320
VALUE OF MONEY.
CHAP. XII.
famine and pestilence, “ qui avoit fait mourirune infinite de personnes.”
This ordonnance of king John of France, issuedin 1350, fixes the rate at which thrashers in thebarn are to be paid for their labour. Thosewho thrashed by the day were to receive notless than eighteen deniers 1 . The livre, whichin the time of Charlemagne was a pound ofsilver of twelve English ounces, worth sixtyshillings, had been diminished gradually eitherin weight or in purity, and was worth only tenfrancs of the present French money in the reignof John 2 .
The livre was still divided into twenty sols,and they again into twelve deniers. It wastherefore of the value of one hundred pence ofour present money, and the sol was worth five-pence ; and eighteen deniers were equal to a soland half, or sevenpence halfpenny.
If the thrasher worked by the great, he was toreceive twelve sols or sixty pence for each muidof wheat, and eight sols or forty pence for eachmuid of barley or oats. The muid was a mea-sure containing twelve setiers, and each setierwas a fraction more than four bushels and a half: