318

HIGH VALUE

CHAP. XII.

building of the great bridge at Dresden , in thethirteenth century, the labourers were paid twopfennigs daily; and, according to some frag-ments of mining accounts of Tillot and ChateauLambert, the operative miners received no morethan two pfennigs h

There are two records which have been pre-served to the present time, which show the highvalue of money in France . The first is the or-donnance promulgated by Charlemagne at Frank-fort, in the year 794. In the two precedingyears the harvests had been deficient, a scarcitywas experienced, and prices had risen. Theordonnance was issued to protect the consumersagainst those who always in seasons of scarcityhave been the objects of abuse—the traders incorn, stigmatised by the name of monopolists.The price at which bread was to be sold wasthus the maximum in a period of scarcity ap-proaching to famine. The law was made in ageneral assembly, as it commences thus 3 : “ Sta-tuit piissimus Dominus noster consentiente scmctasinodo, ut nullus homo, sive ecclesiasticus, sivelaicus, nunquam carius vendat annonam, sivetempore ahundantiai, sive cavitates, quam modinmpublicum et novitur statutum, See. Sec.” Theprice fixed was for twenty-four pounds of

1 Florericourt, p. 58.

2 Recueil des Historicns, tome cinquieme, p. 651.