If necessary, detailed arguments could be adduced to show that to get the present value of the sums allowed in 1588 we ought to multiply them by six[69] The sum allowed for each man’s daily food and the ’establishment charges’—­increased as they had been in 1586—­did little more than cover the expenditure; and, though it does not appear that the contractor lost money, he nevertheless died a poor man.  It will be hardly imputed to Elizabeth for iniquity that she did not consider that the end of government was the enrichment of contractors.  The fact that she increased the money payment again in 1587 may be accepted as proof that she did not object to a fair bargain.  As has been just said, the Elizabethan scale of victualling was more abundant than the early Victorian, and not less abundant than that given in the earlier years of King Edward VII.[70] As shown by Mr. Hubert Hall and Thorold Rogers, in the price-lists which they publish, the cost of a week’s allowance of food for a man-of-war’s man in 1588, in the money of the time, amounted to about 1s. 11-1/2d., which, multiplied by six, would be about 11s. 9d. of our present money.  The so-called ‘savings price’ of the early twentieth century allowance was about 9-1/2d. a day, or 5s. 6-1/2d. weekly.  The ‘savings price’ is the amount of money which a man received if he did not take up his victuals, each article having a price attached to it for that purpose.  It may be interesting to know that the full allowance was rarely, perhaps never, taken up, and that some part of the savings was till the last, and for many years had been, almost invariably paid.

[Footnote 69:  See Mr. Hubert Hall’s Societyin_the_Elizabethan_ Age, and Thorold Rogers’s Historyof_Agriculture_and_Prices_, vols. v. and vi.  Froude himself puts the ratio at six to one.]

[Footnote 70:  It will be convenient to compare the two scales in a footnote, observing that—­as I hope will not be thought impertinent—­I draw on my own personal experience for the more recent, which was in force for some years after I went to sea.

WEEKLY

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|                  |             |    Early    |
|                  | Elizabethan |  Victorian  |
|                  |    scale    |    scale    |
|----------------------------------------------|
| Beef             |   8 lbs.    |   7 lbs.    |
| Biscuit          |   7  "      |   7  "      |
| Salted fish      |   9  "      |   none      |
| Cheese           |  3/4 lb.    |     "       |
| Butter           |     "       |     "       |
| Beer             |  7 gallons  |     "       |
| Vegetables       |    none     |  3-1/2 lbs. |
| Spirits          |     "       |    7/8 pint |
| Tea              |     "       |  1-3/4 oz.  |
| Sugar            |     "       |    14   "   |
| Cocoa            |     "       |     7   "   |
----------------------------------------------

There is now a small allowance of oatmeal, pepper,