CHAP. XXIV. AMOUNT OF COIN. 215 



putation, and the coin had increased from two 

 hundred and ninety-seven millions of pounds in 

 1699 to three hundred and eighty millions of 

 pounds in 1809, the addition would be at the 

 rate of about twenty-eight per cent. This com- 

 putation, though by a very different process, gives 

 a result so nearly approaching to those by For- 

 bonnais, Gerboux, and Heron de Villefosse, that 

 it seems more entitled to confidence than that 

 of Necker, who rated the coin of France to be 

 nearly equal to that of all Europe, and the col- 

 lective stock not much to exceed one half of 

 this estimate. 



In drawing a comparison between the prices 

 of wheat, which in spite of the objections to it 

 that have been stated in former parts of the in- 

 quiry we are compelled to adopt, it is necessary 

 to take the average of a long series of years. It 

 seemed also desirable to avoid years in which de- 

 rangements of the current coin of the kingdom 

 were in operation. On that account it was ad- 

 visable not to include any of the years after the 

 suspension of the bank payments in specie : that 

 suspension had some effect on prices, but the 

 extent to which it operated in various periods 

 must have been a subject of discussion too long 

 and too doubtful to be entered upon here. The 

 periods for comparison are the thirty years be- 

 tween 1665 and 1695, and the same number of 

 years between 1765 and 1795. 



