218

COMPARISON OF PRICES

CHAP. XXIV.

1616 and ending with 1645, the second in 1716and ending in 1745. The average of the firstthirty years 1 was eleven livres five sols ; that of thesecond, seventeen livres eleven sols, six deniers forthe setier of Paris , thus showing an advance at therate of somewhat more than fifty per cent, in thecentury. In the same two periods the price ofoats varied much more, being in the first thirtyyears six livres ten sols, and in the latter twelvelivres eight sols, or near one hundred per cent.

The wheat-market of Dantzic is regulated moreby the variations of fertility in the whole of Europe than that of any other place. Its prices dependmore on the harvests of distant countries than onthose from whence its supplies are drawn. It mayexhibit a better scale of fertility in a series ofyears, but a less satisfactory one of the value ofgold and silver. Without giving importance tothe statement, it would scarcely be proper whollyto omit the notice of the advance in price at thatgreat market. We have no correct list of pricesat an earlier period than the year 1700. Theaverage price from that year to 1725 was onehundred and thirty-five florins for the last of tenquarters. In the last twenty-five years of thatcentury, from 1775 to 1800, the average price wasthree hundred and thirty-seven florins for the

1 Essai sur les Monnoies et sur le Rapport entre l’Argentet les Denrees, page 181.