86
CHAP. XIX.
the abundance of gold and silver its value hasfallen, and the value of whatever has to be boughtwith money has likewise increased 1 .”
In Italy and Germany , from the number ofindependent states in those countries, whose coinwas in a constant state of change, and varied fromthat of its next neighbour, and whose weightsand measures were equally variable and generallylocal, it would lead the reader into a wilderness offigures and calculations, which could not be re-duced to the simplicity that is to be found inEngland and France . In those two countriesweights and measures have altered but little, andthe alterations are easily marked; and the poundsand the livres, though they have diminished inmetallic weight, and consequently in effectivevalue, are capable of having that weight and valueat any particular period ascertained with tolerablecertainty.
1 Restauration de Espana, p. 211. In Gamboa’s “ Com-mentaries on the Mining Laws of Spain/’ (vol. i. p. 102) is tobe found a variety of prices of commodities as fixed by an or-donnance in 1368. We do not quote from them, because theprices are given in maravedies, a money of account, whosevalue is very doubtful at that period.