CHAP, XV.

GOLDSMITHS AND LOMBARDS.

5

case of’ one who wanted beer when it was atthree farthings the quart, or wine when it wastwo-pence the quart, or mutton when it was lessthan a penny the pound. Thus, Holinshed speaking of the poverty of the farmers about theyear 1500, says, “ If one of them did cast downhis purse, and therein a noble, or six shillings insilver (for such men cared not for gold, becauseit was not so ready payment, and they were oftenenforced to give a penny for the exchange of anangel), it was very likely that all the rest couldnot lay down so much against it.” At a timewhen, among a company of farmers, six shillingscould scarcely be found, it cannot be supposedthat the labourers, however employed, who werethe most numerous class, could have occasion forcoin of such value as even the silver pennies ofthat time.

Whatever coined money may have been inexistence in that age, the far greater part of thatcomposed of silver and a still greater proportionof that struck in gold, would rest in the hands ofthe Lombards and the goldsmiths and such otherpersons as had to transact the larger operations ofbuying and selling. The monarchs, too, who bytheir parsimony or their extortion were enabledto amass treasure, would retain a large share ofthe coined or uncoined precious metals; almostthe whole of that retained by the Lombards wouldbe the foreign coin. The goldsmiths would prefer