"If we estimate at a shilling ad day what is lost by the inaction and consumed in the support of each man thus chained down to involuntary idleness, the public loss will rise in one year to three hundred thousand pounds: in ten years to more than a sixth part of ur circulating coin."
Answers (1)
It means whatever one takes it to mean. The author thinks everything can be expressed in money, even a wasted life. He fails to see that his readers are not aware of any cost counted in money, so his point is lost on them. But his manner of reasoning was common in England for a long time.