Page:Malthus 1823 The Measure of Value.djvu/86

 In 1812, the bullion price of labour as above stated was 16½d.; it has since fallen to I3^d., or in the proportion of from 100 to 81.8—rather more than 1 8 per cent. This view of it shows most clearly the change in the bullion value of the currency since 1812. But if we wish to estimate the whole fall which has taken place in the currency, and then subtract what is due to the. difference between paper and gold, it will appear that the whole fall since 1812, estimated on the currency wages of 1812, has been rather less than39 per cent.; of which, if the average difference between paper and gold in the year 1812 was as 101 to 78, about 23 per cent, would belong to the paper, leaving about 16 per cent, for the fall in the currency independently of the excess of paper prices above gold prices. The apparent difference in the results of these estimates arises merely from the per centage in the latter case being taken on a higher number.

I stated before, that I was not aware of any data on which reliance could be placed respecting the amount of the fall of agricultural wages in England since the termination of the war; but on the supposition that the wages, which in 1810 and 1811 were 14s. 6d. per week, had fallen to 10^. then as the bullion wages of 1810 and 1811 were a little above 12s., the