=58. Attempts to regulate prices. The assize of bread.=—The town government went even so far as to set the prices at which wares must be sold. We are familiar, nowadays, with instances of the regulation of prices by public authority, as in the case of hack fares. Such instances, however, are now exceptional, while in the Middle Ages innumerable attempts at public regulation, covering practically all wares, were made at different times and places. Most of them were soon given up, because they defeated their own object; when the price was set too low the ware was no longer offered, and people suffered more by going without than by paying the higher price. Thus it was found unwise to set a price for a necessary like wheat; and high wheat prices were allowed to work their own cure by the inducement they offered to an increase in supply. It was as hopeless to set a fixed price for bread, but the government determined that at least the baker should not make improper profits from the necessities of his customers. It established, therefore, the “assize of bread,” a sliding-scale which fixed the weight or the price of a loaf according to the market price of wheat, and so restricted the power of the baker to raise his charges unduly. The same system was applied to ale, and assizes of this kind have lasted down to the nineteenth century in some countries. QUESTIONS AND TOPICS 1. Show what would happen to our modern cities if there were an interruption of commerce, either physical (perhaps the giving out of coal) or political (wars, strikes attended with violence, etc.). 2. Study the effect on a modern city of such a brief interruption as a great blizzard. 3. Find the reasons for the rise and growth of the following: London, York, Paris, St. Omer, Lille, St. Denis, Lyons, Bruges, St. Cloud. [Use a geography and the encyclopedia.] 4. Starting from the statements in the text, that in a manor of 100 inhabitants the only specialists were perhaps miller and smith, try to think of specialists who would appear as the group grew in size to 1,000; to 10,000; to 100,000; to 1,000,000. For example, when would the following appear: watch-maker, artificial limb-maker, shoe-maker, saddler? [The business directory of a city may supply helpful suggestions.] 5. How has the growth of cities in the U. S. affected the agriculture of the surrounding districts and the welfare of the farmers? 6. Compare the size of medieval towns with that of towns and villages familiar to you, and try to realize the conditions if all the larger cities were swept off the map. [See Abstract of the Census of U. S. giving the population of all places having 2,500 or more inhabitants, arranged by States.]