NORMAN AND CHAP. xn. 



the same degrees in France in the prices of the 

 necessaries of life. 



From the Conquest till the time when, after 

 the discovery of America, the precious metals 

 from the new world began to display their effects 

 on the prices of commodities in Europe, we are 

 led to draw our proofs and illustrations chiefly 

 from English history, because the requisite do- 

 cuments are more abundant and more accessi- 

 ble, and because the monetary system was more 

 simple, and is now more easily to be made in- 

 telligible. 



At the time of the Conquest, the Norman 

 money superseded the Saxon. The Norman 

 pound was a troy pound weight of twelve ounces 

 of silver divided into twenty parts called shil- 

 lings, and these again divided into twelve parts 

 called either pennies or pennyweights. Thus, the 

 money of that period, taking the silver at 5s. 

 per ounce, may be valued at three times the 

 same denomination in the present day. Though 

 there was at intervals some alteration and some 

 adulteration 1 of the coin, yet large payments 



1 The crime of clipping and counterfeiting the current 

 coin seems to have been carried on to a great extent, though 

 some severe laws were enacted and put in force to punish the 

 offence. Whether guilty or not, the Jews were the principal 

 sufferers for this breach of the laws, as two hundred and eighty 

 of them were put to death in London alone in the year 1279, 



