CHAP. xix. IN ENGLAND. 



The several laws passed between the years 

 1554 and 1604 are, perhaps, the best criterion of 

 the increased average price of wheat, because they 

 show what was deemed by. the legislators a price 

 so low as rendered it proper to admit of its being 

 exported to foreign countries ; and they seem more 

 appropriate, because the. first of these laws passed 

 at the time when the mines of Potosi had just 

 began to flow from Spain through the rest of 

 Europe. 



By the acts 1 and 2 Philip and Mary, cap. 

 5, in 1554, corn is forbidden to be exported 

 except when the price of wheat shall not exceed 

 six shillings and eight-pence, of rye four shillings, 

 and of barley three shillings, per quarter. By an 

 act, 1st Elizabeth, cap. 11, corn may be exported 

 when the prices do not exceed for wheat six shil- 

 lings and eight-pence, rye four shillings, and 

 barley three shillings, per quarter. By another 

 act of the fifth of the same reign, exportation was 

 allowed when wheat does not exceed ten shillings, 

 rye eight shillings, and barley six shillings and 

 eight-pence, per quarter. The next act, that 

 of 1593, 35th Elizabeth, cap. 7, sec. 8, allows 

 wheat to be exported when not above twenty 

 shillings ; and by the act 1st James I., cap. 25, 

 sec. 26, 1 604, the exportation of wheat is allowed 

 when the price does not exceed twenty-six shil- 

 lings and eight-pence the quarter. It seems then 

 clear that the legislators who framed these several 

 laws must have concurred in judging what was 



