CHAP. xrr. 



OF MONEY. 319 



wheaten bread one denier, For thirty pounds of 

 rye bread, or forty pounds of barley bread, also 

 a denier. The livre of Charlemagne was a 

 pound of silver of twelve ounces. It was di- 

 vided into twenty sols, and those into twelve 

 deniers. The denier was thus equal to three- 

 pence of our present money. The pound of com- 

 merce then contained twenty-four of our ounces, 

 and we thus arrive at the conclusion, that the 

 maximum price for thirty-six pounds of wheaten 

 bread was threepence of our money, or twelve 

 pounds for a penny, or that the legal four pound 

 loaf of this country was then limited to be sold 

 at a price not exceeding a farthing and one- 

 third of that coin. The scarcity of grain may 

 be inferred from one part of the ordonnance in 

 question, by which it appears, that the corn be- 

 longing to Charlemagne himself, which was the 

 produce of the royal domains that he cultivated, 

 was to be sold at a price one-third below the 

 enacted maximum. It was probably delivered 

 to the persons immediately about the court, and 

 considered as a gratuity to relieve them in a 

 season of general suffering 1 . 



At a subsequent period, another ordonnance 

 of a king of France is to be found issued at the 

 same place as that of Charlemagne, but after a 



1 Lamare, Traite de Police, tome ii. p. 337 ; and M. de la 

 Bruere, Vie de Charlemagne, tome ii. p. 33. 



