86 PRICES IN ITALY. CHAP. XIX. 



the abundance of gold and silver its value has 

 fallen, and the value of whatever has to be bought 

 with money has likewise increased 1 ." 



In Italy and Germany, from the number of 

 independent states in those countries, whose coin 

 was in a constant state of change, and varied from 

 that of its next neighbour, and whose weights 

 and measures were equally variable and generally 

 local, it would lead the reader into a wilderness of 

 figures and calculations, which could not be re- 

 duced to the simplicity that is to be found in 

 England and France. In those two countries 

 weights and measures have altered but little, and 

 the alterations are easily marked ; and the pounds 

 and the livres, though they have diminished in 

 metallic weight, and consequently in effective 

 value, are capable of having that weight and value 

 at any particular period ascertained with tolerable 

 certainty. 



1 Restauration de Espaiia, p. 211. In Gamboa's "Com- 

 mentaries on the Mining Laws of Spain," (vol. i. p. 102) is to 

 be found a variety of prices of commodities as fixed by an or- 

 donnance in 1368. We do not quote from them, because the 

 prices are given in maravedies, a money of account, whose 

 value is very doubtful at that period. 



