308 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [ANNO 1798. 



252.422 parliamentary grains; from whence all the other weights may be de- 

 rived. 



As a summary of what has been done, I hope it may now be said, that we have 

 attained these 3 objects: 1st. An invariable, and at all times communicable, 

 measure of Mr. Bird's scale of length, now preserved in the House of Commons; 

 which is the same, or agrees within an insensible quantity, with the ancient stand- 

 ards of the realm. 2dly. A standard weight of the same character, with reference 

 to Mr. Harris's Troy pound. 3dly. Besides the quality of their being invariable, 

 without detection, and at all times communicable, these standards will have the 

 additional property of introducing the least possible deviation from ancient practice, 

 or inconvenience in modern use. 



Before closing this paper, after having said so much on the subject of weights 

 and measures, it may not be improper to add a few words on a topic which, though 

 not immediately connected, has some affinity to it; I mean the subject of the prices 

 of provisions, and of the necessaries of life, &c. at different periods of our history, 

 and in consequence the depreciation* of money. Several authors have touched in- 

 cidentally on this question, and some few have written professedly on it; but they 

 do not appear to have drawn a distinct conclusion from their own documents. It 

 would carry me infinitely too wide, to give a detail of all the facts I have collected: 

 I shall therefore content myself with a general table of their results, deduced from 

 taking a mean rate of the price of each article, at the particular periods, and af- 

 terwards combining these means, to obtain a general medium for the depreciation 

 at that period; and lastly, by interpolation, reducing the whole into more regular 

 periods, from the Conquest to the present time: and, however I may appear to 

 descend below the dignity of philosophy, in such economical researches, I trust I 

 shall find favour with the historian, at least, and the antiquary. 



* The various changes that have taken place, by authority, in different reigns, either in the weight 

 or alloy of our coins, are allowed for in the subsequent table. — Orig. 



