CURRENCY AND PRICES. 785 



had more to do with low prices than anything that gold or 

 silver could do 1 . 



The increasing use of gold as currency in Western Europe, 

 especially during the last quarter of the seventeenth century 2 , 

 disturbed the ratio which the English Government tried to 

 establish between the two metals. The Government intended 

 that the guinea should be accepted for zos. It rapidly rose, 

 quite apart from the recoinage difficulty, to 2U. 6d. in silver, 

 and towards the end of the century fell to 2is., to the loss of 

 those who did not anticipate this result. I remember that 

 Mr. Senior, an acute person in his day, used to insist that the 

 value of the precious metals was determined by their use in 

 the arts. The statement is perfectly accurate if the function 

 performed by the Master of the Mint is to be reckoned an art. 

 And now if, by some act of government, the administration of 

 China should supply the millions of that empire with a silver 

 currency, I venture on predicting that the ratio of gold and 

 silver which prevailed so long would be almost if not entirely 

 recovered. 



As regards the average of prices contained in the foregoing 

 pages, I am aware that as regards the price of two kinds of 

 grain, wheat and malt, the figures are those of market maxima, 

 at certain given dates. The fact that wheat and malt prices 

 would be taken at those dates, and would determine a portion 

 of the reserved rents, was as well known to the tenant who 

 had to pay, as it was to the landlord who had to receive, and 

 the knowledge on the part of sellers would not tend to 

 stimulate the market on those days. But I have supplied the 

 corrective to any excessive elevation of prices presumably due 

 to this cause by including in my averages the bakehouse 

 prices of S. John's College, Cambridge, the Eton, Winchester, 

 and New College purchases, and other numerous transactions, 

 on which the recipient corporation, eager for high prices as a 



1 This, I may say, is the view of my friend Mr. David Wells, the wisest and 

 clearest economist of modern times in the United States or elsewhere. 

 ' See for the gold coinage of England, supra, pp. 126, 137. 

 VOL. V. 3 E 



