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 | |||