CHAP. XXIV. WITH INCREASE OF COIN. SI 7 



are to be found. Thus in Spain the average price 

 of wheat in the market of Seville, from the year 

 1701 to 1726, was fourteen reals 1 thirty-one 

 maravedis the fanega ; from 1727 to 1752 it was 

 seventeen reals twenty-two maravedis ; and from 

 17^5 to 1787 it was twenty-six reals eleven ma- 

 ravedis 2 . 



This shows a greater advance than appears by 

 the English accounts. It may not, however, be 

 proper to assume the price of wheat in Spain as a 

 scale to measure the value of gold and silver with 

 the same confidence as may be given to the price 

 in England. It is not so universally the food of 

 man as with us, and the variations in price are 

 more enormous. In the hundred years we are 

 considering, the lowest price of wheat in England 

 was one pound three shillings and a penny, and 

 the highest price three pounds nine shillings and 

 four-pence, thus varying as from one to three ; but 

 in Spain the' lowest price was seven reals, and the 

 highest thirty-nine, or from one to five and a half. 



Not having correct prices of wheat in France 

 at the latter portion of the eighteenth century, we 

 must make the contrast between two periods at a 

 century from each other, the first beginning with 



1 The real is the twentieth part of a dollar, and is divided 

 into thirty-four maravedis, The fanega is two- thirds of an 

 English bushel. 



2 See Appendix, No. 29, to the Bullion Report. 



