Thus, in Thuringia, the average price in silver of corn from the sixteenth century until the period 1848-61 increased in the ratio of from 1 to 3-4; the price of the different kinds of animals, on the other hand, from 1 to 5-10. (Knies, in Hildebrand's Jahrbb., 1863, 78.) The price of the different kinds of corn as compared with one another may, however, be modified by many different circumstances. Thus the Capitulare Saxoniæ of 797, c., II, estimated the prices of rye, barley and oats to be to one another as 30:30:15; while the Magdeburg Chamber of 1804 estimated them to be as 17:14:8. In the kingdom of Saxony, in 1841-9, the average prices of wheat, rye, barley and oats stood to one another in the ratio of 144:100:75:47 (Engel); while, in the middle ages, wheat, rye and oats were as 9:6:3 (Gersdorf, Cod. Depl. Sax., II, p. XXXIV); under Prince August, corn, barley and oats were as 24:22:12. Assuming the price of rye to be equal to 100, the cost was:
At Brussels, in the 16th century, wheat 126.7, barley 80, oats 50
At Brussels, in the 17th century, wheat 138.8, barley 82.9, oats 51.9
At Brussels, in the 18th century, wheat 147, barley 86.7, oats 55.2
At Brussels, 1815-1844, wheat 156
At Brussels, 1841-1850, wheat 153, barley 82.7, oats 51
At Berlin, 1789-1818, wheat 135, barley 74.8, oats 54
At Berlin, 1819-1832, wheat 143.5, barley 74.9, oats 52
(Rau, Lehrbuch, I, § 183.) To understand this, it is necessary to bear in mind the relatively great increase of wheat bread, beer made of barley, and horses, as objects of luxury. The unusually low price of oats in North America, as compared with the price of wheat, is dependent on the facility of exporting the latter. In Florence, in the fifteenth century, the price of wheat was 22-⅔, of rye, 12, of barley, 8 soldi. (Pagnini, Sopra il giusto Pregio delle Cose, 325.)
The English so called custom-house prices (Zollhauspreise) correspond to the market prices of 1696. If these are assumed = 100, the price
Of steel and iron was, in 1826, 83, in 1831, 56
Of coal was, in 1826, 47, in 1831, 45
Between 1835 and 1850, Scotch iron had already become cheaper by one-half (Meidinger, 387), and coal in London by one-third (Porter).
Thus, in England, the price:
Of glass was, in 1826, 387; in 1831, 369 per cent.
Of leather was, in 1826, 285; in 1831, 123 per cent.
Of silk goods was, in 1826, 158; in 1831, 249 per cent.
of the price of the same articles in 1796. (Rau.) Of 29 chemical products of the Parisian manufacture, the wages of labor is on an average only 7.4 per cent. of the selling price; and, in some cases, only from 1 to 2 per cent. (Chabrol, Richerches Statistiques sur la Ville de Paris, 1821; Hermann, Staatsw. Untersuch., 137.) In Buschtiehrad, between 1670 and 1870, barley rose from 1 to 4.8; hops to 6.52; fire wood to 6.14; the excise to 6.54; but beer only to 2.81; although wages increased ten fold. (Inama Sternegg, Gesch. der Preise im österreich. Ausstellungsbericht von 1873, 43.)
The British East India Company exported gold and silver on an average per annum from: