Page:An answer to a pamphlet, intitled, "Thoughts on the causes and consequences of the present high price of provisions" in a letter, addressed to the supposed author of that pamphlet.djvu/18

( 16 ) You tell us from Lord Lyttelton, though you have not thought proper to quote your authority, that fifteen shillings at present are of no more value than one shilling was in the reign of king Henry II. But if fifteen shillings can be now earned with as much ease as one shilling was in that prince's reign, this alteration in the value of money makes not the least difference to the people: it only gives them a little more trouble in counting out fifteen pieces of white metal instead of one. I entirely agree with you, Sir, in thinking, that all the complaints against forestallers, regraters, monopolizers, and engrossers, are, in a great measure, groundless; and that whatever effect the arts of those men may have had in raising the price of Provisions, they could have had little or none at all, had it not been for the great increase of our national debt, and, of consequence, the increase of our ideal money, or paper-credit.

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