76

ADVANCE OF PRICES

CHAP. XIX.

the proper standard by the respective rates of theseveral periods. If the price of six shillings andeight-pence for wheat in 1554 was deemed a fairstandard for both consumers and producers, itmay be inferred that fifty years later the price oftwenty-six shillings and eight-pence, in 1604, wasan equally fair standard 1 .

It is a subject of regret that the Oxford pricesof corn, for which the public is indebted to Mr.Lloyd, present a blank from the year 1328 to theyear 1583 ; we are not, therefore, able to makefrom them a contrast between the two periodswhich it is desirable to compare. The averageprice of wheat, by Mr. Lloyd’s tables, for the tenyears from 1583 to 1592, appears to have beentwenty shillings and nine-pence ; of the ten yearsfrom 1593 to 1602, thirty-three shillings andthree-pence; and from 1603 to 1612, thirty-oneshillings and four-pence. It has been beforeshown, from the Chronicum Preciosum, that theaverage price in the twelve years, from 1551 to1562, in which there was no variation, was eightshillings and ten-pence. The parliamentary rate

1 These advances in the legal price to which wheat mustrise before it was exportable were continued by acts of par-liament, thus:

1623 by 21st James I. , cap. 28, at

1627 by 3rd Charles I. , cap. 4. the same rate

1656 by Cromwell ordinances, cap. 5

1663 by 15th Charles II. , cap. 7

1688 by 1st William and Mary , cap. 2

with a bounty of 5s. when at or under

. 32s.continued.

. 40s.. 48s.. 48s.. 48s.