess average price of the quarter of nine bushels of of those two years above L.2 10s. (the averthe best wheat, at Windsor market, appears, age price of the sixteen years preceding 1637` from the accounts of Eton college, to have is L.3 5s., which, divided among the sixty been L.2:16. From which sum, neglect- | four last years of the last century, will alone ing the fraction, and deducting a ninth, or very nearly account for that small enhance4s. 7 d., the price of the quarter of eight ment of price which seems to have taken place bushels comes out to have been I..1·16: 10. in them. These, however, though the highes',