CHAPTER XVI. 



ON THE PRICE OF METALS. 



IN Vol. Ill, pp. 369-384, will be found numerous entries of 

 metals. The principal items are prices of lead and pewter 

 vessels, sold almost invariably by weight; solder; and brass or 

 copper utensils, also sold by weight : but there are a few 

 entries of gold, and several of silver, raw and in the form of 

 plate, either plain, parcel-gilt, or wholly gilt. 



GOLD. I have found only three entries of gold by the ounce. 

 These are in 1462, in 1482, and in 1579. In the first of 

 these entries it is bought at 30 j., for the purpose of making a 

 gold chain, the charge for fashioning 19^ ozs. being set at five 

 marks, i.e. 3 6s. 8<f., the material being valued at 29 $s. 

 The price of silver purchased for making spoons in 1458, the 

 nearest entry of raw silver, is 2s. 8d. the ounce: and if the 

 proportion of each of these articles was of equally fine quality, 

 it was that of eleven and a quarter to one. In 1292, Vol. I, 

 p. 594, it is rather more than twelve and a half times. Again, 

 in 1482 an ounce and a half of gold is purchased at the rate 

 of 48^. In 1475 sil ver plate is purchased at a little more than 

 4J-. the ounce, and this would give a proportion of about 

 twelve to one. In 1579 thirty-six ounces of gold are bought, 

 unwrought, at 55^. the ounce. Two years before, unwrought 

 silver was purchased at the same place at 4*. io\d. the ounce. 

 This gives a proportion again of a little over eleven and a 

 quarter times the rate of 1462. Such proportions are in ac- 

 cordance with Lord Liverpool's estimate quoted above, p. 199. 

 In 1557 gold angels are valued at ios* and us. each. But it 

 is difficult to draw any inferences about the value of gold coins 



