104 THE EFFECTS OF C HAP. XX. 



and that produce was partly consumed in their 

 households, they would be benefited to the extent 

 of the increased price of that surplus which was to 

 be sold, provided such surplus amounted to more 

 than the cost of the foreign commodities which 

 they might purchase. If their estates were let 

 out, as was mostly the case, to tenants for lives or 

 for a long term of years, the fines on renewals as 

 well as the rents would be fixed at the commence- 

 ment of the leases at the value of money of the 

 period when they were granted, and during the 

 currency of such leases the landlord would receive 

 less than the value of his land by receiving pay- 

 ment in money which was depreciating from year 

 to year, as additions were made to the stock of 

 gold and silver. As far &s regarded the demesne 

 lands in the occupation of the proprietor, whether 

 such lands were in tillage or in pasture, and espe- 

 cially in the latter case, the profit of the possessor 

 on what he sold would be annually increased by 

 the declining value of the precious metals in which 

 he would be paid for his produce. 



Whenever an estate was charged with incum- 

 brances either of the nature of mortgages or of 

 settlements on the other branches of a family than 

 the possessor of it, or for pious or charitable pur- 

 poses, the annual depreciation of money would 

 tend to relieve it of the burden, and with a greater 

 or less degree of rapidity, according to the length 

 of the terms of the leases under which its parts 

 may have been granted out to tenants. 



