138 INCREASE OF COIN AND CHAP. XXI. 



duce of all corn to be twelve bushels to the acre. 

 In the century which we are viewing, at an early 

 part of it, the annual produce had increased, accord- 

 ing to Harrison in his " Description of Britain," 

 at least one-third. It was not, however, wholly 

 on corn and cattle that an increase of production 

 had taken place, but new articles had been intro- 

 duced which became sources of real wealth. The 

 common cabbage was scarcely cultivated till the 

 beginning of the seventeenth century. Artichokes, 

 currants, cherries, onions, asparagus, and, above all, 

 potatoes, were introduced in the early part of the 

 century. Turnips, carrots, parsnips, early pease, 

 rape, and the several kinds of clover were only 

 adopted in the middle of the century, and were not 

 verv generally cultivated, or not nearly to the pre- 

 sent extent, at the latter end of it. The increase 

 of articles which these advances in cultivation 

 brought into the general market required more 

 money to circulate them than was needed for the 

 more common productions of the soil which had, 

 previously been used. Corn, when grown upon 

 the small spots of land which farmers occupied in 

 ancient times, was chiefly consumed on the places 

 where it grew and by the labourers that raised it ; 

 but these new products would be carried to other 

 * places to find consumers ; they must be paid for 

 not with labour or with other agricultural produc- 

 tions, but with money. 



There must also have been a larger stock of 



