writer will now proceed to give an account of the coins and denominations. taken notice of in bishop Fleetwood's Chronicon pretiosum.

ENGLISH COINS.

Mr. Camden says that the most ancient English coin that he had known was that of Ethelbert king of Kent, in whose time all money accounts began to pass in pounds, shillings, pence, and mancuses, or marks.—(Gold coins.) Gold was not coined in any considerable quantity in England till the reign of Edward the Third. That monarch coined the florin of 6s.; and the noble of 6s. 8d. which, in the fifth of Edward the Fourth, was a coin of 10s. and in the twenty-sixth of Elizabeth 15s.-Henry the Sixth coined angels of 6s. 8d.; which in the first of Henry the Eighth were of 7s. 6d; in the thirtyfourth they were of 8s; and in the sixth of Edward the Sixth they were 10s. There were likewise half-angels.-Henry the Sixth coined rials or royals of 10s; which in the first of Henry the Eighth were 11s. 3d; and in the second of Elizabeth 15s.---James the First coined rose-rials of 11. 10s; and spur-rials of 15s.---Henry the Eighth coined crowns of the double-rose of 5s. Sovereigns of 11. 11s. 6d. He afterwards made them of 11. Edward the Sixth made them of 11. 4s; and afterwards of 11. 10s. Henry the Eighth coined pieces of forty pence.---James the First coined Britain crowns of 5s; and afterwards of 5s. 6d: double-crowns of 10s. and 11s: thistle-crowns of 4s; and 4s. 4d. He likewise coined unites of 11; and afterwards of 11. 115.(Silver coins.) A penny is the first coined piece of silver which we have any account of; and was, for some ages, the only one. It was the fifth part of a Saxon shilling, of which there were forty-eight in a pound. After the conquest it made a twelfth part of the Anglo-Norman shilling, of which there were twenty in a pound.---A pound is not a coin, but a denomination which in accounts answers to twenty shillings, and was originally of the value of a pound of silver. The pound of silver was afterwards, from time to time, coined into a greater number of shillings; till it came, in the forty-third of Elizabeth, to the present number of sixty-two.---A shilling was used as a denomination only till 1504, when it was first coined. ---A mark, or mancuse, is supposed to have been a coin among the Saxons of

of the value of 6s. It afterwards became a denomination of 13s. 4d.---An angel of silver is a denomination of 10s.---A noble is a denomination of 6s. 8d.---The silver crown was first coined by Edward the Sixth.---Groats were equal to 4d.---The tester is said by Spelman to have been originally a French coin of the value of 1s. 6d. In Edward the Sixth's time it passed in England for 9d: and lastly for 6d.---There was likewise a piece of three pence first coined by Elizabeth.---In order to remove the inconvenience arising from the smallness of the silver penny, and its divisions, copper money was first coined by cities and private persons, to whom a licence was granted. In 1609 it was coined by government: and in 1672 the private money was suppressed by proclamation.

One circumstance has occasioned embarrassment to dealers, and perplexity in reading authors who speak of the price of things in different ages; which is the various weight of coins of the same denomination at different periods. A pound, troy weight, of silver, which at the latter end of the eleventh century was coined into as many pennies as were worth twenty shillings only, was from time to time coined into a greater number, as was before represented. To remove the difficulty arising from this diminution of the shilling and penny, doctor Fleetwood has given a table to shew the number of shillings which a troy pound of twelve ounces has at different times contained, from the reign of Edward the First, who regulated the coin by a standard, to the present time, together with the portion of alloy used. The writer has availed himself of this, and also of Mr. Anderson's calculation of the number of grains of pure silver which the shilling has at each alteration contained, and has prefixed them to the short account here given of the price of things during the successive centuries. By this arrangement the reader, who has not an opportunity or leisure to refer to the works from which the extracts are made, is enabled to gratify his curiosity with regard to these matters without being so liable to be deceived. If, for example, he finds that an article cost one shilling in the twenty-sixth of Edward the First, or any preceding year, and three shillings in the sixth of Edward the Sixth, he will know that in fact it cost the same quantity of silver; because the shilling at the first period contained two hundred and sixty-four grains, and only eighty-eight in the last. The reader being made acquainted with the principal English coins and denominations,

d Twelve ounces.

denominations, it becomes an object of rational curiosity, to know what Mr. Adam Smith calls the value in exchange of money, or the effect of it in the purchase of labour and subsistence. The writer has, therefore, given the prices of labour and of the chief articles of subsistence at different periods; and has brought together such information respecting the manners and other circumstances of different ages as may afford a slight outline of the progress of society.

AGES PRECEDING THE CONQUEST.

Five Saxon pence were a shilling: and forty-eight shillings made a pound in weight and denomination.

(Corn.) In 1043 a horse load, or quarter, of wheat was sold for the high price of 60 pence, or twelve Saxon shillings, which contained a fourth part of a pound of silver.

(Cattle.)——By a law of Ina king of Wessex, a ewe with her lamb till fourteen days after easter was valued at one shilling Saxon.-In the reign of king Ethelred (about the year 1000) a horse was valued at thirty shillings. An ox at thirty Saxon pence, of which there were five to a shilling.-A sheep, according to Mr. Hume, was valued at five Saxon pence, of which the fleece was worth two. This he attributes to their wearing scarcely any other cloth but woollen.

(Manufactures.)Coarse woollen cloth was at this time made in England. But the manufacture of fine cloth was brought from Flanders in the reign of Edward the Third.

(Land and Agriculture.)—Mr. Hume cites a passage from Gale's History of Ramsey Abbey, which says, that between the years 900 and 1000 Ednoth bought a hide of land (about a hundred and twenty acres) for a hundred shillings. This shews not only the scarcity of money but the situation of the country with respect to cultivation and produce. And we shall the more easily reconcile the fact with our ideas of the value of land, if we consider that it is at this time sold for three shillings an acre and in some instances for two in the new American settlements: where the means of improvement are greater, and the market for its produce more certain. (Manners

e Fleetwood. 51.

(Manners and the Arts.)-Ignorance of what are now deemed the comforts of life is strongly exemplified in a passage of Camden. William de Ailesbury held certain lands of William the Conqueror, upon the tenure of finding litter for the king's bedchamber; and also sweet herbs for the same. ---This usage was continued long after the conquest. And it is to this ancient English luxury of sweet herbs with clean straw, possibly, to which Shakespeare alludes, when, in the person of Henry the Fourth, he speaks of "the perfumed chambers of the great.' "[

THE TWELFTH CENTURY.

The pound by denomination continues to be a pound of silver; but instead of forty-eight shillings of 5 pence, it is divided into twenty shillings of 12

pence?

(Corn.)—In 1125 a quarter of wheat was sold for 6s.—In 1196 a sema or quarter of wheat, according to Fleetwood, was sold for 13s. 4d. And such was the scarcity of the ensuing year that the price rose to 18s. 8d; equal in weight to fifty-six shillings of our money. And the "value of it " in exchange" was equal to five times that sum; as fifty-six shillings would then buy five times the quantity of the necessaries of life.

-In

(Cattle.)—In 1184 thirty-three cows and two bulls cost 81. 7s.—five hundred sheep 22l. 10s.---sixty-six oxen 181. 3s.---fifteen breeding mares 21. 12s. 6d.-twenty-two hogs 11. 2s.-eleven heifers 21. 14s. 1198 Hugh de Bosco, sheriff of Hants, stocked the lands of Mienes with twelve oxen at three shillings an ox; and an hundred sheep at fourpence," or about 1s. 1d. of our money.

(Wine.)In 1199 king John ordered that a ton of Poitou wine should be sold for no more than 1.-A tun of Anjou wine for 11. 4s. And that no French wine should be sold for more than 11. 5s.i

(Pensions.)Henry the Second paid pensions to his servants, worn out with age, of one penny and one penny halfpenny per day.—And Henry the Third ordered the sheriff of Essex to pay his porter two-pence a day till the king should otherwise provide for him.*

THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.

The pound of silver continues, as before, to be divided into twenty shillings; each of which weighed about 3 times as much as the present.

(Corn and Agriculture.)In 1270 there was so great a famine in England that, according to Fleetwood, wheat was sold for 41. 16s. a quarter. And in 1287 so great was the plenty that it sold for 1s. 6d. This almost incredible variation in the price is ascribed to the want of skill and industry in the farmers of this age: to which we may add their straitened incomes; which obliged them to sell the produce of each year before the ensuing harvest. This evil is removed by the prosperous circumstances of the English farmers in the eighteenth century; which enable them to reserve the superfluity of one year to supply the deficiency of another; thus, uniting their own with the general good, they effect the purpose of public granaries without the expence and inconvenience attending them.-Could the advantages of affluence and skill be obtained without the disadvantages arising from the abolition of farms of moderate extent and an unbounded accumulation of land in the hands of a few persons, could estates be so apportioned that no farm should be so small as to disable the occupier from cultivating his land to advantage, nor só large as to render him indèpendent of an uniform attention to its cultivation and improvement, the greatest possible benefit would accrue to the community.

The average price of wheat this century was 15s. 5d.

(Wine.) It appears from Blount's Ancient Tenures of Land, that a person held a manor of Edward the First on the tenure of annually supplying him with two vessels, called mues, of wine made of pearmains. This enables us to account for the number of places, in different parts of the kingdom, called vineyards, without supposing that grapes were produced in all of them. In king Stephen's household a provision was made for a vine dresser; which renders it probable that wine was produced in a greater or less quantity.

(Cattle, &c.)- -In 1298 the price of an ox at Scarborough was 6s. 8d. Of a cow 5S. Of a heifer 2s. Of a sheep 1s.-In 1299 the price of various

1 Anderson. 1. 207.