134

ON MEASURES

try are, at the present time, four pence a day ;
or, that the revenue of a particular sovereign,
700 or 800 years ago, was 400,000/. a year,
these statements of nominal value convey
no sort of information respecting the condition
 of the lower classes of people in the
one case, or the resources of the sovereign
in the other. Without further knowledge on
the subject, we should be quite at a loss to say,
whether the labourers in the country mentioned
were starving, or living in greater plenty;
whether the king in question might be considered
 as having a very inadequate revenue, or
whether the sum mentioned was so great as to
be incredible.

“It is quite obvious, that in cases of this
kind, and they are of constant recurrence, the
value of wages, incomes, or commodities, estimated
 in. the precious metals, will be of little
use to us alone. What we want further is
some estimate of a kind which may be denominated
 real value in exchange, implying the
quantity of the necessaries and conveniences of
life, which those wages, incomes, or commodi-