CHAPTER XXIII. 



ON THE PRICE OF METALS. 



THE reader will find in vol. ii. pp. 530-534 a collection of 

 such entries of the price of metals as my accounts have 

 furnished. They are numerous enough for computation in 

 decennial periods. 



GOLD. There are four entries of the price of gold, two of 

 which are for artistic purposes; the other two are rates of 

 exchange. The first purchase, made in 1262 on behalf of the 

 king (Henry III.), is partly in leaf, partly in coin; two out of 

 the five lots bought being byzants. The rate of the gold-leaf is 

 nearly ten to one, of the coin about nine and a-third to one, of 

 the whole nine and three-fifths. 



The gold purchased in 1292, also on behalf of the king 

 (Edward I.), was procured in order to gild the ornamental part 

 of the well-known Eleanor crosses. The rate is a little more 

 than twelve and a half. Such a discrepancy between the value 

 of gold in the two quotations, after an interval of only thirty 

 years, is sufficiently surprising, and cannot, I think, be ex- 

 plained except by an increased adoption of gold on the 

 Continent as a means of currency; for it will be clear, that 

 just as a very great fall would take place in the value of 

 existing stocks of gold were this metal absolutely demonetized, 

 so, e conversOj a considerable rise would occur in its comparative 

 value if in the economical history of any community, or rather of 

 a large number of communities, gold were increasingly adopted 

 as a measure of value and a means for carrying on commerce. 



