Mae. 31. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



249 



21. lis. 7-frf. ; and for the following decade, from 

 1656 to 1665, 21. 10s. 5^d.* 



The Eton account of prices commenced in 1595, 

 •but the accuracy of the returns for the first few 

 years cannot be implicitly relied on. 



From about 1570 to 1640, says Adam Smith, 

 during? a period of seventy years, silver sunk con- 

 siderably in its real value, and corn rose in its 

 nominal price ; so that instead of being sold for 

 about two ounces of silver (Tower weight), equal 

 to about 10s. of our present money, the quarter 

 came to be sold for six and eight ounces, or about 

 30*. or 40*. of our present money ; the diminished 

 value of the metal being solely attributable to the' 

 discovery of the American mines. A material 

 variation was at the same time effected in the re- 

 lative values of gold and silver. Before this 

 period the value of fine gold to fine silver was 

 regulated in the different mints of Europe between 

 the proportions of 1 to 10 and 1 to 12, i. e. an 

 ounce of fine gold was held to be worth from ten 

 to twelve ounces of silver. About the middle of 

 the century (the seventeenth) it came to be regu- 

 lated between the proportions of 1 to 14 and 1 to 

 15. Gold thus rose in its nominal value ; both 

 metals sunk in their real value, or the quantity of 

 labour which they could purcliase, but silver more 

 so than gold. Between 1630 and 1640, or about 

 1636, the efi'ect of the discovery of the mines of 

 America in reducing the value of silver, and con- 

 sequently enhancing general prices (more cor- 

 rectly the first enhancement of prices), seems to 

 have been completed. 



These discoveries he estimates reduced the value 

 of gold and silver in Europe to about a third of 

 what it had been before. 



The following extract from a table exhibiting 

 the progress in the depreciation of money from the 

 Norman Conquest to the end of the eighteenth 

 century (originally constructed for Sir George 

 Shuckburgh Evelyn's Memoir of a Standard for 

 Weight and Measure^ is from that excellent work, 

 Kuding's Annals of the Coinage. 



In 1050 the price of wheat per bushel was 2\d., 

 and the cost of an ox 7«. 6c?. ; in 1150 wheat was 

 4\d. per bushel, and an ox only 4s. ^\d. ; hus- 

 bandry labour at the same time was 2d. per day. 

 In 1250 wheat was Is. l%d., and an ox 11. Os. Id. 



s. (I. £ s. d. s. d. 



In 1350 wheat 1 lOJ ; an ox 1 4 6; labour 3 per day 

 1450 do. 15: do. 1 15 8 ; do. 3} do. 

 1 16 7 ; do. 4 do. 



1 lOi 



4 oj ; do. 



1760 do. 

 1795 do. 



4 6 , 

 3 9f! 

 7 10 I 



do. 

 do. 

 do. 



do. 

 3 6 0; do. 

 8 10 ; do. 

 16 8 ; do. 



6 



7i 



1 5i 



The depreciation of money consequently, com- 

 pared with the price of wheat (taking it in 1050 

 at 10), would be represented in 1350 by 100, in 



* The Winchester bushel of eight gallons was intro- 

 duced in 1792, under a provision ot the act of 31 Geo. III. 



1550 by the same, in 1675 by 246, in 1760 by 

 203, and in 1795 by 426. 



According to Child, in his Discourse on Trade, 

 the price of land in England in 1621 was no more 

 than twelve years' purchase. Sir Charles Dave- 

 nant states in 1666 it had risen to fourteen to 

 sixteen years' purchase. I subjoin a list of prices 

 borrowed from the accounts of the purveyors of 

 Prince Henry's household, for the early part of 

 the seventeenth century, in which your corre- 

 spondent may possibly be interested. In 1610 

 the price of beef was about 3|</., and mutton 

 about 3|- 1?. the pound. The prices of many articles 

 of provision in London were fixed by a royal pro- 

 clamation in 1633, the object being apparently to 

 bring them back to their usual rates, which had 

 been considerably advanced by a scarcity the pre- 

 ceding year ; that of a cock pheasant was 6s., a 

 turkey cock 4s., ditto hen 3s., a duck 8rf., the 

 best fat goose in the market 2s., a fat capon 2s. Ad., 

 a pullet Is. 6c?., a hen Is., a chicken 5d., a rabbit 

 Id. or 8^., three eggs for a penny, a pound of 

 salt butter A\d., fresh ditto 5d. or Qd. 



Some articles of food that are now compara- 

 tively common or plentiful, were still rare and 

 consequently dear in England in the early part of 

 the seventeenth century. Coffee appears to have 

 been introduced a few years before the Restoration, 

 but there is no evidence that tea was at this time 

 known ; sugar, too, was as yet imported in small 

 quantities, and bore a high price. In 1619 the 

 price of two cauliflowers was 3s. ; and among the 

 articles provided a few years previously for the 

 household of James' queen, are a few potatoes 

 charged at 2s. a pound. 



For farther information on the subject, G. N. 

 would do well to consult the following works : 

 Fleetwood's Chronicon Preciosum ; Steuart's Po- 

 litical Economy ; Collection of Ordinances and 

 Regulations of Royal Households in divers Reigns ; 

 Archceologia, vol. xi. ; Dr. Henry's History ; Ru- 

 ding's Annals ; Malthus' Political Economy ; 

 James' Essays; and Humboldt's Essai sur la 

 Nouvelle Espagne. W. Coles. 



SURNAMES ENDING IN "-HOUSE. 



(Vol. xi., p. 187.) 



There is no doubt that these surnames generally, 

 though perhaps not invariably, were derived from 

 places so called. 



Great light is thrown upon the origin of sur- 

 names by very ancient deeds. In the first cen- 

 turies after the Conquest it is plain that many 

 persons had no surname at all ; but in order to 

 identify them, they were called or described by 

 the manor, parish, or place in which they lived, 

 by the office they held, by the trade or occupation 



