2° d S. IX. Mar. 24. 'CO.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



217 



while Great Britain can borrow at three, both 

 loans being really adjusted in London, the mean- 

 ing is that the government alluded to must pay 

 for its superior chance of bankruptcy. If fifty 

 cases were collected in which foreign govern- 

 ments had to pay more than Great Britain would 

 have done, and if the losses by suspension or 

 bankruptcy were calculated, and also the total 

 amount of additional interest (so called) which 

 these governments have paid up to the present 

 time, both sides of the account being carried by 

 compound interest up to the present time, it 

 would not surprise me if it were found that, by 

 that law of level which seems to prevail in com- 

 mercial matters nearly as much as in hydrostatics, 

 there were more nearly a balance between the 

 two than most financiers would suppose. 



In old times there was a very marked difference 

 between the interest — if we use the term — 

 paid by real and personal securities ; a difference 

 certainly to be attributed to difference of risk. I 

 give an instance or two, and could have given 

 more if I had always made notes ; and I hope 

 your readers will communicate others. 



It would be difficult to say how high was the 

 interest lor loans on personal security in the 16th 

 century; but it seems pretty certain that it was 

 more than 10 per cent. At an earlier time, by a 

 reference which 1 have mislaid, the money-lenders 

 were tempted to Oxford by a permission to exact 

 40 per cent., which means that the much abused 

 Jews would rather not lend to a gownsman for 

 less. But in the sixteenth century landed secu- 

 rity paid little more than 3 per cent. My old 

 friend Mr. Thomas Falconer, Judge of the Mon- 

 mouthshire County Court, has recently sent me a 

 pamphlet on the charity founded by James Howell,- 

 by his will dated 1540. This testator leaves 

 12,000 ducats to purchase 400 ducats of rent for 

 evermore. What more it may buy to be used as 

 directed : but he evidently does not count on 

 anything worth speaking of. That is, he holds 

 land to be likely to fetch thirty years' purchase, 

 or to give 3} per cent, for money laid out. 



At the beginning of the next century the dif- 

 ference is still very marked, though not so great. 

 In the tables of compound interest publi-hed by 

 Richard Witt in 1613 (see my Arithmetical Books), 

 though the rates of 9, 8, 7, per cent, are given in 

 one table apiece, the rates for which various 

 tables arc given, and for which half-yearly and 

 quarterly payments are distinguished from yearly 

 payments, are 10, 6,}, and 5 per cent. The first 

 rate is for ordinary borrowing transactions ; the 

 second and third are described as for rents. Thus 

 it appears that while money was at 10 per cent., 

 land was valued at as much as sixteen and twenty 

 years' purchase. Witt says that twenty and six- 

 teen years' purchase are much used in buying 

 "land, and houses:" the cqmnia would in our 



day indicate that the twenty years is for land, and 

 the sixteen years for houses : and this is probably 

 what AYitt meant, whether he showed it by comma 

 or not. 



In the first half of the seventeenth century, 

 10 per cent, was the common notion attached to 

 money, just as 5 per cent, was the notion during 

 the lonsr war which ended in 181.3. Chillinjrworth, 

 in one of his sermons, values heaven at more than 

 a hundred thousand pounds, which, says he, you 

 all know to be ten thousand a year. Though we 

 are now a nation of shopkeepers, I doubt if in our 

 day a clergyman has put in heaven at a money 

 price. 



The security of title made a very large differ- 

 ence in the value of land. The following extract 

 from Yarranton's England's Improvement, 1677, is 

 quoted in the History of Taunton : — 



" The manor of Taunton Dean, in Somersetshire, is 

 under a register, and there the land is worth 23 years' 

 purchase, although but a copyhold manor ; and at any- 

 time he that hath £100 a year in the manor of Taunton 

 may goto the Castle and take up £2000 upon his lands, 

 and" buy stuffs with the money, and go to London and 

 sell his "stuffs, and return down his moneys, and pay but 

 £5 in the hundred for his moneys, ami discharge his 

 lands. This is the cause of the great trade and riches 

 about Taunton Dean (O happy Taunton Dean!) What 

 gentleman can do thus with free lauds? .No, it is not 

 worth Hi years' purchase all England over, one [lace 

 with another; and. if not timely put under a register, it 

 will come to 12 years' purchase belore long." 



I suppose that the last sentence is a prophecy 

 that real property will coon be no better security 

 than personal ; that is, that money on personal 

 security made 8i per cent. 



The above examples m'ay seem to indicate that 

 there was a time when real and personal security 

 differed about as much as 3 per cent, and 20 per 

 cent. : and that the difference has gradually dwin- 

 dled, until, in our own day, the two, when good of 

 their kinds, are of nearly the same value. More 

 instances, and many more, will be required belore 

 so large a difference can be granted as having once 

 been "universally recognised : and your readers 

 may possibly be able to contribute more, either 

 for "or against. A. de Mokgan. 



FLY-LEAF INSCRIPTIONS. 



The following verses are written on the fly-leaf 

 of a little book, entitled Emblemata et Aliquot 

 Nummi Antiqui Operis Juhan. Sainbitci Tirnavieusis 

 Pannonii, etc., Antverpise, clo.loxxix : — 



" Ad Amicos Candidos. 

 " Hue quicunqne tuo me dignum reris amore 



Qui mini syncero es pet-tore junctus, ades; 



Huic nomenque, manuinque tuam, dictumque rogatus, 



Quod lihet egregium trade, referque libro, 



Nominis atque manus liber hie dictique iidclis 



Pagina dum custos ulla manebit erit. 



Dicta rogo pia scribe, fuge impia scomata amici 



Quantum synceri nomeu habere cupis. 



