CURRENCY. 1 93 



1 6th of Henry the Eighth. The project, though discussed 

 and drafted into the form of a proclamation, was evidently 

 abandoned. 



I do not affirm that the foregoing facts satisfy me that the 

 theory which I have proposed is demonstrable. But the diffi- 

 culties which I have constantly felt in reviewing prices up to 

 the time of Elizabeth's reform, have made me doubt whether 

 a multiplication of pieces coined out of a pound of silver really 

 meant an alteration in the legal value of each piece so issued, 

 or was virtually unimportant in view of the practice of taking J 

 payments by weight. For example, in 1543 Henry the Eighth j 

 had lowered the weight of the (nominal) penny to 10 grains, 

 the same unit having originally stood at 22% grains. Now in 

 the year 1 547-8 1 the average price of wheat was 4^-. iid. the 

 quarter, a rate lower than any recorded price, if the payment 

 were made by tale. The smallest price which I have recorded, 

 that of 1287, is zs. iQ^d., i.e. in the coinage of the time 707*41 

 grains of silver. But omitting to take account of the issue of 

 base money, which was coming into operation at this time, and 

 assuming that a quarter of wheat was purchased by tale in 

 1547-8 at ^s. lid., the price would be about 545-5 grains of 

 pure silver only. Now this is either a prodigious exaltation in 

 the value of the precious metals in the period between 1387 

 and 1547, or it must be concluded that prices instantly ac- 

 commodated themselves to the king's arbitrary determination 

 of the values which were to be assigned to the coins, or that 

 the king was able to arrive at so instant an apprehension as to 

 the rise in the value of silver that he could accommodate his 

 currency to the change, or, as I have suggested, payments were 

 made by weight, or government could give an artificial value toj 

 the currency. 



That the good money disappeared during the circulation of 

 the base coins might be anticipated. That the fact was so, is 

 shown by the frequent allusions to the scandalous condition of 



1 The great silver mine of Potosi was discovered in 1546. 

 VOL. IV. O 



