Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/115

1552.] money should be scarce or plenty the meeting would not venture to say, only it must be pure. 'By the whole consent of the world gold and silver had gotten the estimation above other metals as meetest to make money of, and that estimation could not be altered by one little corner of the world, though it had risen but upon a fantastical opinion, when indeed it was grounded upon reason, according to the gifts that nature had wrought in those metals.'

The meeting concluded, therefore, that if the currency could not honestly be restored, they preferred the least of two evils, and desired that it should be immediately called down to its market valuation.

The opinion of the country had been taken, as the English council recommended, and the result was before them; but either it was conveyed in too abstract a language, or the mint had not yet yielded the full sum which they intended to take from it. They waited for an increase of suffering, and prices continued to rise and rise.

'The measure of corn that was wont to be at two or three shillings,' and when Crofts landed in March, 1551, was 'at six shillings and eightpence,' was sold in March, 1552, for 'thirty shillings.' 'A cow that had been worth six shillings and eightpence sold for forty shillings; six herrings for a groat; a cow-hide for ten or twelve shillings; a tonne of