CHAP. XV. GOLDSMITHS AND LOMBARDS. 



case of one who wanted beer when it was at 

 three farthings the quart, or wine when it was 

 two-pence the quart, or mutton when it was less 

 than a penny the pound. Thus, Holinshed 

 speaking of the poverty of the farmers about the 

 year 1500, says, " If one of them did cast down 

 his purse, and therein a noble, or six shillings in 

 silver (for such men cared not for gold, because 

 it was not so ready payment, and they were often 

 enforced to give a penny for the exchange of an 

 angel), it was very likely that all the rest could 

 not lay down so much against it." At a time 

 when, among a company of farmers, six shillings 

 could scarcely be found, it cannot be supposed 

 that the labourers, however employed, who were 

 the most numerous class, could have occasion for 

 coin of such value as even the silver pennies of 

 that time. 



Whatever coined money may have been in 

 existence in that age, the far greater part of that 

 composed of silver and a still greater proportion 

 of that struck in gold, would rest in the hands of 

 the Lombards and the goldsmiths and such other 

 persons as had to transact the larger operations of 

 buying and selling. The monarchs, too, who by 

 their parsimony or their extortion were enabled 

 to amass treasure, would retain a large share of 

 the coined or uncoined precious metals; almost 

 the whole of that retained by the Lombards would 

 be the foreign coin. The goldsmiths would prefer 



