CHAP. VI. PRICES IN GREECE. 



propitious or unpropitious seasons, by the in- 

 terruption of intercourse by war, by such deso- 

 lating famines as the ancients were more subject 

 to than the moderns, and by a variety of other 

 innumerable but minor causes. There are also 

 other difficulties in estimating the rise or fall of 

 the precious metals in remote ages, arising from 

 the uncertainty and variation in the weight and 

 purity of the metallic money which circulated, 

 and in fixing the exact measures of length or of 

 capacity, and of the weights which were used 

 in dispensing the several kinds of property. 



In the earliest stages of society the chief trade 

 must have been in the necessaries of life ; and 

 as soon as agriculture had been practised, corn 

 would appear to be the best standard by which 

 to measure the value of gold and silver ; but 

 this would be far from a sure criterion. In 

 some ages and countries the soil, climate, or 

 fashion of living made one kind of food cheap 

 and another dear, whilst in other times and 

 countries exactly the reverse is to be seen : thus 

 in Athens, in the time of Solon, a sheep was 

 worth but a bushel and a half of corn ; and a few 

 centuries ago a given weight of corn was equal 

 in value to the same weight of meat in England; 

 and at a later period, in the Highlands of Scot- 

 land, according to Hume, a pound of oatmeal 

 was worth a pound of beef. 



In the relative value of one kind of corn to 



