72 ADVANCE OF PRICES CHAP. XIX. 



Difficult as the task has been found even to con- 

 jecture what has been the increase or decrease of 

 the precious metals, and doubtful as are the re- 

 sults at which we have arrived, any estimation of 

 the increase of commodities generally in Europe 

 would be a far more Herculean task, and the con- 

 clusions that might be drawn would be infinitely 

 more disputable. 



In order to approximate to truth as nearly 

 as the subject will admit, we shall advert to 

 the prices of commodities in the two periods 

 about the years 1480 arid 1599, both in England 

 and in France. For reasons which have been be- 

 fore stated at length 1 , we must have recourse to 

 corn, that commodity which can alone guide us, 

 which, though the only one whose certain prices 

 are given, is, on account of the fluctuations in 

 its productiveness, one of the most uncertain. 

 It happens, too, that in the period under con- 

 sideration the variations of several years seem to 

 be enormously great. 



In a work entitled " A true Relation of the 

 most remarkable Dearths and Famines which have 

 happened in this Realm since the coming in of 

 William the Conqueror up to Michaelmas, 1745," 

 4to. printed in 1748, there are some facts well 

 worth noticing and preserving. In the following 

 extracts the money of the several dates is re- 



See vol. i. p. 340. 



