ABSTRACT
Inflation first became a subject of intense public concern, judging from contemporary tracts and pamphlets, between 1548 and 1556. Between 1559 and 1563 both central and local government grappled with control of the labour market, including the imposition of realistic maximum wages, a policy that bore fruit in the Statute of Artificers in 1563. An analysis of prices and wages requires some understanding of the currency, both the nature of the circulating medium and the use of money. The total value of coin in circulation, an essential prerequisite for any full understanding of the inflation or indeed of the economy as a whole, is very difficult to calculate. The correlation between rising bullion imports into Spain and rising European prices is certainly fairly close, although it assumes a rapid outflow of silver from Spain throughout western Europe. Successive governments tried to mitigate the harmful effects of price rises, and even occasionally to halt or reverse the process.
