348 PRICES OF WHEAT. CHAP. xn. 



If the years in which famine or a scarcity 

 approaching to famine be taken from the fore- 

 going catalogue of prices, it will be found that 

 no great difference is observable between the 

 early and late years of the period which inter- 

 venes between the time of the Norman conquest 

 and that of the discovery of America. An in- 

 ference from hence may perhaps be fairly drawn 

 that no very great increase or decrease in the 

 stock of the precious metals occurred during 

 those centuries; or it may be presumed that 

 the supply from the mines was nearly equal to 

 the consumption by friction on the circulation, 

 and to that portion which either had been lost 

 from being buried in the ground and not again 

 found, or that had been lost by shipwrecks. 



dent of Christchurch ; those marked (e) from Cotton's Re- 

 cords; those marked (f) from Rymer's Fcedera; and those 

 marked (g) from Stow's Survey. 



