Maximum Mean Price of
of the each in English
Sextarius in Money.
Roman Money.
£. s. d.
Honey, the best 40 Den. 0 15 0
Do. second quality 20 0 7 6
Oil, the best quality 40 0 15 0
Do. the second quality 24 0 9 1
Vinegar 6 0 3 3
A stimulant to excite the appetite, made
of the essence of fish 6 0 2 3
Dried cheese, the Roman pound 12 0 3 4 Fr. lb.
We are much surprised at the very high prices in this table. Labour and
provisions cost ten and twenty times as much as with us. But when we
come to compare the price of provisions with the price of labour the
dearness of all the necessaries of life appears still more excessive.
M. Moreau de Jonnes makes this comparison. He brings together from the
edicts of Diocletian a great many facts given by historians, and he
shows, that, if the abundance of the precious metals has any influence
on raising the prices, the want of labour, industry, and of produce,
must cause it also.
These considerations point out in the strongest manner the poverty of
this royal people, of whom two-thirds, if not three-fourths, were
reduced to live on fish and cheese, and drink piquette, when the expense
of the table of Vitellius amounted, in a single year, to 175 millions of
Francs.--_Brewster's Journal of Science._
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