ls]

Metals were dearer in the sixteenth century than they are now. Iron
cost $60 a ton in 1580 against $22 a ton in 1913. Lead fetched $42 the
ton and tin $15 the cwt. The ratio of gold to silver was about 1 to
11. The only fuel much used was wood, which was fairly cheap but of
course not nearly as efficient as our coal.

[Sidenote: Interest]

Interest, as the price of money, varied then as it does now in inverse
ratio to the security offered by the debtor, and on the whole within
much the same range that it does now. The best security was believed
to be that of the German Free Cities, governed as they were by the
commercial class that appreciated the virtue of prompt and honest
payment. Accordingly, we find that they had no trouble in borrowing at
5 per cent., their bonds taking the form of perpetual annuities, like
the English consols. So eagerly were these investments sought that
they were apportioned on petition as special favors to the creditors.
The cities of Paris and London also enjoyed high credit. The national
governments had to pay far higher, owing to their poverty and
dishonesty. Francis I borrowed at 10 per cent.; Charles V paid higher
in the market of Antwerp, the extreme instance being that of 50 per
cent. per annum. In 1550 he regularly paid 20 per cent., a ruinous
rate that foreshadowed his bankruptcy and was partly caused by its
forecast. Until the recent war we were accustomed to think of the
great nations borrowing at 2-4 per cent., but during the war the rate
immensely rose. Anglo-French bonds, backed by the joint and several
credit of the two nations, sold on the New York Stock Exchange in 1918
at a price that would yield the investor more than 12 per cent., and
City of Paris bonds at a rate of more than 16 per cent.

{468} Commercial paper, or loans advanced by banks to merchants on good
security, of course varied. The lowest was reached at Genoa where from
time to time merchants secured accommodation at 3 per cent. The
average in Germany was 6 per cent. and this was made the legal rate by
Brandenburg in 1565. But usurers, able to take advantage of the
necessities of poor debtors, habitually exacted more, as they do now,
and loans on small mortgages or on pawned articles often ran at 30 per
cent. On the whole, the rate of interest fell slightly during the
century.

[Sidenote: Real estate]

The price of real estate is more difficult to compare than almost
anything, owing t