Pagina 512 de 2651

The prices, indeed, which Fleetwood has been able to collect,

seem to have been those chiefly which were remarkable for

extraordinary dearness or cheapness; and I do not pretend that

any very certain conclusion can be drawn from them. So far,

however, as they prove any thing at all, they confirm the account

which I have been endeavouring to give. Fleetwood himself,

however, seems, with most other writers, to have believed, that,

during all this period, the value of silver, in consequence of

its increasing abundance, was continually diminishing. The prices

of corn, which he himself has collected, certainly do not agree

with this opinion. They agree perfectly with that of Mr Dupre de

St Maur, and with that which I have been endeavouring to explain.

Bishop Fleetwood and Mr Dupre de St Maur are the two authors who

seem to have collected, with the greatest diligence and fidelity,

the prices of things in ancient times.