_Third_—although the number of slaves owned had decreased since Augustan days, the scale of wages was still distinctly affected by slaves being hired out by their owners for day or job work. _Fourth_—the absence of power being applied to manufacture, of the assemblage of men in a common workshop, and of the use of any other machines than the hand loom, or the mill for grinding corn. _Fifth_—for the urban workman in the fourth century (as Mr. Abbott, p. 176, demonstrates), conditions of life must have been almost intolerable. It is indeed hard to understand how he managed to keep body and soul together, when almost all the nutritious articles of food were beyond his reach. “The taste of meat, fish, butter, and eggs must have been almost unknown to him, and even the coarse bread and vegetables on which he lived were probably limited in amount. The peasant proprietor who raised his own cattle and grain would not find the burden so hard.” _Sixth_—the failure within a dozen years of the Emperor’s bold attempt to reduce the cost of living. Lactantius,[730] writing in 313-14, sums up the result of this interference with economic check and countercheck—“for the veriest trifles much blood was shed, and out of fear nothing was offered for sale, and the scarcity grew much worse, until after the death of many persons the law was repealed from necessity.” Sixty years later the Emperor Julian made a similar but smaller attempt to control prices, but the corn speculators of Antioch so entirely worsted him that he had to acknowledge defeat. By the courtesy of the Secretary of the Fishmongers’ Company I was furnished, with some average _wholesale_ prices for 1913, the last year unaffected by the war. The consumer, it must be remembered, is compelled, in general, to pay the retailer one-third per lb. more to defray handling, rent, etc. The following sea fish were sold in London, per lb., as follows: Cod for 4, Turbot for 9½, Mullet (_Mugil capito_) for 11, Sole for 17 pence. In the Edict the price of fresh sea fish is lumped at from 4½ to 7 pence, so we have no datum for comparison of individual prices. In the case of the _Mugil capito_, however, we are enabled to contrast its price, _i.e._ 11 pence, with that in Egypt, _c._ 1200 B.C., _i.e._ 9/20 of a penny.[731] A comparison with America in 1906 shows that the average price of fresh sea fish was from 4_d._ to 7_d._ per lb., or practically the same as in Diocletian’s time, while that of river fish—fresh—per lb. was 6 to 7½ as against 3¾ pence in the Edict.[732] Salt fish, per lb. in 301 A.D. cost 4¼_d._, in U.S.A. 4_d._ to 7½_d._ Oysters (by the 100), 1_s._ 10_d._, (in London) 4/-to 14/-. The figures show that prices of other commodities in the Edict vary extremely, but for sea fish are not far apart.