CHAP. XII. 



VALUE OF MONEY, 325 



had been noticed, they would have complicated 

 a subject which it is the design of this inquiry 

 to simplify and make intelligible. From the 

 Conquest to the year 1346, all monies are here 

 reduced into our present currency at the rate of 

 sixty shillings to the pound ; from 1346 to 

 1412. at the rate of fifty-two and eightpence to 

 the pound ; from 1412 to 1464, at the rate of 

 forty shillings to the pound ; from 1484, at the 

 rate of forty-five shillings to the pound ; from 

 thence to 1550, at the rate of forty-eight to 

 the pound ; during the next two years, at the 

 rate of seventy-two to the pound. In the year 

 1,551, the shilling was the sixtieth part of a 

 pound, but contained more alloy till the forty- 

 third of Elizabeth, 1601, when the silver being 

 made of greater fineness, the pound was made 

 into sixty-two shillings. From the year 1551, the 

 shillings will be considered of the same value as 

 that coin in our domestic transactions of the pre- 

 sent day, that is, as the twentieth part of a pound. 



Amidst numerous facts, tending to show the 

 high value of gold and silver when compared 

 with all other commodities, it is difficult, where 

 all are striking, to select those that shall most 

 clearly indicate their real worth or power of 

 purchase. 



Athelstan, about the year 937, subdued Lud- 

 wal, the chief prince of Wales, and made a peace 

 on condition of a tribute being paid, consisting 



