that, during the reign of that prince (towards
the middle of the fourteenth century, or about
1339), what was reckoned the moderate and
reasonable price of the tod, or twenty-eight
pounds of English wool, was not less than ten
shillings of the money of those times[25], containing,
at the rate of twenty-pence the ounce,
six ounces of silver, Tower weight, equal to
about thirty shillings of our present money.
In the present times, one-and-twenty shillings
the tod may be reckoned a good price for very
good English wool. The money price of wool,
therefore, in the time of Edward III. was to
its money price in the present times as ten to
seven. The superiority of its real price was
still greater. At the rate of six shillings and
eightpence the quarter, ten shillings was in
those ancient times the price of twelve bushels
of wheat. At the rate of twenty-eight shillings
the quarter, one-and-twenty shillings is
in the present times the price of six bushels
only. The proportion between the real price
of ancient and modern times, therefore, is as
twelve to six, or as two to one. In those ancient
times, a tod of wool would have purchased
twice the quantity of subsistence which
it will purchase at present, and consequently
twice the quantity of labour, if the real recompence
of labour had been the same in both
periods.
This degradation, both in the real and nominal
value of wool, could never have happened
in consequence of the natural course of
things. It has accordingly been the effect of
violence and artifice. First, of the absolute
prohibition of exporting wool from England:
secondly, of the permission of importing it
from Spain, duty free: thirdly, of the prohibition
of exporting it from Ireland to any
other country but England. In consequence
of these regulations, the market for English
wool, instead of being somewhat extended, in
consequence of the improvement of England,
has been confined to the home market, where
the wool of several other countries is allowed
to come into competition with it, and where
that of Ireland is forced into competition with
it. As the woollen manufactures, too, of
Ireland, are fully as much discouraged as is
consistent with justice and fair dealing, the
Irish can work up but a smaller part of their
own wool at home, and are therefore obliged
to send a greater proportion of it to Great
Britain, the only market they are allowed.
I have not been able to find any such authentic
records concerning the price of raw
hides in ancient times. Wool was commonly
paid as a subsidy to the king, and its valuation
in that subsidy ascertains, at least in some
degree, what was its ordinary price. But this
seems not to have been the case with raw hides.
Fleetwood, however, from an account in 1425,
between the prior of Burcester Oxford and
one of his canons, gives us their price, at least
as it was stated upon that particular ocassion,
viz. five ox hides at twelve shillings; five cow
hides at seven shillings and threepence; thirty-six
sheep skins of two years old at nine shillings;
sixteen calf skins at two shillings. In
1425, twelve shillings contained about the
same quantity of silver as four-and-twenty
shillings of our present money. An ox hide,
therefore, was in this account valued at the
same quantity of silver as 4s. 4⁄5ths of our present
money. Its nominal price was a good
deal lower than at present. But at the rate
of six shillings and eightpence the quarter,
twelve shillings would in those times have
purchased fourteen bushels and four-fifths of
a bushel of wheat, which, at three and sixpence
the bushel, would in the present times
cost 51s. 4d. An ox hide, therefore, would
in those times have purchased as much corn
as ten shillings and threepence would purchase
at present. Its real value was equal to
ten shillings and threepence of our present
money. In those ancient times, when the
cattle were half starved during the greater
part of the winter, we cannot suppose that
they were of a very large size. An ox hide
which weighs four stone of sixteen pounds of
avoirdupois, is not in the present times reckoned
a bad one; and in those ancient times
would probably have been reckoned a very
good one. But at half-a-crown the stone,
which at this moment (February 1773) I understand
to be the common price, such a hide
would at present cost only ten shillings.—Though
its nominal price, therefore, is higher
in the present than it was in those ancient
times, its real price, the real quantity of subsistence
which it will purchase or command, is
rather somewhat lower. The price of cow
hides, as stated in the above account, is nearly
in the common proportion to that of ox hides.
That of sheep skins is a good deal above it.
They had probably been sold with the wool.
That of calves skins, on the contrary, is greatly
below it. In countries where the price of
cattle is very low, the calves, which are not
intended to be reared in order to keep up the
stock, are generally killed very young, as was
the case in Scotland twenty or thirty years
ago. It saves the milk, which their price
would not pay for. Their skins, therefore,
are commonly good for little.
The price of raw hides is a good deal lower
at present than it was a few years ago;
owing probably to the taking off the duty upon
seal skins, and to the allowing, for a limited
time, the importation of raw hides from
Ireland, and from the plantations, duty free,
which was done in 1769. Take the whole of
the present century at an average, their real
price has probably been somewhat higher than
it was in those ancient times. The nature of
the commodity renders it not quite so proper