chap. XX.

INCREASED PRICES.

89

operation as the increased production of mines ina country so remote that even their existence maybe unknown.

It would naturally be imagined, at a time whenmoney was looked upon almost exclusively asWealth , that an addition to it would have beenhailed with joy—that every individual and eachcommunity would have been gladdened at theknowledge that they were becoming more richthan they had before considered themselves. Thevery reverse of this, however, appears to have beenthe case, and complaints of distress were never sofrequent nor so loud as at the period we are nowreferring to.

A valuable work on this subject was publishedin the reign of Elizabeth, in the year 1581, en-titled “A BriefeConceipte touching theCommon-l^eale of this Realme of England.” It is in theform of a dialogue between a knight, a landholderw ho had served in parliament, a husbandman atenant to the knight, a merchant or shopkeeperm a large town, a manufacturer of caps or hats ofthe same place, and a doctor of divinity. Thedialogue is carried on with intelligence, withUrbanity, and with views appropriate to the re-active characters of the speakers. The author,Sa id by Watt to be a William Stafford \ displays

t( * t’he name in the title-page in the black-letter copy is

VV - 8-, Gentleman.” Nothing certain is known of theau thor, but a bookseller in 1751 reprinted the “ Conceipte,”