2CO CURRENCY. 



actual amount of silver in the coins from Edward the First's 

 to Henry the Eighth's time may have had no appreciable 

 effect on prices. It is probable that, in any case, and whatever 

 may be the extent of the power possessed by the executive, the 

 rupture of all relations with the see of Rome, and the conse- 

 quent cessation of those monetary transactions which took place 

 so regularly between the clergy and laity of England on the one 

 hand, and the Roman court on the other transactions which 

 were vexatious, dilatory, and costly may have strengthened the 

 King's position, and given greater power to him in his currency 

 experiments, especially when one considers the large mass of 

 specie which must have been added to the currency by the 

 spoliation of the monastic treasures. 



When however the currency was debased, and not only 

 debased, but decried, a change in money values was inevitable. 

 The reform of the currency under Elizabeth, necessary and 

 righteous as it was, developed novel and permanent relations 

 between prices and silver, as is curiously illustrated by the fact 

 that, speaking generally, ordinary prices are trebled, at the end 

 of twenty years, as compared with older rates at the conclusion 

 of the period embraced in these volumes. 



But the most remarkable fact in connection with the issue of 

 base money by Henry VIII is the singular identity of the average 

 price of grain, especially wheat, during the first 140 years of 

 my present period, with the last 140 of my first two volumes. 

 Between 1261-1400 the average price of wheat was 5^. iof^/., 

 between 1401 and 1540 it was 5^. n^d. The average price of 

 barley in the earlier period was 4^. 3!^, in the later 3.$-. 8*/., a 

 discrepancy accounted for by the fact that the greater part of the 

 later barley prices issue from Norfolk. The price of oats was 

 2s. 5f< and is. i\d., of rye 4^. 4!^. and 4^. 7!^., of beans 

 4s. $\d. and $s. 9^., of peas $s. yd. and $s. iod., of malt 

 4$-. lod. and 4^. id. During the period of the next forty-two 

 years the prices were i$s. ~LO\d. for wheat, 8s. $\d. for barley, 

 5r. $\d. for oats, 9.$-. i \d. for beans, 8s. 8d. for peas, and los. $d. 

 for malt. For the first seventy years of the present period, 



