320 VALUE OF MONEY. CHAP. Xii. 



famine and pestilence, " qui avoit fait mourir 

 une infinit6 de personnes." 



This ordonnance of king John of France, issued 

 in 1350, fixes the rate at which thrashers in the 

 barn are to be paid for their labour. Those 

 who thrashed by the day were to receive not 

 less than eighteen deniers 1 . The livre, which 

 in the time of Charlemagne was a pound of 

 silver of twelve English ounces, worth sixty 

 shillings, had been diminished gradually either 

 in weight or in purity, and was worth only ten 

 francs of the present French money in the reign 

 of John 2 . 



The livre was still divided into twenty sols, 

 and they again into twelve deniers. It was 

 therefore of the value of one hundred pence of 

 our present money, and the sol was worth five- 

 pence ; and eighteen deniers were equal to a sol 

 and half, or sevenpence halfpenny. 



If the thrasher worked by the great, he was to 

 receive twelve sols or sixty pence for each muid 

 of wheat, and eight sols or forty pence for each 

 muid of barley or oats. The muid was a mea- 

 sure containing twelve setiers, and each setier 

 was a fraction more than four bushels and a half: 



1 Recherches sur la Valeur des Monnoies,, et sur le Prix des 

 Grains avant et apres le Concile de Francfort. Edit. Paris, 

 1762. 



2 M. Abot de Bazinghen, Traite des Monnoies,, vol. i. p. 642. 

 Edition Paris, 1764. 



