DEPRECIATION OF MONEY 337 



the big markets, averages (I am informed) | lb., the con- 

 clusion of the whole matter is that in the era mentioned 

 I lb., or two fish, cost /,,, or -45 of a penny. In pre-war days the 

 average marketable price worked out at 2 954 pence per lb., 

 so the Egyptian MttgU in 1913 cost about 6| times more than 

 c. 1200 B.C., while the English Mugil in 1913, which (according 

 to figures kindly furnished me by the Fishmongers Company) 

 averaged 10 to 12 pence per lb., cost about 24 times more. 



The Egyptian correlation of 6| to i cannot, it is true, 

 be definitely established until we have data proving that the 

 kite was exactly 9-1 grammes, nor can it be accurately applied 

 to other commodities, but it may help us to a rough approxima- 

 tion of what some of their prices were in the XXth Dynasty. ^ 



The depreciation of money between the XVIIIth and XXth 

 Dynasties, heavy as it seems, was as nothing to that which ensued 

 in subsequent centuries. Examples of this can be observed 

 in the fall of the Gallienus tetradrachm from about half a crown 

 to one halfpenny in less than a century. Again under Macrianus 

 (260 A.D.) the coinage was so bad and so worthless that the 

 banks closed their doors, but were compelled by the king to 

 open and continue " his divine coinage." At the time of 

 Diocletian's Edict on maximum prices (301 A.D.) a denarius 

 {4 drachmcB) was reckoned at yoooo ^^ ^ ^^^^^ ^^ gold, but in 

 Egypt after Constantine's reign it fell much lower, e.g. 432,000 

 denarii equalled i pound. 



From the Papyrus Oxyrh. 1223 we find the solidus computed 

 at 2,020X10,000=20,200,000, (!) denarii at the end of the 

 fourth century. 2 



Billon Denarii, i.e. made out of copper and very little 

 silver, ceased to be coined at Alexandria after a.d. 297, and got 

 utterly depreciated. 



We get little farther in our quest of correlation of prices 



^ The information as to the average prices and weights of the Miigil capita, 

 on which the above calculations were grounded, was obtained from the Depart- 

 ment of Supplies in Egypt. " In the markets of Alexandria the weight of the 

 grey mullet varies from 8 to 3 to the oke (2'75 lbs.), say 5J to 14J oz. each. 

 The pre-war retail price was for large fish, 3 or 4 to the oke, 8 Piastres ; for small, 

 8 to the oke, 5 Piastres." The prices in August, 1920, had increased to 20 and 

 16 Piastres respectively, or nearly two- thirds more. 



- Cf. Pap. Oxyrh. 1430, Introd. 



