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greatly beyond my eſtimation of it, and greatly beyond the truth. I muſt, however, obſerve that the breed of cattle is conſiderably enlarged, and, probably, a fat ox, formerly, might not have half the quantity of meat, as a common ox now has. But even this reduction will not be ſufficiently low for my eſtimate, though it may, in ſome degree, render it probable, when we advert that meat has been advanced in price, in a greater proportion than any other article.
If any circumſtance could tend to bring this ſubject to a demonſtration, it would be the price of labour, which, we may naturally ſuppoſe, muſt have been at all times ſufficient for the daily ſupport of the labourer. But as labourers for hire were unknown at the time of the ſurvey; we muſt advance ſomewhat forward in the Engliſh Hiſtory, before we can make any diſcovery of that nature. The earlieſt authentick account, that I have been able to meet with, of the ſettled price of labour, is to be ſeen in Fleetwood's Chronicon precioſum, p. 129; where, in the year 1351, the daily pay of a labourer appears to have been legally fixed at one penny and a halfpenny, or nine pence by the week, which, regulated by our preſent ſtandard, would be one ſhiilling and ten pence. Now, I think a fair concluſion may be made, that in the ſpace of near 300 years, the
