s instability in prices, due to the poor
communications and backward methods of agriculture, making years of
plenty alternate with years of hunger. In the case of Wittenberg, the
lower level was nearer the normal, for in 1527 wheat was there sold at
twenty cents a bushel. In other parts of Germany it was dearer; at
Strassburg from 1526-50 it averaged 30 cents a bushel; from 1551-75 it
went up to an average of 58 cents, and from 1576-1600 the average again
rose to 80 cents a bushel.

Prices also rose in England throughout the century even in terms of
silver. Of course part of the rise in the middle years was due to the
debasement of the coinage. Reduced to bushels and dollars, the
following table shows the tendency of prices:

1530 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 cents a bushel
1537 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 cents
{465}
1544 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 cents
1546 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 cents
1547 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 cents
1548 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 cents
1549 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 cents
1550 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 cents
1572 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 cents
1595 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1.14

Wheat in France averaged 23 cents a bushel prior to 1540, after which
it rose markedly in price, touching $1.50 in 1600, under exceptional
conditions. In order to compare with prices nowadays we must remember
that $1 a bushel was a remarkably good price before the late war,
during which it was fixed at $2.20 by the American government. Barley
in England rose from 6 cents a bushel in 1530 to 10 cents in 1547 and
33 cents in 1549. It was in 1913 70 cents a bushel. Oats rose from 5
cents a bushel in England in 1530 to 18 cents in 1549; in 1913 38 cents.

[Sidenote: Animals]

Animals sold much lower in the sixteenth century than they do now,
though it must be remembered that they are worth more after several
centuries of careful breeding. Horses then sold at $2.50 in England
and at $4 to $11 in France; the average price in 1913 was $244 for
working animals. Cows were worth $2 in England in 1530; from $4 to
$6.40 in France; oxen apparently came considerably higher, averaging in
England $10 a head in 1547 and in France from $9 to $16 a yoke. At
present they are sold by weight, averaging in 1913 9 cents per lb., or
$90 for one weighing a thousand p