Appendix 1. Va'ue of : money. any part of his land, even to religious ufes, without the confent of the states'. Danegelt was a land-tax of a fhilling a hide, imposed by the states, either for payment of the fums exacted by the Danes, or for putting the kingdom in a posture of defence against these invaders ". THE Saxon pound, as likewise those coined for fome centuries after the conquest, were three times the weight of our present money: There were forty-eight fhillings in the pound, and five pence in a fhilling'; and consequently a Saxon shilling was a fifth larger than ours, and a Saxon penny three times as large*. As to the value of money in those times, compared to the neceffaries of life, there are fome, though not very certain means of computation. A fheep by the laws of Athelstan was estimated at a fhilling; that is, fifteen-pence of our money. The fleece was two-fifths of the value of the whole sheep'; much above its present estimation; of which the reason probably was, that the Saxons, like the antients, were little acquainted with any other cloathing but that made of wool. Silk and cotton were quite unknown: Linen was not much used. An ox was computed at fix times the value of a sheep; a cow at four". If we fuppofe, that the cattle in that age, from the defects of husbandry, were not fo large as they are at present in England, we may compute that money was then near ten times of greater value. A horse was valued at about thirty-fix fhillings of our money, or thirty Saxon Shillings"; a mare a third lefs. A man at three pounds. The board-wages of a child the first year was eight shillings, a cow's pasture in sum mer, and an ox's in winter. William of Malmesbury mentions it as a high price that William Rufus gave fifteen marks for a horse, or about thirty pounds of our present money": Between the years 900 and 1000, Ednoth bought a hide of land for about 118 fhillings'. This was a little more than a shilling an acre, which indeed appears to have been the usual price, as we may learn from other accounts. A palfrey was fold for twelve fhillings about the year 966'. The value of an ox in King Ethelred's time was between feven and eight fhillings; a cow about fix fhillings". Gervas of Tilbury says, that in Henry the firft's time, bread during a day for a hundred men was rated at three fhillings, or a fhilling of that age; for it is thought that foon after the conqueft a pound sterling was divided into twenty fhillings: A fheep was rated at a fhilling, and fo of other things in proportion. In Athelstan's time a ram was valued at a fhilling, or four-pence Saxon. The tenants of Shireburn were obliged, at their choice, to pay either fix-pence or four hens'. About 1232, the abbot of St. Albans, going on a journey, hired feven handfome ftout horfes; and agreed, if any of them died on the road, to pay the owner 30 fhillings a-piece of our present money It is to be remarked, that in all antient times, corn, being a fpecies of manufactory, bore always a higher price, compared to cattle, than it does in our times. The Saxon Chronicle tells us that in the reign of Edward the Confeffor there was the most terrible famine ever known; in fo much that a quarter of wheat rofe to fixty pennies, or about fifteen fhillings of our present b Hift. Rames. p. 415. " Wilkins, p. 126. z Mat. Paris. money. I. Appendix money. Confequently it was as dear as if it now coft fever pounds ten fhillings fterling. This much exceeds the great famine in the end of Queen Elizabeth; when a quarter of wheat was fold for four pounds. Money in this last period was nearly of the fame value as in our time. Thefe enormous famines are: a certain proof of bad husbandry. ON the whole, there are three things to be considered;,. wherever a fum of money is mentioned in antient times. First,, the change of denomination, by which a pound has been reduced to the third part of its antient weight in filver... Secondly, the change in value by the greater plenty of money, which has reduced the fame weight of filver to ten times lefs value, compared to commodities; and confequently a pound sterling to the thirtieth part of the antient value. Thirdly, the fewer people and lefs induftry, which were then to be found in every European kingdom.. This circumftance made even the thirtieth part of the fum more difficult to levy, and caufed any fum to have more than thirty times more weight and influence both abroad and at home, than in our times; in the fame manner that a fum, an hundred thousand pounds for inftance, is at prefent more difficult to levy in a small state, fuch as Bavaria, and can operate greater effects on fuch a small community, than on. England. This laft difference is not eafy to be calculated: But allowing, that England has now above five times more industry, and three times more people than it had at the conquest and for fome reigns after it, we are, upon that fuppofition, to conceive, taking all circumstances together, every fum of money mentioned by historians, as if it were multiplied more than an hundred fold above a fum of the fame denomination at prefent. In the Saxon times, land was divided equally among all the male-children of the deceased, according to the custom of Gavelkind. Entails were fometimes practised in those times. Lands were chiefly of two kinds, bockland, or land held by book or charter, which were regarded as full property, and defcended to the heirs of the poffeffor; and folkland, or the land held by the ceorles and common people, who were removeable at pleafure, and were indeed only tenants during the will of their lords. THE first attempt, which we find in England to separate the ecclefiaftical from the civil jurifdiction, was that law of Edgar, by which all difputes among the clergy were ordered to be carried before the bishop. The pennances were then very fevere; but as a man could buy them off by money, or might substitute others to perform them, they lay very easy upon the rich *. Appendix WITH regard to the manners of the Anglo-Saxons we can Manners, say little, but that they were in general a rude, uncultivated people, ignorant of letters, unfkilled in the mechanical arts, untamed to submission under law and government, addicted to intemperance, riot, and diforder. Their best quality was their military courage, which yet was not fupported by discipline or conduct. Their want of fidelity to the prince, or to any trust reposed in them, appears ftrongly in the history of their latter period; and their want of humanity in all their hiftory. Even the Norman historians, notwithstanding the low ftate of the arts in their own country, speak of them as barbarians, when © LL. Ælf. § 37. apud Wilkins, p. 43. Kk ? Wilkins, p.83. they . |
