76 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



were events that had a considerable influence upon 

 the condition of the great body of the people in Eng- 

 land. The one drove away the inmates of the mo- 

 nasteries, from whence the poor were accustomed to 

 receive donations of food ; the other, by pouring the 

 precious metals into Europe, raised the price of pro- 

 visions. In the latter half of the sixteenth century, 

 wheat was three times as dear, both in England and 

 France, as in the former half. The price of wheat, 

 upon an average of years, varied very little for four 

 centuries before the metallic riches of the New 

 World were brought into Europe ; upon an average 

 of years it has varied very little since.* The people 

 of the days of Henry VIII felt the change in the 

 money-value of provisions, although the real value 

 remained the same ; and they ascribed the circum- 

 stance to the dissolution of the monasteries. There 

 is an old song of that day in the Somersetshire dialect, 

 which indicates the nature of the popular error : 



' I'll tell thee what, good vellowe, 



Before the vriars went hence, 

 A bushel of the best wheate 



Was zold for vourteen pence ; 

 And vorty eggs a penny 



That were both good and newe ; 

 And this, I say, myself have seeii, 



And yet I am no Jewe.'t 



When wheat was fourteen-pence a bushel, it was 

 probably consumed by the people, in seasons of 

 plenty, and soon after harvest. During a portion 

 of the year there is little doubt that the English 

 labourers had better food than the French, who, in 

 the fifteenth century, were described by Fortescue 

 thus : ' Thay drynke water, thay eate apples, with 



* See Storch, Cours d'Economie Politique, tome i, p. 477. 

 t Reliques of Antient Poetry. 



