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Show ~74 OF THE 'VAGES OF LABOUR. [ CH. IV. in 1350 to the end of the 15th century, a period of 150 years, successive changes had been taking place in the quantity of n1etal contained in the satne non1inal stun; so that the pound of silver, which in the tniddle of the reign of Edward III. \vas coined into Il. Qs. 6d. \Vas, in the reign of flen. VII., coined into ll. 17 s. 6d. One should naturally have expected, that this depreciation of the coin would have she,vn itself first, and n1ost conspicuously, j n son1e ex portable con11nodity, such as corn, rather than labour; and so it . probably would, as it dicl' after\vards in the reign of Elizabeth, if wheat had not at the sarne time been cheap in the rest of Europe, particularly in France. In fact, ho'\vever, this great fall in the intrinsic value of the coin vvas in no respect made up by the slight rise of non1inal price which occurred in the course of that period.' 'fhis rise \vas only fro1n about 5s. 4d. to 6s. or 6s. 3d. Consequently a very considerable fall had really taken place in the bullion price of wheat. But the nominal price of labour, instead of rising in the san1e slight degree as wheat, rose fron1 ltd. or 2d. to 4d. or 4td., a rise much more than sufficient to cover the deterioration of the coin; so that the bullion price of~labour rose conside14ably, during the titne that the bullion price of \V heat fell. It is singular, that Adan1 Stnith, in his Digression concerning the value of silver during the four last centuries, should not have noticed this circumstance. If he· had been aware of this rise in the bullion price of labcur, ~is principle~, which Jed SEC. IV.] OF TilE ""AGES OF LABOUR; 275' hi1n to consider corn as a good n1easure of val~e· tnere1y because it is the best n1easure of labour should have led him to a very different conclusion' fron1 that \Vhich he has stated. If \Ve were to take a mean between corn and labour, the value of silver during these 150 years, instead of risino· to clou ble 1 . b \V 1at It was, would appear to have continued nearly stationary. . It \:as during the favourable part of this period that S1r John Fortescue wrote his work on Absolute andLhnitedMonarchy, and contrasted the prosperous and happy condition of the peasantry of Eno·land with the n1iserable state of the peasantry of F1~nce. 13ut it is not sufficient to she\v that the condition· of the lower classes of people in England during ~~e last half .of the .15th ~entury, \Vas n1uch supeuor to what It \vas either 111 the precedino· century or su~sequently du_ring the depreciatim/.,of moue; occasioned by the chscovery of the An1erican Inines. T? prove that _it. \Vas peculiar, ''re n1ust con1pare it \\t:Itl: the condition of ~he people after the depreCiation had ceased. . According to Adam Smith, the effects of the discovery of the Anlerican nlines seemed to be at an end about 16 38 _or 40. In 1651 the \Vages of day-Jabour, as e~tabhshed by the justices in Essex at the Chel rnsford quarter-sessions, 'vere for the ~un1mcr ~1alf year, harvest excepted, ls. 2d. This Is a cons1CI~rahle rise in the D1oney price of labour !r~tn the tnne of Elizabeth; hut \Ve shaH find that It Is hardly proportionate to the rise of the price of T~ |