76 ADVANCE OF PRICES 



CHAP. XIX. 



the proper standard by the respective rates of the 

 several periods. If the price of six shillings and 

 eight-pence for wheat in 1554 was deemed a fair 

 standard for both consumers and producers, it 

 may be inferred that fifty years later the price of 

 twenty-six shillings and eight-pence, in 1604, was 

 an equally fair standard 1 . 



It is a subject of regret that the Oxford prices 

 of corn, for which the public is indebted to Mr. 

 Lloyd, present a blank from the year 1328 to the 

 year 1583 ; we are not, therefore, able to make 

 from them a contrast between the two periods 

 which it is desirable to compare. The average 

 price of wheat, by Mr. Lloyd's tables, for the ten 

 years from. 1583 to 1592, appears to have been 

 twenty shillings and nine-pence ; of the ten years 

 from 1593 to 1602, thirty-three shillings and 

 three-pence ; and from 1603 to 1612, thirty-one 

 shillings and four-pence. It has been before 

 shown, from the Chronicum Preciosum, that the 

 average price in the twelve years, from 1551 to 

 1562, in which there was no variation, was eight 

 shillings and ten-,perice.. The parliamentary rate 



1 These advances in the legal price to which wheat must 

 rise before it was exportable were continued by acts of par- 

 liament, thus : 



1623 by 21st James 1., cap. 28, at . -' .' * l - . . 32*. 

 1627 by 3rd Charles I., cap. 4. the same rate continued. 

 1656 by Cromwell ordinances, cap. 5 * : , : . 40*. 

 1663 by 15th Charles II., cap. 7 \' . . ' \- *& 

 1688 by 1st William and Mary, cap. 2 - . - ' L) . " . 48s, 

 with a bounty of 5*. when at or under _ .'-. * i*-t r '-(, 48*. 



