In p. 385. Mr. Archibald Fraser, Woodford, not choosing to exonerate Mr. Fennell by either of my suggestions, prefers, as a staunch, but I think rather an inconsiderate friend and champion, to vindicate the paragraph as it stands, by candidly admitting that if the word beach had been used, it would certainly have referred to the sea; but that the word shore applies to rivers as well as seas. And he goes back as far as Spenser to find an instance of its use, as applied to the banks of the river Nile.
I will not agree that this use is nearly obsolete, but give him the full value of his quotation from Spenser. But what does he say to the habitat of the Mytilus modiolus, which the Mousehunt goes
to the shore to feed upon. I quote from Rees' Cyclopædia, voce "Mytilus:"
"Modiolus. Shell smooth and blackish, obtuse at the smaller end, and rounded at the other; one side near the beaks is angular. Two varieties are noticed by Lister. It inhabits the European, American, and Indian seas, adhering to fuci and zoophytes; is six or seven inches long, and about half as broad: the fish is red or orange, and eatable."
J. S.s.
Value of Money in the Seventeenth Century (Vol. ix. p. 375.).—Say, in his Political Economy (Prinsep's translation, i. 413.), has furnished a comparative statement, the result of which is, that the setier of wheat, whose relative value to other commodities has varied little from 1520 down to the present time, has undergone great fluctuations, being worth—
| A. D. 1520 | 512 | gr. of pure silver. |
| A. D. 1536 | 1063 | ditto. |
| A. D. 1602 | 2060 | ditto. |
| A. D. 1789 | 2012 | ditto. |
Whence it may be inferred that 1000l. in 1640, 1660, and 1680 did not vary much from its value at the present time, such value being measured in silver. But as the value of all commodities resolves itself ultimately into the cost of labour, the rate of wages at these dates, in the particular country or part of a country, must be taken as the only safe criterion.
Thus, if labour were 20d. per diem in 1640, and is 40d. at this time, 1000l. in 1640 is equivalent to 500l. (only half as much) now. But, on the contrary, as the cost of production of numerous articles by machinery, &c. has been by so much reduced, the power of purchase now, as compared with 1640, of 1000l., is by so much increased. The article itself must determine by how much. The question put by C. H. is too general to admit of a positive solution; but should he specify the commodity and place of investment in the seventeenth century and to-day of the 1000l., our statistics might still be at fault, and deny us even a proximate determination of his inquiry. Even his 1000l., which he may consider a fixed measure of value, or punctum comparationis, is varying in value (=power of purchase) daily, even hourly, as regards almost every exchangeable product. Tooke On Prices is a first-rate authority on this subject.
T. J. Buckton.