CHAP. XII.

OF MONEY.

319

wheaten bread one denier, for thirty pounds ofrye bread, or forty pounds of barley bread, alsoa denier. The livre of Charlemagne was apound of silver of twelve ounces. It was di-vided into twenty sols, and those into twelvedeniers. The denier was thus equal to three-pence of our present money. The pound of com-merce then contained twenty-four of our ounces,and we thus arrive at the conclusion, that themaximum price for thirty-six pounds of wheatenbread was threepence of our money, or twelvepounds for a penny, or that the legal four poundloaf of this country was then limited to be soldat a price not exceeding a farthing and one-third of that coin. The scarcity of grain maybe inferred from one part of the ordonnance inquestion, by which it appears, that the corn be-longing to Charlemagne himself, which was theproduce of the royal domains that he cultivated,was to be sold at a price one-third below theenacted maximum. It was probably deliveredto the persons immediately about the court, andconsidered as a gratuity to relieve them in aseason of general suffering 1 .

At a subsequent period, another ordonnanceof a king of France is to be found issued at thesame place as that of Charlemagne , but after a

1 Lamare, Traite de Police, tome ii. p. 337; and M. de laBruere, Vie de Charlemagne, tome ii. p. 33.