Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A69599
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The proposal for the raising of the silver coin of England, from 60 pence in the ounce to 75 pence, considered; vvith the consequences thereof.
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Bohun, Edmund, 1645-1699.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing B3458B; ESTC R23296
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9,486
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14
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Extrinsick value of an Ounce of Sterling Silver is hard to be now fixed by reason of the great abuse of our English Coin yet without question it is not of the 4th part of that value that it was in the beginning of Q. Mary's Reign and it is as certain that there is but a small difference of 2 d. or 3 d. at most between an Ounce of Sterling Bullion and an Ounce of Sterling Mony be it Clipp'd or Unclipp'd Supposing this Project of raising the Mony should succeed that which is now but 15 s. Sterling would by the Law be called a Pound and if 4 s. be raised upon every such Pound then the remainder would be but 11 s. which with the Reparitions would come but to 10 so that by it one half of our Estates would be taken from us tho' the Charge were but equal to that of the last Year That Land in my own Estate that was Rented at 1 s. per Ann. in the Reign of Edward IV. hath for many Years last past been Rented at 20 s. And this is another Effect of the Encrease of Mony in England since the Discovery of the West-Indies which happened after the times of that Prince We may well suppose that the Rents of those times bore a proportion to the plenty of Mony as they do now for where Mony is scarce there Lands will be cheap and so on the contrary And when the Nation grew Rich by the Peace of Spain and the Trade that followed upon it in the Reign of James I. the Lands became of double the value they were in the beginning of Q. Eliz. only by bringing so much of the Spanish Silver and Gold into England for besides what we drew thence by our Trade all the Mony that was sent from Spain to maintain the Wat with the Dutch in Flanders came by the way of England and as fast as it came in was sent to the Tower to be minted So that whereas in all the long Reign of Q. Eliz. there was bus little above 4 Millions in the first 12 Years of his Reign 1558014 l. 9 s. 9 d. which was much more than was Coined in her time in so short a space if the Mony fetched out of the debased Mony minted by her Father and Brother be deducted as of right it ought to be Yet this turned much more to the Advantage of the Merchant Shopkeeper and Tradesman than to that of the Crown Church Nobility and Landed Gentry The Revenues of the Crown the Customs excepted were reduced to one third part of what they had anciently been and that too was sunk in its Exrrinsive value as I have shewn above So that King James I. as he made the Nation richer than any of his Predecessors had done by his peacable Reign made himself the poorest King that ever sat on the Throne of England and this Poverty of the Crown was the occasion of the Domestick War that happened in the Reign of his Son The Nobility of England that had been so over powerful in the former times when their Revenues were paid upon the foot of a Penny-weight for a Penny that they were able to grapple with the Crown became so poor by the raising the Mony to 60 d. in the Ounce or the loss of two third parts of their Mannors that they retained only the Honours of their Ancestors but had very little of the Power and Splendor that attended them The Gentry too tho' they escaped better at first because they had more of the Lands in their Hands which they raised the Rents of which the other could not do by their Manners and Quit-Rents but tho' they had the same denominations of Mony had indeed but the third part of the Silver that was at first reserved and paid to their Ancestors The Gentry I say too were over-topp'd by the more wealthy Merchants and Tradesman and endeavouring above their Ability to keep up the ways of Living that had been practised by their Ancestors this and the War that followed and the immense Taxes paid since the War began c. have intirely Ruined many of the ancient Families and brought the rest under such Debts that there wants but this taking a 4th part of what is left and the heavy Taxes that must be kept up during the War to accomplish their Ruine too The Church whether we consider the Dignified Clergy or the Parish-Priests have been as great Losers as any of the other three and if now their Revenues be sunk from 20 s. to 15 and the old Rents of their Mannors and the Customs in their Parishes stand as now they are the Service of God in many Places will wholly fail for want of a Subsistance for the Minister and some of our Bishopricks that are now but low will find no Body that will accept of them The Love I have for my Native Country hath forced me to lay these Considerations before my Superiors who perhaps in the multiplicity of their other great Affairs may not of a sudden have all those things represented by their Memories to them which they otherwise well know and I pretend to no more than to be their Remembrancer If I have mistaken in any thing I humbly submit it to the Correction of my Superiors and pray That at least I may not be treated for this my Charity to my Country as have before been on all Occasions for no other Cause that I know of FINIS It is now averr'd that Bullion in Holland is but 5 s. 2 d. the Ounce 1 Phi. Mary c. 5. 1 Jam. 1. 25.
THE PROPOSAL For the Raising of The Silver Coin OF ENGLAND FROM 60 Pence in the Ounce to 75 Pence CONSIDERED With the Consequences thereof LONDON Printed for Richard Cumberland at the Angel in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCXCVI The PROPOSAL for the Raising the Silver Coin of England from 60 Pence in the Ounce to 75 Pence considered with the Consequences thereof THE protence for this is That Bullion is bona side at this time worth six Shillings and three Pence of the best of our English Mony tho' neither Worn nor Clipp'd Now if this is true then the Consequence of it is That an Ounce of Sterling Silver is made one Shilling worse than it was before by having the King's Stamp put upon it yet this Ounce of Silver may again be reduced to Bullion as it was before for two Pence This Assertion in the mean time may easily be confuted by trying how much Bullion or Spanish pieces of Eight may be had for a Mill'd five Shilling-piece of full weight for by that the tryal is to be made and not by clipp'd or over-worn old Mony for the Refiner and Goldsmith will ever consider the weight and fineness of the Mony he is to take for his Plate or Bullion I believe it is very hard for human Understanding to conceive how an ounce of Mill'd-mony of the Standard-allay should be made one Penny the worse by having the King's Stamp put upon it except it be by depriving Men thereby of the liberty to Transport Melt or otherwise use it as they think fit as they might have done before it had that Stamp and then perhaps it were better to allow Men that liberty which would occasion the bringing more Bullion to the Mint than the raising the Denomination of the Species ever will Men love to have in their own Hands the disposal of what is their own and will not easily be tempted to deprive themselves of that liberty Tho' there are many Things alledged as causes of this rise of the Bullion at this time as the scarcity of Mony and Bullion the over-ballance of our Trade the Exchange running high against us abroad c. yet the only true Reason why an Ounce of Bullion is worth a Shilling more than 5 Shillings of our Miinted-mony is the Clipping Corrupting and Wear of our old Minted-mony by which it is made of real less value above the proportion of one Shilling in the Ounce and it has been observed that Plate bought at 6 Shillings and three Pence the Ounce besides the making have yet after all weighed as much again as the Mony that was given for it So that it is a wonder to me the Goldsmith has not raised his Plate to ten Shillings the Ounce for so much it is worth when it is paid for in such clipp'd Mony besides the making This Method has nevertheless one signal Benefit and piece of Justice in it which ought however to be taken care of if it be rejected which is the payment of all publick and private Debts in a sort of Mony more proportionable to the Mony lent than that of the old Standard is it being most certain that all the Mony lent since the Revolution is not of much more than half the Weight it ought to have had and there is no reason that besides an exorbitant Usury freedom from Taxes at this time c. these Men should receive at last two Ounces of Silver for every one they lent for so it will be if the Mony be kept upon the old Foot and up to the Standard when it is paid in Having mentioned this I pass in the next place to consider the Effect it will have upon the Royal Revenue and the private Estates of the Subject The Book of Rates having fixed the Sum the King is to have for all sorts of Goods Exported and Imported he will certainly lose 25 per Cent. in all his Customs of what by Law he ought to have And yet it will soon appear the Merchant will not sell him any thing one Penny the cheaper for he will raise his Goods on some pretence or other as much as the Mony is raised well knowing that in 75 such Pence there is but one Ounce of Silver And the same Effect will attend all his other Revenues in every Branch of it to the utter Ruin of the Crown Which as His Majesty saith in His last Speech is not able to maintain the Civil List as things now stand without the Assistance of the Commons The same Effect will follow upon all the Mannors Rents of Assize Quit-Rents and Fee-farm Rents in whose Hands soever they are When these Rents were first set a Penny was a Penny weight of Silver which as Mr. Lownds rightly asserts pag. 17. of his Essay was three times as much as now it is and so it continued to the 27th of Edward III. when the Pound weight of Silver being 12 Ounces Troy weight was raised from twenty Shillings to twenty five Shillings which in the 9th of Henry V. was again raised to thirty Shillings the Pound weight In the 1st of Henry VI. it was raised to thirty seven Shillings and six Pence but in the 4th of that King's Reign it was again lowred to thirty Shillings and in the 49th Year it was again raised to thirty seven Shillings and six Pence In the 1st of Henry VIII it was raised to forty five Shillings by tale which was double the proportion it bore in the Reigns of Edward I. II and III. and so on to the 9th of Henry V. So that by this time all the Nobility and Gentry had lost in their Mannors and Quit-Rents the one half of their Income and five Shillings over in the Pound Troy In all the former raising the Mony of England if the History of England be consulted it will appear That they were Times of great Trouble when the Nation had been exhausted by Foreign or Domestick Wars and therefore it is probable the same Reasons were used to persuade both Prince and People to consent to it that are used now But in the mean time it is wonderful that none of these Princes should consider That as they raised the Mony they abated their Revenues That Rise made in the 1st of Henry VIII seems to have been the most causless of all that Prince being left exceeding Rich by his Father and not having any War at home or abroad to occasion it In the 34th Year he raised the Coin to forty eight Shillings in the Pound weight of Silver tho' there was but 10 Ounces fine Silver and 2 Ounces base After this time the Corruption of the Mony grew so fast that in the 1st of Edward VI. there was 8 Ounces Alloy to 4 of fine Silver And in the 5th Year of his Reign he put nine Ounces Allay to three of fine Silver which raised twelve Ounces of fine Silver to 14 l. 8. s. and thereby the Mischief became so sensible that the next Year after he