290 



Gold, Silver and the Coinage of the Silver Dollar, 



The above prices are taken from an old work entitled '• A Million 

 of Facts," by Sir Richard Phillips, published in 1835. It will be 

 observed by noting the dates of those quotations in connection with 

 the prices, that with the progress of time, there is an evident appre- 

 ciation of prices of both commodities and labor. This appreciation 

 is, in part, real, showing the lessening value of the money metals; and 

 in part, only, apparent, owing to the lessening of weight of the coin, as 

 will be explained further on. 



Historic records of the continent of Europe are less clear than those of 

 England, as to comparative prices, owing to the uncertainty of weights 

 and measures, and the frequent changes in weight of the coins which 

 continue to bear the same names. Mr. Jacob, in his " Inquiry into 

 the Production and Consumption of the Precious Metals," published 

 about 1831, has given us some facts from which I extract the fol- 

 lowing. 



By an ordinance of Charlemagne, at Frankfort, in 794, at a time 

 of threatened famine, it was decreed that the maximum price which 

 might be charged for a weight, equivalent to thirty-six pounds of 

 wheaten bread, shall be one denier — the equivalent of three pence 

 sterling, or six cents U. S. currency of present time. It is also stated 

 that the king himself sold the produce of his own lands at one-third 

 less price, or at the rate of four cents for thirty-six pounds of bread. 

 The maximum price is equal to six pounds wheat bread for one cent. 

 The king's price is equal to nine pounds for a cent. Jacob, vol. 1, pp. 

 318, 319. 



In the year 1237, each of three chaplains, who did daily duty in the 

 church of the Templars, received a yearly salary equal to £S sterling, 

 or of $40 of our present currency. 



In Alsace, at the end of the tenth century, wheat bore the price of 

 seven pfennigs per scheffel, which is about equal to the English bushel 

 of Bixty pounds. About the middle of the thirteenth century, the 

 scheffel of wheat sold for twenty-four pfennigs. Jacob describes the 

 pfennig as of value somewhat less than a farthing sterling of his time; 

 or less than half a cent. 



In the construction of the Strasbourg cathedral, about the eleventh 

 or twelfth century, it is recorded that the masons employed were paid 

 one and a half to two pfennigs daily. 



At the building of the great bridge of Dresden, in the thirteenth 

 century, the laborers were paid two pfennigs; or less than one cent 

 daily as wages. 



