°hap. xix.

IN SPAIN.

85

dfed and fifty-six pounds eighteen shillings andtwo-pence, or at the rate of nearly four hundreda nd seventy per cent.

There is good reason to believe that the prices°f commodities in the other kingdoms of Europe a dvanced at nearly the same rate. This is indeedconcluded from evidence sufficient to satisfy thea uthor, but which it would be difficult to produce111 a concise manner, and would be tedious to anyrea der to investigate with all the necessary calcu-tations. In Spain there are only to be found ins °me of the chronicles notices of prices, the weightsa ttd measures connected with which, includingtheir variations, as well as those of the moneyused, are very great. We have, however, the tes-timony of two Spanish authors of reputed veracity°n this subject, which, though expressed in generalterms, is deserving of notice. Ortiz says, “ TheS r eat quantity of gold and silver which fell intot he power of the King of Castile caused it to fallone-sixth of its former value 1 .”

■Don Sancho Moncada, who published his workMadrid in 1619, after boasting “ de que el oroIf plata eran cosecha de estci nacion,” adds, “ Be-the discovery of the Indies, that was to bebought for a quarto which now costs six reals,an d he who possessed one hundred reals was as^ c h as he who now enjoys five hundred j for with

Compendio de la Historia de Espana, vol. iv. p. 413.