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Through its nominal price, therefore, is higher in the present

than it was in those ancient times, its real price, the real

quantity of subsistence which it will purchase or command, is

rather somewhat lower. The price of cow hides, as stated in the

above account, is nearly in the common proportion to that of ox

hides. That of sheep skins is a good deal above it. They had

probably been sold with the wool. That of calves skins, on the

contrary, is greatly below it. In countries where the price of

cattle is very low, the calves, which are not intended to be

reared in order to keep up the stock, are generally killed very

young, as was the case in Scotland twenty or thirty years ago. It

saves the milk, which their price would not pay for. Their skins,

therefore, are commonly good for little.