e price of which was settled, according to the different prices of
corn, from one shilling a quarter to seven shillings and sixpence [x],
money of that age. These great variations are alone a proof of bad
tillage [y]: yet did the prices often rise much higher than any taken
notice of by the statute. The Chronicle of Dunstable tells us, that,
in this reign, wheat was once sold for a mark, nay, for a pound, a
quarter, that is, three pounds of our present money [z]. The same law
affords us a proof of the little communication between the parts of
the kingdom, from the very different prices which the same commodity
bore at the same time. A brewer, says the statute, may sell two
gallons of ale for a penny in cities, and three or four gallons for
the same price in the country. At present, such commodities, by the
great consumption of the people, and the great stocks of the brewers,
are rather cheapest in cities. The Chronicle above mentioned
observes, that wheat one year was sold in many places for eight
shillings a quarter, but never rose in Dunstable above a crown.
[FN [x] Statutes at Large, p. 6. [y] We learn from Cicero's Orations
against Verres, lib. 3, cap. 84, 92, that the price of corn in Sicily
was, during the praetorship of Sacerdos, five Denarii a Modius; during
that of Verres, which immediately succeeded, only two Sesterces; that
is, ten times lower; a presumption, or rather a proof, of the very bad
state of tillage in ancient times. [z] Knyghton, p. 2444.]

Though commerce was still very low, it seems rather to have increased
since the Conquest; at least if we may judge of the increase of money
by the price of corn. The medium between the highest and lowest
prices of wheat, assigned by the statute, is four shillings and three
pence a quarter, that is, twelve shillings and nine pence of our
present money. This is near half of the middling price in our time.
Yet the middling price of cattle, so late as the reign of King
Richard, we find to be above eight, near ten times lower than the
present. Is not this the true inference, from comparing these facts,
that, in all uncivilized nations, cattle, which propagate of
themselves, bear always a lower price than corn, which requires more
art and stock to render it plentiful than those nations are possessed
of? It is to be remarked that Henry's assize of corn was copied from
a preceding assize established by King John; consequently, the prices
which we have here