Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/407

 at three shillings in the former year, and three shillings seven and one-quarter pence in the latter, while shelled Indian corn commanded two shillings during the whole of this period. The appraisements of grain in contemporaneous inventories disclose, that the prices fixed by the Assembly were not strictly followed, but it should be remembered that such valuations were governed by the present condition of the articles. In 1665, nine bushels of beans, forming a part of the personal property of John Thomas of York, were entered at eighteen shillings, seven bushels of barley at sixteen shillings and three pence, ten bushels of wheat at one pound and ten shillings, three bushels and one peck of oats at six shillings and six pence.

A comparison of the prices of wheat in Virginia in 1666 and 1682, with the prices of the same cereal in England in these years, reveals that there was no great difference between the two countries, the charge for a quarter weight in England in 1666 being twenty-eight shillings and one and one-fourth pence, and in 1682, thirty-four shillings and five and three-fourths pence, that is to say, three and one-half shillings a bushel in one instance, and four and one-fourth in the other. The superiority of these last figures over the four shillings a bushel prescribed by law in Virginia in 1666 and 1682, represent very probably the enhancement in the price of wheat in the Colony when sold without regard to the provisions of the statute. In 1665, barley was disposed of in the mother country at the rate of eighteen shillings a quarter, or two shillings and one-fourth a bushel; in 1682, at nineteen shillings a quarter, or two and three-eighths a bushel. This, as we have seen, was less than the prices