Again, 20s. of milled money to weigh 438. of our now current money "I have gone to several goldsmiths in London, and have got them to take out of their counters a bag of £100 as came to hand, which, upon trial, I have found at one place to weigh "The £600 weighing in all 1,198 oz. 5 dwts. 17 grs., and is no more than what £310 in milled money will weigh "I am informed the money paid into the Exchequer doth weigh from 15 (and seldom the £100 reacheth) to 20 lbs. weight, so that the very best brought in there doth not weigh two-thirds of what it ought to do, and the money paid into the Exchequer is supposed, a great part of it, to come from the country "But, as it's believed that the money in the country is generally not the one-half so bad as it's in and near London, I have procured an account to be sent me from the following cities, from whence I am informed that £100 doth weigh on trial of two bags in each place, to be, viz.— In the City of Bristol, one bag of £100 weighed In the City of Cambridge, a bag of £100 weighed Oz. Dwt. Gr. 240 0 0 Another weighed In the City of Exon, one bag of £100 weighed 180 7 0 In the City of Oxford, £100 in half-crowns £100 in shillings "The £800 weighing no more than £431 15s. of milled money will weigh, and but a very small difference between the weight of the money in London and the country This disgraceful state of the money gave rise to the greatest public confusion and distress, and a warm controversy arose whether the new money which should be coined should be of the old standard in weight, fineness, and denomination, or whether it should be depreciated, or raised in value, as it was absurdly called. This controversy was keenly disputed then, and we may pay some considerable attention to it, because it was revived under another form 116 years later, when the notes of the Bank of England were depreciated, and a strong party maintained that the standard of the coin should be depreciated to the level of the depreciated notes 33. We shall find that it is of very great importance to fix the exact period when the silver coin was so depreciated, as that guineas passed at 30s. We shall, therefore, make some extracts from contemporary pamphlets. It says, in one published in 1695 (Some Remarks on a Report containing an Essay for the Amendment of the Silver Coins, by Mr. W. Lowndes. London, 1695), page 6, after speaking of the gradual deterioriation of the coinage "And so, by degrees, as the silver coin was diminished and debased in itself, so it fell in the estimation of the people, and in proportion gold advanced, and also Bullion (that is not in itself, but in proportion to the bad money), not that Bullion became worth 68. 5d. an ounce, or GOLD 30s. A GUINEA in good money, that is, in weighty standard money, but in clipped and counterfeit money, whereof 6s. 5d. was not of the true nor esteemed value of 58. 2d. And, as we ourselves grew sensible of the want of value in money that passed, so did foreigners likewise, AND THE FOREIGN EXCHANGES SOON ALTERED ACCORDINGLY, so that it cannot properly be said that Bullion is advanced much, but that the money that is exchanged for them is of much less value than it was, and the new coining of our money will not, as I apprehend, alter the value of bullion, gold, &c., but it will bring silver in coin to its due value " After enforcing and illustrating these views at considerable length, he observes that Mr. Lowndes hoped that the exchange with Holland, which was then 25 per cent. against England, might be prevented falling lower, and says, page 16— "If guineas CONTINUE CURRENT AT 30s. A PIECE, the exchange will continue about the rate it does, except the common and ordinary variation, which many sudden drafts and remittances occasion; and if guineas fall, the exchange will rise in proportion; AND IF THE SILVER COIN IS REDRESSED GUINEAS WILL FALL, and there are no other designs whatsoever can effect any considerable alteration, for English standard silver and standard gold will always be of the same value in Holland, as the same standard silver and gold in England, with 2, 3, 4, and 6 per cent., or thereabouts: and that difference happens according to present occasions, and the charge of sending it from one place to another, and the exchange to Holland and other places always govern accordingly" Again, page 19— "It is not the exportation of the silver which occasioned the fall in the exchange between Holland and here, but the reason of that is the badness of our silver coin Again, page 20— "THE BALANCE OF TRADE IS NOT THE CAUSE OF THE GREAT FALL OF THE EXCHANGE WITH HOLLAND, BUT THE DEBASING OF OUR COIN" And he repeatedly declares, that the only way to set matters. right was to reform the coinage. He also says that it was his opinion that it was not to the advantage of the kingdom to restrain the exportation of Ballion, or indeed of money itself, to any certain quantity, but to let it be entirely free 34. We have already seen from the pamphlet of Mr. Godfrey that, in the spring of 1695, the Bank was in high credit. His pamphlet is nothing but a strain of congratulation on the great success that had attended the experiment. Burnet also tells us that a party in the country, who were moved with great jealousy, formed a design to ruin it on account of its flourishing credit. They tried what could be done to shake its credit, but this attempt was rejected with indignation by both Houses. He also tells us at the same period, that there were two sets of coin, one milled, which could not be practised upon, the other not so, which was clipped, and so much so that at last it was diminished to less than half its proper weight. When this had gone on for some time, the King was advised to issue a proclamation to make it current by weight and not by tale, but it was strongly opposed in the Council. The badness of the money then was very visible. Guineas, which were valued at 21s. 6d. in silver, rose to 30s., that is to say that 30s. sank to 21s. 6d. The deterioration became still worse, and later in the summer Lord Somers again proposed in the Council that a proclamation should be issued to make coin current by weight and not by tale. The King was also of that opinion, but the rest of the Council were unanimously against it. "And so," says Burnet, "this proposition was unanimously laid aside, which would have saved the nation about a million of money. For now all people believed that the Parliament would receive the clipped money in its tale, clipping went on, and became more visibly scandalous than ever it had been " 35. Mr. William Lowndes, the Secretary of the Treasury, was ordered by them to make a Report on the subject of the coin. This he did in A Report containing an Essay for the Amendment of the Silver Coins. London, 1695. In this he enters into a long and, at the time, valuable investigation of the history of the coinage, and its successive depreciations in weight and fineness. After giving the date of every Mint indenture for four hundred years, he says, p. 56-"By the careful observing of which deductions here made, from the indenture of the Mint for about 400 years past (many of which are yet extant, and have been seen and examined by me), it doth evidently appear that it hath been a policy constantly practised in the Mints in England (the like having indeed been done in all Foreign Mints belonging to other Governments), to raise the value of the coin in its extrinsic denomination from time to time, as any exigence or occasion required; and more especially to encourage the bringing in of Bullion into the realm to be coined (though sometimes, when the desired end was obtained, the value has been suffered to fall again), so that, in the whole number of years from the 28th Edward I. until this time, the extrinsic value or denomination of the silver is raised in about a triple proportion." Here we cannot fail to observe the utter confusion of idea that Mr. Lowndes, and too many after his time, labour under. They manifestly suppose that, by raising the Name of the coin they raise its Value. The extrinsic value of the coin can by no possibility mean anything else but the quantity of things it will exchange for. And to call the quantity of things it will exchange for its denomination is a most pitiable confusion of ideas. Mr. Lowndes then says:"The which being premises, and every project for debasing the money (by the reason before given) being rejected as dangerous, dishonourable, and needless, it remains that our nation in its present exigence, may avail itself, by raising the value of its coins, and this may be effected either by making the respective pieces called crowns, half-crowns, shillings, and to be lesser in weight, or by continuing the same weight or bigness, which is at present, in the unclipped moneys, and ordaining at the same time that every such piece shall be current at a higher price in tale "But before I proceed to give my opinion on this subject, it seems necessary for me to assert and prove an hypothesis, which is this, namely, That making the pieces less, or ordaining the respective pieces (of the present weight) to be current at a higher rate, may equally raise the value of Silver in our Coins" Mr. Lowndes then enters into an argument to prove that sixty pence are equal to seventy-five pence-a wild goose chase in which we decline to follow him His proposal was, then, that all the existing unclipped silver money should be raised in denomination to 6s. 3d. the crown, and other coins in proportion, so that the shilling would pass for fifteen pence instead of twelve. That new coins should be struck at the increased denominations. These coins he proposed to christen by new names. The reasons he alleged for this proceeding are "1. The value of the silver in coin ought to be raised to the foot of 6s. 3d. in every crown, because the price of standard silver in Bullion is risen (from divers necessary and unnecessary causes, producing at length a great scarcity thereof in England) to 6s. 5d. an ounce. This reason (which I humbly conceive will be irrefragable) is grounded chiefly upon a truth so apparent, that it may well be compared to an axiom, even in |