ABSTRACT
2 If you were told, gentlemen, that in Rome at the time of the Caesars, a lady who wanted to buy a silk dress was obliged to pay a price of four ounces of gold, you could conclude that in Rome gold was not worth as much as for us, since by giving such a great quantity for a single dress and for the same price, a lady in France would nowadays obtain a dozen similar dresses. You would be mistaken. Gold was then worth much more than at present. With an ounce of gold one can now buy far fewer things than before; but silk fabrics have on their side so decreased that gold, however deteriorated its value, can buy many more silk fabrics than in ancient Rome. This is what we discover when we compare one or the other of these values with that of a commodity such as wheat, whose value, as we have every reason to believe, has varied little.
