That some did so may be inferred from the statement of Sebastian Brant that the rustics dress like nobles, in satin and gold chains.

On the other hand the rising prices would bear hard on those laborers dependent on fixed wages, though relieving the burden of fixed rents.

The whole people, except the merchants, disliked the increasing cost of living and legislated against it to the best of their ability.

Complaints against monopoly were common, and the Diets sometimes enacted laws against them.

Foreign trade was looked on with {89} suspicion as draining the country of silver and gold.