CHAP. xir.

PRICES OF CORN.

341

Hence, though registers of the prices of wheatare to be found in ancient records, those of ryeand barley are but rarely noticed. The cir-cumstance of that kind of corn being least no-ticed which was the most used gives a degreeof uncertainty to all calculations founded on theprices of corn alone.

There is also reason to believe that when thepopulation of this country was very much lessdense than it is at present, there were much morenumerous herds of black cattle, perhaps of sheep,but certainly of swine, in proportion to the numberof inhabitants, than there have been in succeedingages. The value of meat as compared with thatof grain must then have been lower, and pro-bably contributed, especially in those seasons,which frequently returned formerly, when ascarcity of corn occurred, more to the subsist-ence of the lower classes than the several de-scriptions of the cereales.

It may be inferred that cattle of both kindswere more abundant than at present, becausealmost the only articles that were exported werethe skins and the wool, and these were morethan sufficient to pay for five times as much wineand all other commodities as our ancestors drewfrom foreign countries; and all the writers ofthe time agree that the balance was dischargedin the precious metals, by which England wasenabled to pay the heavy exactions of the papal