INCREASE OF COIN AND CHAP. XXI. 



money at the end of 1.599 at one hundred and 

 thirty million pounds, and of that stock at the end 

 of 1699 at two hundred and ninety-seven million 

 pounds, we find an increase in the hundred years 

 at the rate of about one hundred and fifty per 

 cent., or double and a half. 



The doubts respecting the prices of corn have 

 been before fully stated, but at the two periods 

 vdiose comparison it is now necessary to make, 

 though still subject to doubt, there are more 

 accurate records than in the preceding series of 

 years, when for want of better criteria recourse 

 has been reluctantly had to them. 



The prices of corn here referred to are those of 

 Oxford, taken from the valuable publication of 

 Mr. Lloyd 1 ; and to avoid the influence of variation 

 on the productiveness of the series of years, a greater 

 number of years is comprehended in the estimation. 

 In the twenty years from 1483 to 1502, both 

 included, the average price of wheat was twenty- 

 seven shillings the Winchester quarter; in the 

 twenty years from 1583 to 1602 the price was 

 thirty-six shillings per quarter, or an advance of 

 thirty-three per cent. Malt 2 in the first period 

 was sixteen shillings and a penny, in the last 

 period twenty-two shillings and a penny, which 

 shows an advance of thirty-eight per cent. This 



1 See Appendix, No. IV., in Lloyd, p. 325. 



* In the prices of malt no allowance is made in this calculation 

 for the duty of four shillings per quarter iirst imposed in 1697, 

 and for the subsequent alterations in the rate of duty. 



