Postscript

Abstract

SINCE completing this work in 1968 three things of note have occurred. The first is that the retail price index, which then stood at 48.4 (1975 = 100), stands in January 1982 at 230.4. In fourteen years we have suffered as much inflation as was experienced in the sixteenth century as a whole. The second development of note was that in 1968 the star of ‘monetarism’, in economic theory at least, was then again ascending¹ and it continued to gleam brightly thereafter. Disbelief in its explanatory value made me cautious about accepting monetary explanations of the whole Tudor price rise, however, and this caution has been justified by subsequent events. The third development of note is that a number of works have appeared that shed light on the price and monetary history of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the publishers have kindly permitted me to add this brief note drawing attention to some of these new publications.