318 HIGH VALUE 



CHAP. XII. 



building of the great bridge at Dresden, in the 

 thirteenth century, the labourers were paid two 

 pfennigs daily ; and, according to some frag- 

 ments of mining accounts of Tillot and Chateau 

 Lambert, the operative miners received no more 

 than two pfennigs l . 



There are two records which have been pre- 

 served to the present time, which show the high 

 value of money in France. The first is the or- 

 donnance promulgated by Charlemagne at Frank- 

 fort, in the year 794. In the two preceding 

 years the harvests had been deficient, a scarcity 

 was experienced, and prices had risen. The 

 ordonnance was issued to protect the consumers 

 against those who always in seasons of scarcity 

 have been the objects of abuse the traders in 

 corn, stigmatised by the name of monopolists. 

 The price at which bread was to be sold was 

 thus the maximum in a period of scarcity ap- 

 proaching to famine. The law was made in a 

 general assembly, as it commences thus 2 : " Sta- 

 tuit piissimus Dominus noster comentiente sanctd 

 sinodo, ut nullus homo, sive ecclesiasticus, sive 

 laicus, nunquam carius vendat annonam, sive 

 tempore abundantly sive caritates, quam modium 

 publicum et novitur statutum, &c. &c." The 

 price fixed was for twenty-four pounds of 



1 Florencourt, p. 58. 



2 Recueil des Historians, tome cinquieme, p. 65 J. 



