Currency fallacies refuted, and paper money ... - University Library

PAPER MONEY VINDICATED. 29which is now coined into SSs. Sd., would purchaseon the average a quarter of wheat. From1339 to 1451, the price of a quarter was21^. 3d. of our present money. From 1453 to1560, it took only 10^. of the same money tobuy a quarter of wheat. During the wholeperiod, money had become so enhanctd invalue, that one shilling was worth in the lasthundred years as much as three had been in thefirst hundred years, and as two in the middleperiod : so that in the course of a century, hewho contracted at the beginning to pay a certainsum then called 100/., had to pay at theend, what was still called 100/. though it wasreally worth 200/. From 1561 to 1700, the valueof silver decreased in comparison with corn,being on the average ofthat whole period exchangeablein the proportion of 45*. againstthe quarter of wheat, by which thereceivers offixed income were injured, being paid not quite25/. in the name of 100/.Under the direction of a committee for thesupervision of the coin, the pound in gold orsilver will always represent, or be exchangeablefor, an equal quantity of wheat, taking the averageof a number of years.Let it be supposed,then, that 31^. or 356. or 40^*. is the truemeasure of value for a quarter of wheat in England; as there is no doubt that this sum representsthe natural value of wheat, it is just andnecessary as a measure of value between differ-