ABSTRACT
The salient features of the data are the relative stability of prices for 2000 years from the time of Alexander Hamilton the Great to the discovery of America and the rapid increase thereafter. The experiences of most of the present generation are limited to the twentieth century. With the discovery of gold in South Africa and the cyanide process, gold production increased very rapidly and wheat prices almost doubled from 1896 to 1914. The rise in commodity prices was ascribed to ostentation and luxury, idleness of women, foreigners, regraters, tariffs, enclosures, reduced production, and high pasture rents. The long period of declining prices before the discovery of America resulted in low interest rates. These continued for a time, but the long period of rising prices resulted in high interest rates. Rising prices had much to do with the emancipation of the tenant farmers in England.
