COMPARISON OF PRICES CHAP. XXIV. 



1616 and ending with 1645, the second in 1716 

 and ending in 1745. The average of the first 

 thirty years 1 was eleven livres five sols ; that of the 

 second, seventeen livres eleven sols, six deniers for 

 the setier of Paris, thus showing an advance at the 

 rate of somewhat more than fifty per cent, in the 

 century. In the same two periods the price of 

 oats varied much more, being in the first thirty 

 years six livres ten sols, and in the latter twelve 

 livres eight sols, or near one hundred per cent. 



The wheat-market of Dantzic is regulated more 

 by the variations of fertility in the whole of Europe 

 than that of any other place. Its prices depend 

 more on the harvests of distant countries than on 

 those from whence its supplies are drawn. It may 

 exhibit a better scale of fertility in a series of 

 years, but a less satisfactory one of the value of 

 gold and silver. Without giving importance to 

 the statement, it would scarcely be proper wholly 

 to omit the notice of the advance in price at that 

 great market. We have no correct list of prices 

 at an earlier period than the year 1700. The 

 average price from that year to 17^5 was one 

 hundred and thirty-five florins for the last of ten 

 quarters. In the last twenty-five years of that 

 century, from 177^ to 1800, the average price was 

 three hundred and thirty-seven florins for the 



1 Essai sur les Monnoies et sur le Rapport entre F Argent 

 et les Denrees, page 181. 



