Gold, Silver and the Coinage of the Stiver Dollar 289 

 years, a large reduction in the general price-level of commerce must 



I think it demonstrated therefore that the verdict upon the claim of 

 our friends, the advocates of continued coinage of the dollar, that the 

 wide and widening difference in the commercial value of silver and 

 gold bullion is not in the depreciation of silver, but in the appreciation 

 of gold, must be entered as not proven. Facts seem clearly to prove 

 the opposite. See Appendix. 



Although the proof fails to show appreciation of the money measure 

 of values as claimed for the past twelve or fifteen years, nothing in 

 history is clearer than that the converse is true, if we go back for any 

 considerably long term in the past, since the middle ages. All writers 

 of repute upon political economy, admit the very large depreciation in 

 the value of the precious metals as measured by their purchasing 

 power in commodities or service in the past five or six hundred years. 



The following facts as to prices in the olden time taken from 

 authentic sources will abundantly establish this. 



"In 1253 A. D., wheat sold at 2s 3d per quarter" (3%d per 

 bushel). " In 1272 a laborer got l\d per day; a harvest man 2d. In 

 1256, brewers sold three gallons of beer for one penny. In 1241 the 

 king paid 18s id for thirty-seven sheep" (not quite 6d each). 



In 1300, wheat and barley brought 3s id, and oats Is Sd per 

 quarter" (wheat 5d, and oats 2\d per bushel). "A cow 6s; a fat 

 sheep Is; a hen \\d, and a pair of shoes id. Labor from 1\ to 2d per 

 day." 



In 1314, Parliament fixed the price of a fat ox at 16*; a cow at 12s; 

 a fat hog 3s id; a sheep Is 2d; a couple of chickens Id; a goose 2\d, 

 and eggs \d per dozen. Arable land in Kent let from 3d to 6d per 

 acre; pasture at Id; and meadow at id to 10^." 



"In the middle of the fourteenth century, wine was id per gallon; 

 wool was 2s per stone (or about lfrd per pound); Kendall cloth 3s 

 id to 5s per piece; wheat from 4s to 6s per quarter. In 1500, oats 

 were 2s per quarter, and wheat 6s (oats 3d, and wheat Od per bushel); 

 ale 2d per gallon; labor 2$d to 3$d per day." 



"In the reign of Elizabeth, 1558-1603, a house in a country town let 

 for 4s or 6s per annum; and the purchase was £5 to £6; wheat was Is 

 a bushel; malt and oats 7d; an ox 26s, and a fat sheep 2s 10c?; claret 

 2\d, and red port 3d a quart. Labor id to Gd a day." 



progress." 



