The Kosciusko star. (Kosciusko, Miss.) 18??-1898, 1895-05-10


til they found that some others
who had been hired later in the
day, were also receiving a penny
We need not concern ourselve.
with the sequel, since the only
point important to our purpose /;
that the rate of wages at this aff1u
ent period was one penny per day
The penny in 1855 was not the
same thing as a penny now. The
penny was originally the 24otf
part of pound weight of silver,
but monarchs had the habit of cut
ting pieces off the pound of silver
and coming the remainder into 24C
pennies, putting the difference into
their own pockets. In this way
the value of the penny was CON
stantly declining till the reign OF
Elizabeth. In 1855 the weight of
the silver penny was twice as great
as it was in the time of Adam
Smith, fact carefully suppressed
by "Coin."
The other three falsities may be
disposed of in short order. The
price of wheat quoted at the end
of Book | of Smiths "Wealth of
Nations are not given on his own
authority. They are quoted as
those of Fleetwood, and we are
cautioned by Adam Smith, for va
rlous reasons, not to attach too
much Importance to them. Thus
referring to previous writer's who
had tables as basis, he says:
"Thirdly, they seem to have
been misled, too, by the very low
price at which wheat was some
times sold in very ancient times,
and to have imagined, that as its
own lowest price was then much
lower than in latter times, its ordi-
nary price must likewise have been
much lower. They might have
found, however, that in those an
cient times its highest price was
below anything that had ever been
known in later times. Thus in 1910
Fleetwood gives us to prices Of the
quarter of wheat. The one is a
pounds IS shillings of the money
Of those times, equal to IA pounds
s shillings of that of the present;
the other is 6 pounds s shillings,
equal to 10 pounds 4 shillings of
our present money. No price can
be found in the end of the fifteenth
or beginning of the sixteenth cen
fury, which approaches to the ex-
travagance of these.
'|The price of corn, though at
all times liable to variation, varies
most in those turbulent and disor-
derby societies, in which the inter
probation Of all commerce and com
binders the plenty of
one part of the country from reliev-
ing the scarcity of another. In the
disorderly state Of England under
the Plantagenets, who governed it
from about the middle of the Twelfth
till towards the end Of the fifteenth
century, one district might be in
plenty, while another at no great
distance, by having its crops de
strOyed either by some accident OF
the seasons, or by the excursion
of some neighboring baron, might
be suffering all the horrors OF a
famine; and yet if the lands of
some hostile lord were interposed
between them, the one might not
be able to give the least assistance
to the other. Under the vigorous
administration OF the Tudors, who
governed England during the lat
ter part Of the fifteenth, and
through the whole Of the sixteenth
century, no baron was powerful
enough to dare to disturb the pub
lie security"
Finally, Fleetwood's tables give
the prices Of wheat IN 1853 at IS.
I'D and in 1857 at Is. Sd. per quar-
ter, the intermediate year 1855 be
ing IS. cd. per quarter, all being
the money of that period, not of
Adam Smiths period.
Coin" wants to make it appear
that the price of wheat in one par
tlcular year, IS45, was due to the
shortage Of money at that time.
Let us apply that method of reas-
onlng to another case. 1t is with
in the recollection of many persons
now living in Illinois and Iowa that
the corn crop of some years before
1860 would not pay the cost of
Il Al