the Nation as the carrying out Mony in Specie But what Methods that Honourable House have taken to prevent it I know not nor to the best of my remembrance have seen any thing publick relating to it It is not impossible but we might furnish our own Armies at least with Corn and Cheese and many other things from hence without sending Mony thither to but it which would much diminish the Charge of our Army It is not impossible but we might have furnish'd the Duke of Savoy when an Ally and other Allies that have our Assistance instead of Mony with Corn if cheap here and with Guns Pistols Swords Powder Bombs Ball Clothes Hats Stockens Shooes all Furniture for Horses and many other things which would have done their Business as well as Mony But it may be said They cou'd buy them cheaper at Home That can't be for they can't have them cheaper than for nothing and the Mony would have been spent at Home and created a Trade and have been no loss to the Nation if we part only with our Labour and Product 'T is worth observing the advantageous Policy the French King has made use of during this War who from the beginning has greatly advanced his Coin and by that Policy chiefly has been able to Cope with and Baffle the United Force of the greatest part of Europe and yet 't is very remarkable that those Gentlemen who so highly extol that Monarch's other Policies run Counter in this and say he is a Prince that has but little or no Trade and may do it but it 's beneath us that are a Trading Nation This is a mean shift and it had been happy for this Kingdom if we had traded to so good advantage as he has done he has not let the Merchants run away with his Gold and Silver but makes it to enrich Himself and Country and not them but by bringing it in He has neither Gold or Silver the Produce of his own Country no more than we nor has he so much as Lead or Tin of his own growth nor many other useful Commodities and yet he wants not any of them more than we for ought we can learn He maintains an Army three times as numerous as ours and at prodigious Charge in Maintaining his Garisons and great Fleets has Armies in all places where we have and more and sends great Sums to his Confederates the Turk and the King of Poland whil'st living besides the great Charge in Maintaining his roguish Iacobite Emissaries and others in most Countries in Europe and Lords it over his Neighbours And these are all the Inconveniences that we can know he has found this 8 Years by the Advance of his Mony a quite different Story to what our last 7 Months has brought us to and 't will easily be believed that he would not have continued it if it had been a disadvantage to him And why that which is so advantageous to him and was so to us whil'st the Clipt Mony went whose diminish'd Weight made us on equal Terms with him should now be thought our loss And 't is well known his Gold Pistoles have been the chief Artillery that has made him Lewis l' Grand Now Gentlemen he that can tell ye of one real Benefit the Nation have had or are like to have to balance these Inconveniences the present Standard of our Coin has brought on the Kingdom ought to be to you more than the great Apollo I shall add That the City of London have given ye all a good President in their late Request to their Representatives in Parliament wherein they make their earnest Request That they would use their utmost and joynt Endeavours at the first Sitting down of the Parliament that the Plot may be throughly examined into and that the Conspiratiors who have hitherto made it their business not only to keep a Private Correspondence with our Enemies and to deliver up the Ships and Effects of our Merchants and Traders into their hands but also to betray His Majesty's Councils and so destress and undermine the best of Governments may be detected Without which they humbly offer it as their Opinion That all other Endeavours for the Preservation of the King and Kingdom will prove ineffectual Therefore if ye now omit what ye think necessary for your own Good and Safety to Offer ye must blame your selves Nor can ye but be truly sensible of the great Blessing we enjoy above other Nations in our Religion and belov'd Liberties under the best of Kings whom Heaven has Crown'd with all Royal Virtues whose Goodness has left it entirely to his People to make themselves a Great Rich and Happy Nation and has pleased to Recommend it to the Consideration of his People whether there do not still remain some Inconveniencies relating to the Coin which ought to be remedied Tho' after all we may too fitly be compared to the Image in Nebuchadnezzar's Vision We have a Golden Head 't is true but Members of Brass Clay and Iron That all may Unite for the Glory of God the Honour and Preservation of His Majesty and Government the Good of the Protestant Religion in general and may Heaven Defend them from the wicked and mischievous Designs of their Open Enemies and False Friends is the Hearty Prayer of GENTLEMEN Your Humble Votary
A LETTER Humbly Offer'd To the Consideration of all Gentlemen Yeomen Citizens Freeholders c. THAT Have Right to Elect Members to serve in PARLIAMENT Keep not back Councel saith Ecclesiasticus when it may do Good Take Councel of thine Heart saith the Book of Wisdom for there is none more faithful unto thee than it Consularius nemo melior quam Tempus LONDON Printed for E. Whitlock near Stationers-Hall Anno Dom. MDCXCVI A LETTER Humbly offered to the Consideration of all Gentlemen Yeomen Citizens Freeholders c. Gentlemen You are the Persons I have made choice to Address without other Design than the service of my King and Country and shall therefore request no farther favour than if you think it not for the Honour Interest and Safety of your selves and Government to comply with what 's Humbly offer'd then to Reject it and enjoy your own Opinions 'T is matter of Truth too well known to you all what general Repining and Complaints have long been amongst you at the decay and almost total loss of your Trade your scarcity of Money the bad Credit of your Bills abroad and at Home the ill payment of your Rents and the dull prospect in view of being better the Cause of which with almost universal consent has been laid on those worthy Gentlemen your Representatives in Parliament not considering how much ye have contributed to your own Misfortunes nor how nighly it concerns ye especially in matters of so great moment wherein the Happiness or Ruin of you and your posterity must inevitably follow to apply your selves to and advise with your respective Representatives for it is taken pro Confesso they represent what ye would have them to Represent for they are your Mouths as Aaron was to Moses but if ye are silent how can they Divine to please ye Their Act and Deed becomes yours which by the Laws of God and Man ye are bound to observe Therefore when ever you are deceived in your Expectations the blame must be your own and not those worthy Persons that Represent ye for 't is humbly supposed that it is not was or ever will be believed but the Body Corporate can as well Judge what their true Interest and real Wants and Grievances are as the Members thereof howsoever qualified Nor can ye believe by virtue of your Choice that ye remove Men into the Infallible Chair or that ye can Metamorphise a School-Boy into a States-Man or a Lawyer into an Honest Man No Dear Country Men believe me they are the very same they were before and differ nothing from your selves but the Honour ye do them to serve for ye in Parliament 'T is now presumed the Eyes of the whole Nation are opened and no longer to be imposed on by the Sophistry of Dr. Lock nor the Author of Decus Tutamen nor the rest of that Fraternity however Dignified or Distinguished Qui Nigrum in Candida vertunt who still are pursuing the Mischievous Contrivance they have laid with a Cunning excelling the most refined Politicks of the Jesuits industriously insinuating the Dishonour and Loss the Advance of our Coin would be to all' degrees of Men in general And this has been glibly Swallowed and gone down like Sugar-plums that inclose a deadly Poyson without perceiving the Snake and the cunning Fallacy of their Assertions has unfortunately Influenced too many worthy Gentlemen that notwithstanding are sincere Lovers of his Majesty and Government whose Eyes 't is hoped Experience has unLOCKt 'T is not doubted but there may be more Phylosophical and Logical Arguments offered to your Members this Session in Parliament to strengthen and confirm them in their former Judgment There 's the aforesaid Decus Tutamen ready Trumpt up and two Letters to Mr. Lock about the advance on Mony and it may be several others on the Stocks these rub one another and tell ye how much the Nation is obliged to Dr. Lock for his excellent Advice and would perswade ye to believe 't is the Honour Safety and Welfare of the Kingdom irrecoverably to run in Debt to lose their Credit Abroad and at Home to starve your selves for want of Mony and Trade excessively to raise the Interest of Mony and consequently lessen the Value of your Lands and these are the real Advantages whatever flourish they may put on the matter Experience demonstrates hath been the consequence of their pernicious Advice and without offence to that Gentleman be it spoken he has done more Mischief by his Humane Folly if it merit no worse Name than Ten thousand Impressions of his Humane Reason can Compensate But 't is not an easie Task to bring Men to own an Error in Judgment tho' they know it Your selves taught by your daily Experience in your respective ways of Dealing can better Judge what is for your own good than all the Phylosophers in Europe their Heads being generally fill'd with Notions and Matters more Speculative and Argumentative than either true or useful It seems to me little less than a Miracle that any one should still presume to say the present weight and value of our Coin has not been a great and grievous loss and Misfortune to the Nation and an unfortunate Disappointment to those Great Glorious Enterprises designed by his Majesty Since the Government has pleased to signify so much for the Act of Parliament Prohibits the Exportation of our Coin on forfeiture of the whole Sum to his Majesty and inflicts Six Months Imprisonment on the Melters of it down which plainly shews the Melting and Exporting of our Coin is known and believed to be advantageous or there needed not a Law to prevent it for assuredly no Man will do it to his loss nevertheless there are those who with great confidence affirm the contrary and will tell ye the carrying our Mony Abroad or that it goes for more any where else is a Romance a meer Fancy and that nothing can be got by it tho' every one knows this to be notoriously false and is like Mr. Lock 's affirming the advance on Silver would not bring one Grain more into the Kingdom and with as good assurance he might have said the rise of Gold brought not one Guinea more into the Kingdom nor the fall Carryed one out But to convince these Gentlemen of their Mistake the Goverment was further pleased to take notice that great Sums were daily exported and that the aforsaid Act did not prevent it and therefore thought fit in Council 25 of Iune last to Order viz. That whereas many evil disposed Persons to make unreasonable and unlawful Gains to themselves do presume on Breach and Violation of the said Laws to export beyond the Seas great Sums of the Gold and Silver Coins of this Kingdom which Practices if not timely prevented may occasion a great Diminution of the Wealth of England And for Encouragement to Discover and Seize all such Gold and Silver Coin as shall be put on Board any Ship or Vessel in
But the Gold Coin hath considerably been advanced since for in the 2d of King Iames the First the Pound-weight Gold was advanced to 37 l. 4 s. in tale and the next Year to 40 l. and in his 9th Year by Proclamation he advanced 2 Shillings on every 20 which made it 44 l. 10 s. in tale the present Standard for Gold and tho' Guinea's at first were and still are coined to that standard at 20 Shillings per Guinea nevertheless they went not at that price for the People finding they were undervalued did of themselves by general consent advance them 1 Shilling and 6 Pence which made the Pound weight of Gold current at 47 l. 16 s. 9 d. and with the now additional 6 d. is 48 l. 19 s. in tale which is 15 l. 9 s. advanced on the Pound-weight of Gold since the last of Queen Elizabeth and the Pound-weight Silver to this time has not been advanced a Farthing This Disproportion would have drained the Nation of the greatest part of their Coin unhoarded had not the Clippers prevented it who notwithstanding were great Villains and thereby intended the Nation 's ruin But as God Almighty does often turn the vilest Actions and Designs of wicked Men to the good of Kings and Kingdoms so in this tho' doubtless there have been more Iudas's and Ahitophel's than one and the late Hellish Designs both open and private against His Majesty and Government will assuredly terminate in their own Shame and Confusion 'T is plain the new Coins of King Charles and Iames were all melted down or carried away but what was hoarded and tho' the Government did not then advance their Silver which would certainly have been a great advantage yet the Clippers did the same in effect by diminishing the quantity with this difference only that what the Publick ought and might have gained served only to inrich these Vermin and others their Appendants Goldsmiths Bankers and other Dealers in Mony When ever the Gold and Silver Coins are not in proportion to each other or undervalued either one or other or both will be exported Of this Grievance Sir Walter Raleigh in his time made complaint to the King as a great and growing Loss to the Nation And 't is very observable That in the 5th of Edward the Sixth the Silver Coin of this Kingdom was intolerably debased there being but Three Ounces of Silver to Nine Ounces of Allay which extravagantly advanced the Pound weight of Silver to 14 l. 8 s. in Tale when the Pound-weight Gold was current but at 28 l. 16 s. so that two Pounds of Silver would purchase one Pound of Gold which by stealth exported would at that time beyond Seas buy more than ten Pounds of Silver which again brought here would purchase 5 l. of Gold c. By this means the Kingdom was drained of the greatest part of their Gold and had left only a base paultry Mony This was a great and notorious Abuse on the King and Kingdom and he poor King was ill served But there were two sorts of Men of Business then as well as now However this lasted not long before they felt their Error and Folly for the next Year the King advanced his Gold from 28 l. to 36 l. in Tale and this never-failing Rule brought back the Gold again and reduced his Silver to 3 l. in Tale This proportion of about 1 to 12 that is 1 Pound of Gold to equal the Value of 12 Pounds of Silver was the proportional difference nigh 300 Years But at this time in England 1 Pound of Gold will purchase more than 16 Pounds of Silver so that Silver and Gold bears not true proportion to each other and both are undervalu'd and therefore both exported and be assured that Truth it self is not more true than if our Gold and Silver will make better Market in any other part of the World than at Home 't will be conveyed thither Mauger all Law and Punishment to the contrary Whatever Advantage some Gentlemen may propose to themselves by running down the Value of Gold and Silver I can't tell but 't is most certain all Countries will carry their Gold and Silver to those places where 't will yield most or buy most Commodity and not where 't is of least value We have great reason to thank God that our Laws are not like those of the Medes and Persians who doubtless were a most sagacious People of great reach and foresight whose Decrees required no alteration amendments nor others to explain them and by what we can learn they were comprised in few and significant Words comprehending more Solid Matter in six Lines than we usually express in six Sides of Paper multiplicity of Words only rendring the Sence ambiguous and sometimes contradictory Whence proceeds so many Flaws Mistakes and Amendments in Publick and Private Business and the Growth of this Misfortune has been in proportion to the Encrease of the Professors of the Law as is evident by the Disparity of Deeds Conveyances c. made 3 or 400 Years ago with those now made which reminds me of a Story when the Morocco Embassador was here and one day passing by the Temple ask'd what stately Place that was was answer'd The Temple formerly the Residence of the Knights Templers of Ierusalem but now for the Professors of the Law He called on Mahomet and bless'd himself and said he did not believe there had been half so many Lawyers in the World as to fill that great Place But was answered There were many more Great and Noble Places formerly the Habitations of Persons of great Quality that were now likewise fill'd with Students and Professors of the Law Bless me said he what Use or Benefit can they be to your Country Certainly ye must be the most Litigious People in the World or the greatest part of them must starve They told him That together with the Work they cut out for themselves the one by finding Faults and Flaws with what the other did kept them in that Grandure He said He believed as much for that in his Country he remembred but of two Lawyers in his time and they by the like Practises made such Disturbance amongst the People that his Master was forc'd to hang them both Not that I offer this Reflectiously on the Gentlemen of the Long Robe but Reverence and Honour the Professors of the Law that Honour their Profession tho' the Practice and Original Intention of the Law seems to be inverted which was to relieve the Oppressed and right the Injured without delay of Time or great Charge which now the expensive tediousness of Law-Controversies in most Cases redounds more to the Advantage of the Professors than the Commodity of the Injured which 'tis humbly hoped Time may rectifie But to return to the Matter 't is our Happiness that Our Laws may and will be altered when found Necessary for publick Good tho' the Author of a Letter about the Currency of Clipt Money
in his postscript speaking of the present Weight of our Coin say's He need not remark to you that the Words in the Act shall remain to be being Indefinite imports as much as if it had been said shall always remain to be of the same weight as now Which 'tis Humbly thought can no more be in the power of any Parliament to do than it was to have kept the Money till this time to the Standard of Ed. the first The same Author with an unbecoming Confidence strikes at his Majesty's Prerogative and Asserts it to be a pernicious Doctrin publickly Vented That the King by his Prerogative might alter the Standard of our Coin tho' I presume not to know the Limits of Prerogatives or Power of Parliaments Yet this I am sure that His Majesty's just Prerogatives extend as far as any of his Royal Predecessors Kings of England And Chamberlain in his Present State of England tells ye That anciently by the Lawyers the Royal Prerogative was call'd Sacra Sacrorum by which the Kings of England had power to appoint the Metal Weight Purity and Value of the Publick Monies and by his Proclamation make any Foreign Coin to be Lawful Mony of of England And as I am informed there will scarce one Act of Parliament be found for the various Alterations of our Coins this 400 Years but his Majesty of his Goodness and Clemency was pleased to say in his Speech Novemb. 22. 1695. This is a Matter of so very great Importance that I have thought sit to leave it intirely to my Parliament Let the Gentlemen Con those words I have thought fit and he goes on to beg pardon for the Omission he had lik'd to have made in not publishing this Impudence but had it been in some former Reigns there had been no Omission in giving him his Just Reward and his Book its Desert Gentlemen 'T is now time to consider what hath and now does occasion those General Complaints for want of Mony and Trade and what may be the proper Remedy There are many Reasons for the present Scarcity of Money besides the Exporting of our Coin 1. The Bulk of Guinea's which alone carried on the whole Trade of the Kingdom for some time and answered every Man's Bills and Occasions without Complaint of Scarcity Non-payment or Stock-jobbing Notes or Bills at 14 16 and sometimes 20 per Cent. discount these are partly exported by Foreign Dealers to their Private Advantage and partly hoarded up at Home for the same end willing to have the Advantage themselves they know others make by their Exportation This has made what we have left a dead and useless Cash and the Obligation and Encouragement to Coin more is taken off by Act of Parliament to the First of next Ianuary excepting the Royal African Company for their own use and declares That the Importation of Guinea's from beyond Seas may prove prejudicial to the Kingdom and therefore enacts That all Guinea's imported from the 2d of March last to the 1 st of next January shall be forfeited the one half to the King and the other to the Informer There 's no doubt but this Act has effectually answer'd its end because 't is no advantage to bring them over And what Forfeitures there have been thereon I know not but by the want of Guinea's we may suppose the Nation wants more than a Million of its Current Cash 2. By Recoining of about Four Millions of Clipt Mony and supposing a Million more to Coin will make something more than Two Millions and an Half and the Loss must be nigh as much more of the Currant Cash 3. By the Non-Currancy of Bank and Banker's Bills Goldsmith's and other Notes the Nation may be deprived of nigh a Million of Current Credit more which makes Four Millions and an Half besides the great Sums of Money dayly exported This makes a great Hole in the necessary running Cash of the Kingdom required to answer our Domestick Commerce and Occasions Sir William Petty in King Charles the Second's Time estimating the whole Running Cash of the Nation at Six Millions and Mr. Lownds computes the whole Silver Coin Clipt and Unclipt Hoarded and Currant in England before their melting down to be but Five Millions Six Hundred Thousand Pounds so that notwithstanding our Occasions are greater than ever for Money to satisfie the National Debts Arrears and Desiciency of Funds and that our Necessary Preservation calls for more large Supplies yet we have Four Millions and an Half less Cash and Credit to do it with than a Year since Nor can it be believ'd that all the Plate in the Kingdom will make good this Sum and we are sure at the Price 't is now at none will be brought in And in their own Words we may truly say That Instead of real Gold and Silver we had before we have now a Fairy Treasure in our Glorious New Money that no sooner appears but vanishes 'T is worth observing That 't was not the Quantity or Smalness of the Clip'd Mony so much as the Quality the Adulterate Baseness of the Metal False Impression and the Difficulty of knowing passable from not passable and the Trouble in receiving and paying to distinguish Six Pences from Shillings c. These were Inconveniencies that loudly cryed for a Reformation not but Experience demonstrates ye could buy as much of any Commodity here for Five Shillings that weighed not Half a Crown as you do now for Five Shillings that weighs as much more and payd as much Rent Debts c. as now and equal to it for all Uses Exportation excepted where 't is natural to believe an Ounce of Silver will purchase more than Half an Ounce the same if they bring their Coin hither Now supposing that every Man in the Kingdom had as much New Money as they Before had of Clip'd Money the Nation would not be one Half Penny richer than before If ye can buy no more Land pay no more Rents or Debts with it nor buy more Commodities at home with it as certainly ye can't then 't is neither better or worse in Value but the same only with this Difference that you have as much more Silver in your Coin as serv'd the same Use before and so have but Half the Quantity of Money you might have and before ye were assured none cou'd be carryed away to your Loss but ye have now no Assurance but it may all and the only Advantage is that 't is more commodious for Tale and not so easily counterfeited as before tho' too much practised already It will be Objected the Damage the Merchants would sustain by their Foreign Bills and Remittances more than now This is only a Mistake for before our Clipt Coin in Specie was carryed beyond Seas for Payments and they met with such Loss and Difficulties as well as our selves in the Receipt and Payment they did not fall their Exchange tho' the greatest part of the Currant Cash in the
Kingdom this 30 years has been Clipt Mony more or less For the Exchange does not regard the intrinsick Value but the extrinsick Value and Denomination it bears in the respective Countries For if I pay here 100 l. that is 32 l. 3 Ounces One Penny Weight and Two and Twenty Grains of Sterling Silver to receive the like Value in Holland at 36 Dutch Skillings per Pound Sterling If I expect to receive the same Weight of Silver there I am mistaken and 't is possible I may'nt have Half that Quantity which nevertheless is no Loss to me because it answers my End 't will pay my 100 Pounds Debt there or answer any other occasion as well as if I had the same Quantity of Silver that I here payd and this is properly call'd Exchange But if I carry my 100 l. to Holland and exchange it but for 100 l. of their Money I make an ill Exchange and give them twice the Silver they give me which cannot be expected to return again but by the same Disadvantage to us as 't is Advantage to them to keep it Nor is it any Difference whilst the Coins of Countries are not exported but their Commerce maintained by Bills of Exchange whether I pay 100 Guinea's here to receive 100 Cockle-shels in Holland or pay 100 Guinea's in Holland to receive 100 Cockle-shels here So I can in one Country pay or purchase as much for one as I can in the other for t'other Nor can the Advance of our Coin prejudice any Merchants but those that Export it to the Publick Damage who more deserve an Halter than a Gold Chain for their Encouragement 'T is by such unprofitable Merchandizing that the Nation has been rob'd of so great and immense Treasure since the 1. of Q. Elizabeth there having been Coin'd more than Twenty Two Millions of Silver Money of the same Weight Standard and Fineness as now is and now the whole Silver Coin in the Kingdom will scarce amount to Four Millions and granting there are Two Millions more in Plate than was at that time in the Nation there will be Sixteen Millions of Silver Coin besides Gold the People have been rob'd of to gratifie the avaritious self-ended Designs of unprofitable Merchants within something more than an Hundred Years for want of Raising the Value of our Coin which growing Inconveniency to the King and Kingdom Sir Walter Raleigh wisely foresaw and fore-warn'd 'T is worth considering what we have had for this Treasure Why there 's fine China Babies Cabinets Skreens c. with Monkey-fac'd Pictures fine Silks Muslins and Calicoes and I can't tell ye how many Hundred Thousand Tuns of Fine and Foul French Wines into the Bargain These are poor Remains of such a Treasure and can any Man in his right Senses believe that the present Standard of our Coin which 't is plain has already robbed the Nation of so much Money will now be the Means to bring it in again O Moria Now could I wish my self a Second Erasmus to sing forth thy Encomium It is the Design of those Gentlemen to puzzle the Country with the Balance of Trade and tell them it matters not what the Coin is 't is the Balance of Trade must make us rich 'T is true that must if any thing does but by their Methods we can never turn the Scale In short the Balance is thus If we carry out more Gold and Silver than we bring in the Nation is so much the poorer and you see before which way the Balance has turned this Hundred Years but of late being drove by Necessity when the Silver-Coin was so bad that little could be taken with safety and that most of the Gold was exhausted and as now no Trade to bring in more the People by a good Policy of their own with Universal Consent and Good-liking and to their Mutual Advantage did Advance their Gold which was in such proportion to the Silver-Coin then that neither could be carried away without great loss to the Exporters This soon brought over great Plenty of Gold and put New Life into us set all Hands at Work on our own Manufacturies and Produce and sufficiently turned the Balance on our side and for one Guinea then exported we had more than a thousand brought in and for one hundred Pounds of our own Manufactury now exported there was then a thousand and all our own Gold was coined into Guinea's This brought us True and Real Riches great Plenty of Mony and good Trade throughout the whole Kingdom made all Men easie and busily employ'd inabled them cheerfully and willingly to pay their Taxes Rents their Bills and Credit and the War with France made no more Impression on our Minds or Pockets than it now does on the Great Mogul We sold them our Commodities at good Rates and we had Gold and Trade enough amongst our selves which was the thing we wanted and those Clothiers and other Dealers on our own Manufacturies that could then employ 3 or 400 Persons have now neither Business nor Mony to employ 50 and many have quite left off Trading This the Government was pleased to take notice of by Order of Council May 30. 1696. WHereas their Excellencies the Lords Iustices have receiv'd Information in Council That many Persons concerned in the Woolen Manufacturies in several Parts of this Kingdom have entred into Vnlawful Confederacies and Agreements whereby they have Engaged and Obliged each other under Penalties not to Employ any Persons in Making the said Manufacturies and in regard such Practices and Confederacies are highly Criminal and if not timely prevented may put a stop to the General Trade of this Kingdom and occasion a Disturbance of the Publick Peace it is Order'd That Mr. Attorney-General do prosecute the Offenders to the uttermost Severity of Law 'T is not the Interest of Tradesmen to leave off their Trade and as they can't live without Trade so they cannot Trade without Mony and Gain nor when 100 l. Bill shall be answered with 5 l. in Specie can they pay their poor Work-folks and are forc'd to desist And 't is humbly supposed there 's scarce a Corporation in England has not felt the Effects of this mistaken Opinion and believe their Lost Trade and Mony can any ways be retrieved but by what they know brought it them before that is advancing the Coin For if they have not by undervaluing our Coin this 7 or 8 Months brought one Ounce in ten of Silver to the Mint but what we drain from our selves why should we believe that for the time to come they can We must consider that we have no Mines of Gold and Silver as the Spaniard has yearly to replenish our exhausted Store and therefore merits our most serious Consideration how we shall bring Silver from abroad to the Mint if all the Plate in the Nation was run down and exported if we can't bring it in now without it The Publick and Private Plate ought to be our last