CHAP. xir. PRICES OF CORN. 



Hence, though registers of the prices of wheat 

 are to be found in ancient records, those of rye 

 and barley are but rarely noticed. The cir- 

 cumstance of that kind of corn being least no- 

 ticed which was the most used gives a degree 

 of uncertainty to all calculations founded on the 

 prices of corn alone. 



There is also reason to believe that when the 

 population of this country was very much less 

 dense than it is at present, there were much more 

 numerous herds of black cattle, perhaps of sheep, 

 but certainly of swine, in proportion to the number 

 of inhabitants, than there have been in succeeding 

 ages. The value of meat as compared with that 

 of grain must then have been lower, and pro- 

 bably contributed, especially in those seasons, 

 which frequently returned formerly, when a 

 scarcity of corn occurred, more to the subsist- 

 ence of the lower classes than the several de- 

 scriptions of the cereales. 



It may be inferred that cattle of both kinds 

 were more abundant than at present, because 

 almost the only articles that were exported were 

 the skins and the wool, and these were more 

 than sufficient to pay for five times as much wine 

 and all other commodities as our ancestors drew 

 from foreign countries ; and all the writers of 

 the time agree that the balance was discharged 

 in the precious metals, by which England was 

 enabled to. pay the heavy exactions of the papal 



