صفحة 493 من 2651

We cannot, therefore, be very wrong in supposing that the middle

price was not less than one-third of the highest price at which

this statute regulates the price of bread, or than six shillings

and eightpence of the money of those times, containing four

ounces of silver, Tower weight.

From these different facts, therefore, we seem to have some

reason to conclude that, about the middle of the fourteenth

century, and for a considerable time before, the average or

ordinary price of the quarter of wheat was not supposed to be

less than four ounces of silver, Tower weight.

From about the middle of the fourteenth to the beginning of the

sixteenth century, what was reckoned the reasonable and moderate,

that is, the ordinary or average price of wheat, seems to have

sunk gradually to about one half of this price; so as at last to

have fallen to about two ounces of silver, Tower weight, equal to

about ten shillings of our present money. It continued to be

estimated at this price till about 1570.