PREEACE. T 



In preparing the moll valuable part of Mr. Anderfon's work for 

 the prefs, I have preferved all his fa6ls, and the mod of his remarks ; 

 though fome of them are dictated by the narrow-fpirited jealoufy 

 of commerce, which in his time pafTed for patriotifm. But I have 

 cancelled many repetitions, and the frequent notices of prices, and 

 the diminutions of money, with the attendant calculations of the 

 difference of the expenfe of living in antient and modern times, an 

 objecSl almoft as fallacious as the meafurement of a fhadow ; inftead 

 of which, I have given in the Appendix a chronological view of the 

 feveral diminutions of the money of England and Scotland, and a 

 chronological feries of the prices of corn and other necefTary articles, 

 both in the perfpicuous and comprehenlive form of tables, from the 

 infpedlion of which the reader can obtain a pretty clear idea of the 

 depretiation of money ; for that is what we mean, when we talk of 

 the increafed price of living : and he will need no commentary to 

 fhow him the difference between the numerical expenditure of mo- 

 dern times and that of any particular time in by-paft ages. 



The only other alterations I have made confifl* in pruning the 

 fuperfluities of di(5lion ; fubftituting modern words and phrafes (as 

 far as I could without entire new compofition) for obfolete ones, 

 which Mr. Anderfon appears to have ufed more than any of his 

 contemporaries who have come within my obfervation ; and throw- 

 ing down to the bottom of the page many fentences and paragraphs 

 of the nature of notes, wherewith his narrative is frequently ob- 

 llru(5led. 



The additions made by myfelf in this portion of the work arc 

 prefented in the form of notes, with the letter M fubjoined to each 

 of them. 



From what has been faid the reader will perceive that the com- 

 mercial tranfaiflions from the year 1492 to 1760 ftand on the au- 



