DEBASEMENT CHAP. IX. 



posed to have amounted to near 358,000,000, 

 was worth twenty of our shillings ; but in the 

 time of Nero, when the whole quantity of money 

 was reduced to about 300,000,000, it was 

 worth about seventeen shillings and ten-pence. 

 The quantity of coin had thus diminished one- 

 seventh, and the value of the aureus only de- 

 creased a little more than a tenth ; but if we 

 suppose in that period some produce to have 

 been extracted from the mines which had con- 

 tinued in operation, it may tend to bring nearer 

 together the proportion of money and the value 

 of the aureus. 



Constantine began his reign about the year 

 304, when by the table the decrease of coin had 

 reached nearly three-fifths. The aureus had not 

 diminished in equal value, having scarcely fallen 

 one-half. We are by no means disposed to deem 

 this any certain criterion, nor should we deem 

 it a fair one if the coincidence were still more 

 striking than it appears. That coincidence too 

 must have been affected by other circumstances. 

 The mines continued to produce some of the 

 precious metals even below the reign of Con- 

 stantine. The tribute too from Egypt and 

 Carthage, both in corn and gold, was consider- 

 able up to the time that the Vandals established 

 their dominion in Africa. 



During the greater part of the period, the 

 practice of debasing the coin had been extending. 



