Par. It is Low when he pays less than the Par. The Par is a certain number of pieces of the Coin of one Country containing in them an equal quantity of Silver to that in another number of pieces of the Coin of another Country v. g. supposing 36 Skillings of Holland to have just as much Silver in them as 20 English Shillings Bills of Exchange drawn from England to Holland at the rate of 36 Skillings Dutch for each pound Sterling is according to the Par. He that pays the Money here and receives it there neither gets nor loses by the Exchange but receives just the same quantity of Silver in the one place that he parts with in the other But if he pays one pound Sterling to receive but 30 Skillings in Holland he pays â…™ more than the Par and so pays â…™ more Silver for the Exchange let the Sum be what it will The reason of High Exchange is the buying much Commodities in any Foreign Country beyond the value of what that Country takes of ours This makes English Men have need of great Sums there and this raises the Exchange or Price of Bills For what grows more into demand increases presently in price Returning Money by Exchange into Foreign parts keeps not one Farthing from going out It only prevents the more troublesome and hazardous way of sending Money in specie forwards and backwards Bills of Exchange more commodiously by Scrips of Paper even the Accounts between particular Debtors and Creditors in different Countries as far as the Commerce between those two places is equivalent But where the over-ballance on either side demands payment there Bills of Exchange can do nothing But Bullion or money in specie must be sent For in a Country where we owe Money and have no Debts owing to us Bills will not find Credit but for a short time till Money can be sent to reimburse those that paid them unless we can think Men beyond Sea will part with their Money for nothing If the Traders of England owe their Correspondents of Holland 100.000 l. their Accounts with all the rest of the World standing equal and remaining so one Farthing of this 100.000 l. cannot be paid by Bills of Exchange For example I owe 1000 l. of it And to pay that buy a Bill of N. here drawn on Iohn de Wit of Amsterdam to pay P. van Lore my Correspondent there The Money is paid accordingly and thereby I am out of Van Lores Debt but one Farthing of the Debt of England to Holland is not thereby paid for N. of whom I bought the Bill of Exchange is now as much indebted to Iohn de Wit as I was before to P. van Lore Particular Debtors and Creditors are only changed by Bills of Exchange but the Debt owing from one Country to the other cannot be paid without real Effects sent thither to that value either in Commodities or Money Where the ballance of Trade barely pays for Commodities with Commodities there Money must be sent or else the Debt cannot be paid I have spoke of Silver Coin alone because that makes the Money of Account and measure of Trade all through the World For all Contracts are I think every where made and Accounts kept in Silver Coin I am sure they are so in England and the Neighbouring Countries Silver therefore and Silver alone is the Measure of Commerce Two Metals as Gold and Silver cannot be the Measure of Commerce both together in any Country Because the Measure of Commerce must be perpetually the same invariable and keeping the same proportion of value in all its parts But so only one Metal does or can do to it self So Silver is to Silver and Gold to Gold An Ounce of Silver is always of equal value to an Ounce of Silver and an Ounce of Gold to an Ounce of Gold and two Ounces of the one or the other of double the value to an Ounce of the same But Gold and Silver change their value one to another For supposing them to be in value as sixteen to one now perhaps the next Month they may be as fifteen and three quarters or 15 and â…ž to one And one may as well make a measure v. g. a Yard whose parts lengthen and shrink as a Measure of Trade of Materials that have not always a setled unvariable value to one another One Metal therefore alone can be the Money of Account and Contract and the Measure of Commerce in any Country The fittest for this use of all other is Silver for many reasons which need not here be mention'd It is enough that the World has agreed in it and made it their common Money and as the Indians rightly call it Measure All other Metals Gold as well as Lead are but Commodities Commodities are Moveables valuable by Money the common measure Gold though not the Money of the World and the Measure of Commerce nor fit to be so yet may and ought to be coined to ascertain its Weight and Fineness And such Coin may safely have a Price as well as Stamp set upon it by publick Authority so the value set be under the Market price For then such pieces Coin'd will be a Commodity as passable as Silver Money very little varying in their price As Guineas which were Coin'd at the value of 20 s. but passed usually for between 21 or 22 shillings according to the current rate But not having so high a value put upon them by the Law no body could be forced to take them to their loss at 21 s. 6 d. if the price of Gold should happen at any time to be cheaper From what has been said I think it appears 1. That Silver is that which mankind have agreed on to take and give in Exchange for all other Commodities as an Equivalent 2. That 't is by the quantity of Silver they give or take or contract for that they estimate the value of other things and satisfie for them and thus by its quantity Silver becomes the Measure of Commerce 3. Hence it necessarily follows that a greater quantity of Silver has a greater value a less quantity of Silver has a less value and an equal quantity an equal value 4. That Money differs from uncoin'd Silver only in this that the quantity of Silver in each piece of Money is ascertain'd by the Stamp it bears which is set there to be a publick Voucher of its weight and fineness 5. That Gold is Treasure as well as Silver because it decays not in keeping and never sinks much in its value 6. That Gold is fit to be Coin'd as well as Silver to ascertain its quantity to those who have a mind to Traffick in it but not fit to be joyn'd with Silver as a Measure of Commerce 7. That Iewels too are Treasure because they keep without decay and have constantly a great value in proportion to their Bulk But cannot be used for Money because their value is not measur'd by their
proofs that Silver is now â…• more value than it was I fear none of them will reach Mr. Lowndes's point He says P. 77 By daily experience nineteen penny weight and three tenths of a penny weight of Sterling Silver which is just the weight of a Crown piece will purchase more Coin'd Money than five unclip'd Shillings I wish he had told us where this daily experience he speaks of is to be found For I dare say no body hath seen a Sum of unclip'd Shillings paid for Bullion any where this twelve months to go no further back In the next place I wish he had told us how much more than five lawful mill'd Shillings Bullion of the weight of a Crown piece will purchase If he had said it would purchase six Shillings and three pence weighty Money he had proved the matter in question And whoever has the weight of a Crown in Silver paid him in Mr. Lowndes's new Coin instead of six Shillings and three Pence of our present Money has no injury done him if it will certainly purchase him six Shillings and three Pence all unclip'd of our present Money But every one at first sight perceives this to be impossible as I have already proved it And I have in this the concurrence of Mr. Lowndes's new Scheme to prove it to be so For P. 62 he proposes that his Silver Vnite having the weight and fineness of a present unclip'd Crown piece should go for 75 pence and that the present Shilling should go for 15 pence by which establishment there will be 75 pence in his Vnite and 93 pence three farthings in six Shillings three pence weighty Money of the present Coin which is an undeniable confession that it is as impossible for his Silver Vnite having no more Silver in it than a present unclip'd Crown to be worth and so to purchase six unclip'd Shillings and three pence of our present Money as it is for 75 pence to be worth 93 of the same pence or 75 to be equal to 93. If he means by more that his Sterling Silver of the weight of a Crown piece will purchase a penny or two pence more than five unclip'd Shillings which is the most and which is but accidental too what is this rise of its value to 15 pence and what amends will one 1 60 a little more or less rise in value make for â…• diminished in weight and lost in the quantity which is all one as to say that a penny or thereabouts shall make amends for fifteen pence taken away Another way to recommend his New Coin to those who shall receive it instead of the present weightier Coin he tells him p. 77. it will pay as much debt and purchase as much Commodities as our present Money which is â…• heavier What he says of debts is true but yet I would have it well considered by our English Gentlemen that though Creditors will lose â…• of their Principal and Use and Landlords will lose â…• of their Income yet the Debtors and Tenants will not get it It will be asked Who then will get it These I say and those only who have great Sums of weighty Money whereof one fees not a piece now in Payments hoarded up by them will get by it To those by the proposed change of our Money will be an increase of â…• added to their Riches paid out of the Pockets of the rest of the Nation For what these men received for Four Shillings they will pay again for Five This weighty Money hoarded up Mr. Lowndes p. 105 computes at One Million and Six hundred thousand Pounds so that by raising our Money one fifth there will Three hundred and twenty thousand Pounds be given to those who have hoarded up our weighty Money which hoarding up of Money is thought by many to have no other merit in it than the prejudicing our Trade and publick Affairs and increasing our necessities by keeping so great a part of our Money from coming abroad at a time when there was so great need of it If the Sum of unclip'd Money in the Nation be as some suppose much greater then there will by this contrivance of the raising our Coin be given to these rich Hoarders much above the aforesaid Sum of Three hundred and twenty thousand Pounds of our present Money No body else but these Hoarders can get a Farthing by this proposed change of our Coin unless men in debt have Plate by them which they will Coin to pay their Debts Those too I must confess will get one fifth by all the Plate of their own which they shall Coin and pay Debts with valuing their Plate at Bullion But if they shall consider the fashion of their Plate what that cost when they bought it and the fashion that new Plate will cost them if they intend ever to have Plate again they will find this one fifth seeming present profit in Coining their Plate to pay their Debts amount to little or nothing at all No body then but the Hoarders will get by this Twenty per Cent. And I challenge any one to shew how any body else but that little in the case of Plate Coin'd to pay Debts shall get a farthing by it It seems to promise fairest to the Debtors but to them too it will amount to nothing For he that takes up Money to pay his Debts will receive this new Money and pay it again at the same rate he received it just as he does now our present Coin without any profit at all And though Commodities as is natural shall be raised in proportion to the lessening of the Money no body will get by that any more than they do now when all things are grown dearer Only he that is bound up by contract to receive any Sum under such a denomination of Pounds Shillings and Pence will find his loss sensibly when he goes to buy Commodities and make new Bargains The Markets and the Shops will soon convince him that his Money which is one fifth lighter is also one fifth worse when he must pay twenty Per. Cent. more for all the Commodities he buys with the Money of the new Foot than if he bought it with the present Coin This Mr. Lowndes himself will not deny when he calls to mind what he himself speaking of the inconveniencies we suffer by our clip'd Money says P. 115. Persons before they conclude in any bargains are necessitated first to settle the price or value of the very Money they are to receive for their Goods And if it be in clip'd or bad Money they set the price of their Goods accordingly Which I think has been one great cause of raising the price not only of Merchandizes but even of Edibles and other necessaries for the Sustenance of the common People to their great Grievance That every one who receives Money after the raising our Money on Contracts made before the change must lose twenty per Cent. in all he shall buy is
Demonstration by Mr. Lowndes's own Scheme Mr. Lowndes proposes that there should be Shillings Coin'd upon the new Foot â…• lighter than our present Shillings which should go for 12 pence apiece and that the unclip'd Shillings of the present Coin should go for fifteen pence apiece and the Crown for seventy five pence A man who has a Debt of an hundred Pounds owing him upon Bond or Lease receives it in these new Shillings instead of lawful Money of the present Standard He goes to Market with twenty Shillings in one Pocket of this new Money which are valued at 240 pence and in the other Pocket with four mill'd Crown pieces or 20 mill'd Shillings of the present Coin which are valued at three hundred pence which is one fifth more 't is Demonstration then that he loses one fifth or 20 per Cent. in all that he buys by the receipt of this new Money for the present Coin which was his due unless those he deals with will take four for five pence or four shillings for five shillings He buys for example a quart of Oyl for fifteen pence If he pay for it with the old Money in one Pocket one Shilling will do it if with the new Money in the other he must add three pence to it or a quarter of another Shilling And so of all the rest that he pays for with either the old Money which he should have received his Debts in or with the new which he was forced to receive for it Thus far it is Demonstration he loses Twenty per Cent. by receiving his Debt in a new Money thus raised when he uses it to buy any thing But to make him amends Mr. Lowndes tells him Silver is now dearer and all things consequently will be bought cheaper twenty per Cent. I am sure there is no Demonstration of that nor appearance of it yet And if I may credit Housekeepers and substantial Tradesmen all sorts of Provisions and Commodities are lately risen excessively and notwithstanding the scarcity of Silver begin to come up to the true value of our clip'd Money every one selling their Commodities so as to make themselves amends in the number of light pieces for what they want in weight A Creditor ought to think the new light Money equivalent to the present heavier because it will buy as much Commodities But what if it should fail as 't is ten to one but it will what security has he for it He is told so and he must be satisfied The Salt Wine Oyl Silk Naval Stores and all Foreign Commodities will none of them be sold us by Foreigners for a less quantity of Silver than before because we have given the name of more Peace to it is I think Demonstration All our Names if they are any more to us are to them but bare sounds And our Coin as theirs to us but meer Bullion valued only by its weight And a Suede will no more sell you his Hemp and Pitch or a Spaniard his Oyl for less Silver because you tell him Silver is scarcer now in England and therefore risen in value one fifth than a Tradesman of London will sell his Commodity cheaper to the Isle of Man because they are grown poorer and Money is scarce there All Foreign Commodities must be shut out of the number of those that will fall to comply with our raising our Money Corn also 't is evident does not rise or fall by the differences of more or less plenty of Money but by the plenty and scarcity that God gives For our Money in appearance remaining the same the Price of Corn is double one year to what it was the precedent and therefore we must certainly make account that since the Money is one fifth lighter it will buy one fifth less Corn Communibus annis And this being the great expence of the Poor that takes up almost all their Earnings if Corn be Communibus annis sold for one fifth more Money in Tale than before the change of our Money they too must have one fifth more in Tale of the new Money for their Wages than they have now and the Day-labourer must have not only twelve but fifteen pence of the new Money a day which is the present Shilling that he has now or else he cannot live So that all Foreign Commodities with Corn and Labour keeping up their value to the quantity of Silver they sell for now and not complying in the fall of their real price with the nominal raising of our Money there is not much left wherein Landlords and Creditors are to expect the recompense of 20 per Cent. abatement of price in Commodities to make up their loss in the lightness of our Money they are paid their Rents and Debts in 'T would be easie to shew the same thing concerning our other native Commodities and make it clear that we have no reason to expect they should abate of their present price any more than Corn and Labour But this is enough and any one who has a mind to it may trace the rest at his leisure And thus I fear the hopes of cheaper Penny-worths which might beguile some Men into a belief that Landlords and Creditors would receive no less by the proposed new Money is quite vanished But if the promise of better Penny-worths and a fall of all Commodities Twenty per Cent. should hold true this would not at all relieve Creditors and Landlords and set them on equal terms with their Neighbours Because the cheap Penny-worths will not be for them alone but every body else as well as they will share in that advantage so that their Silver being diminished one fifth in their Rents and Debts which are paid them they would still be Twenty per Cent. greater losers than their unhoarding Neighbours and Forty per Cent. greater losers than the Hoarâ—ers of Money Who will certainly get Twenty per Cent. in the Money whatever happens in the price of things And Twenty per Cent. more in the cheapness of Commodities if that promised recompence be made good to Creditors and Landlords For the Hoarders of Money if the price of things falls will buy as cheap as they So that what ever is said of the cheapness of Commodities 't is Demonstration whether that proves true or no That Creditors and Landlords and all those who are to receive Money upon Bargains made before the proposed change of our Coin will unavoidably lose Twenty per Cent. One thing Mr. Lowndes says in this Paragraph very remarkable which I think decides the Question His words p. 78. are these That if the value of the Silver in the Coins by an extrinsick denomination be raised above the value or market price of the same Silver reduc'd to Bullion the Subject would be proportionably injured and defrauded as they were formerly in the case of base Moneys coin'd by publique Authority It remains therefore only to shew that the Market-price of Standard Bullion is not one fifth above our
less Silver in it than it had before Altering the Standard by Coining pieces under the same denomination with less Silver in them than they formerly had is doing the same thing by publick Authority The only odds is that by Clipping the loss is not forced on any one for no body is obliged to receive Clip'd Money By altering the Standard it is Altering the Standard by raising the Money will not get to the Publick or bring to the Mint to be Coin'd one Ounce of Silver But will defraud the King the Church the Universities and Hospitals c. of so much of their setled Revenue as the Money is raised v. g. 20 per Cent. if the Money as is propos'd be raised â…• It will weaken if not totally destroy the publick Faith when all that have trusted the Publick and assisted our present necessities upon Acts of Parliament in the Million Lottery Bank Act and other Loans shall be defrauded of 20 per Cent. of what those Acts of Parliament were security for And to conclude this raising our Money will defraud all private Men of 20 per Cent. in all their Debts and â—etled Revenues Clipping by English Men is robbing the honest Man who receives clip'd Money and transferring the Silver i. e. the value is pared off from it into the Clippers pocket Clipping by Foreigners is robbing England it self And thus the Spaniards lately rob'd Portugal of a great part of its Treasure or Commodities which is the same thing by importing upon them clip'd Money of the Portugal stamp Clipping and clip'd Money have besides this robbery of the Publick other great inconveniences As the disordering of Trade raising Foreign Exchange and a general disturbance which every one feels thereby in his private Affairs Clipping is so gainful and so secret a Robbery that penalties cannot restrain it as we see by experience Nothing I humbly conceive can put a stop to Clipping now it is grown so universal and Men become so skilful in it but making it unprofitable Nothing can make Clipping unprofitable but making all light Money go only for its weight This stops Clipping in a moment brings out all the mill'd and weighty Money deprives us not of any part of our clip'd Money for the use of Trade And brings it orderly and by degrees and without force into the Mint to be recoin'd If clip'd Money be call'd in all at once and stop'd from passing by weight I fear it will stop Trade put our Affairs all at a stand and introduce confusion Whereas if it be permitted to pass by its weight till it can by degrees be Coin'd the stamp securing its fineness as well then as now and the Scales determining its weight it will serve for the paying of great Sums as commodiously almost as weighty Money and the weighty Money being then brought out will serve for the Market Trade and less Payments and also to weigh the clip'd Money by On the other side If clip'd Money be allowed to pass current by tale till it be all recoin'd one of these two effects will apparently follow Either that we shall want Money for Trade as the clip'd Money decreases by being Coin'd into weighty For very few if any body who get weighty Money into their hands will part with it whilst clip'd Money not of half the value is current Or if they do the Coiners and Clippers will pick it up and new Coin and Clip it whereby clip'd Money will be increased So that by this way either Money will be wanting to trade or clip'd Money continued If clip'd Money be stop'd all at once there is immediately a stop of Trade If it be permitted to pass in tale as if it were lawful weighty Money whilst it is recoining and till all be recoin'd that way also there will be an end of Trade or no end of clip'd Money But if it be made to pass for its weight till it be all recoin'd both these evils are avoided and the weighty Money which we want will be brought out to boot Money is necessary to the carrying on of Trade For where Money fails men cannot buy and Trade stops Credit will supply the defect of it to some small degree for a little while But Credit being nothing but the expectation of Money within some limited time Money must be had or Credit will fail Money also is necessary to us in a certain proportion to the plenty of it amongst our Neighbours For if any of our Neighbours have it in a much greater abundance than we we are many ways obnoxious to them 1. They can maintain a greater force 2. They can tempt away our People by greater wages to serve them by Land or Sea or in any Labour 3. They can command the Markets and thereby break our Trade and make us poor 4. They can on any occasion ingross Naval and Warlike Stores and thereby endanger us In Countries where Domestick Mines do not supply it nothing can bring in Silver but Tribute or Trade Tribute is the effect of Conquest Trade of Skill and Industry By Commerce Silver is brought in only by an over-ballance of Trade An Over-ballance of Trade is when the quantity of Commodities which we send to any Country do more than pay for those we bring from thence For then the overplus is brought home in Bullion Bullion is Silver whose workmanship has no value And thus Foreign Coin hath no value here for its stamp and our Coin is Bullion in Foreign Dominions 'T is useless and labour in vain to Coin Silver imported into any Country where it is not to stay Silver imported cannot stay in any Country in which by an over-ballance of their whole Trade it is not made theirs and does not become a real increase of their Wealth If by a general Ballance of its Trade England yearly sends out Commodities to the value of 400.000 Ounces of Silver more than the Commodities we bring home from abroad cost us there is 100000 l. every year clear gain Which will come home in Money be a real increase of our Wealth and will stay here On the other side if upon a general ballance of our whole Trade we yearly import Commodities from other parts to the value of 100.000 l. more than our Commodities exported pay for we every year grow 100000 l. poorer And if we should import a Million in Bullion from Spain every year yet it is not ours it is no increase to our Wealth nor can it stay here but must be Exported again every grain of it with 100.000 l. of our own Money to boot I have heard it propos'd as a way to keep our Money here that we should pay our Debts contracted beyond Seas by Bills of Exchange The Idleness of such a Proposition will appear when the nature of Exchange is a little consider'd Foreign Exchange is the paying of Money in one Country to receive it in another The Exchange is High when a Man pays for Bills of Exchange above the
by the Mill it matters not how the mark or stamp of our Crown our Shilling and our Three-pence Can any body say that now they have got the stamp of our Mint upon them they are so fallen in value or the other unstamp'd piece so Risen that that unstamp'd piece which a moment before was worth only one of the other pieces is now worth them all three Which is to say that an Ounce of uncoin'd Silver is worth an Ounce and a Quarter of Coin'd This is what men would persuade us when they say that Bulâ—ion is raised to 6 s. 5 d. of lawful Money the Ounce which I say is utterly impossible Let us consider this a little farther in an other instance The present Mill'd Crown piece say they will not exchange for an Once of Bullion without the addition of a Shilling and a Three-pence of weighty Coin added to it Coin but that Crown piece into 6 s. and 3 d. and then they say it will buy an Ounce of Bullion or else they give up their reason and measure of raising the Money Do that which is allow'd to be equivalent to Coining of a present Mill'd Crown piece â—nto 6 s. 3 d. viz. call it 75 Pence and then also it must by this Rule of raising â—ny an Ounce of Bullion If this be so the self-same mill'd Crown peice will and will not exchange for an Ounce of Bullion Call â—t 60 pence and it will not The very next moment call it 75 pence and it will I am afraid no body can think change of denomination has such a power Mr. Lowndes supports this his first reason with these words p. 68. This reason which I humbly conceive will appear irrefragable is grounded upon a Truth so Apparent that it may well be compared to an Axiom even in Mathematical reasoning to wit thâ— Whensoever the intrinsick value of Silver in the Coin hath been or shall be less than the price of Silver in Bullion the Coin hath and will be melted down This I think though it be allowed Mr. Lowndes for as Apparent a Truth and as certain a Maxim as he could wish yet serveâ— not at all to his purpose of lessening thâ— Coin For when the Coin is as it should be according to the Standard let thâ— Standard be what it will weighty anâ— unclip'd it is impossible that the value oâ— Coin'd Silver should be less than the valuâ— or price of Uncoin'd Because as I havâ— shewn the value and quantity of Silveâ— are the same And where the quantitieâ— are equal the values are equal excepting only the odds that may be between Bullioâ— that may be freely exported and Coin'd Silver that may not The odds whereoâ— scarce ever amounts to above 2 d. per Ounce and rarely to above a penny or an half-penny And this odds whatever it be will equally belong to his raised mill'd Money which cannot be exported as it will to our present mill'd Money which can not be Exported As I shall have occasion to shew more particularly here after All this disorder and a thousand others comes from light and unlawful Money being current For then it is no wonder that Bullion should be kept up to the value of your clip'd Money that is that Bullion should not be sold by the Ounce for less than 6 s. 5 d. when that 6 s. 5 d. clip'd Money paid for it does not Weigh above an Ounce This instance therefore of the present price of Bullion proves nothing but that the quantity of Silver in Money governs the value of it and not the denomination as appears when clip'd Money is brought to buy Bullion This is a fair Tryal Silver is set against Silver and by that is seen whether clip'd Money be of the same value with weighty of the same denomination or whether it be not the quanquantity of Silver in it that regulates its value I cannot but wonder that Mr. Lowndes a Man so well skill'd in the Law especially of the Mint the Exchequer and of our Money should all along in this Argument speak of clip'd Money as if it were the lawful Money of England and should propose by that which is in effect by the Clippers Sheers to regulate a new sort of Coin to be introduced into England And if he will stand to that measure and lessen the new Coin'd to the rate of Bullion sold in exchange for present current clip'd Money to prevent its being melted down he must make it yet much lighter than he proposes and the raising it or to give it its due name the lessening of it â…• will not serve the turn For I will be bold to say that Bullion now in England is no where to be bought by the Ounce for 6 s. 5 d. of our present current clip'd Money So that if his Rule be true and nothing can save the weighty Coin from melting down but reducing it to the weight that clip'd Money is brought to he must lessen the Money in his new Coin much more than â…• for an Ounce of Standard Bullion will always be worth an Ounce of clip'd Money whether that in tale amount to 6 s. 5 d. 6 s. 6 d. Ten Shillings or any other number of Shillings or Pence of the nick-named clip'd Money For a piece of Silver that was Coin'd for a Shilling but has half the Silver clip'd off in the Law and in propriety of speech is no more a Shilling Than a piece of Wood which was once a sealed Yard is still a Yard when one half of it is broke off Let us consider this Maxim a little further which out of the language of the Mint in plain English I think amounts to thus much viz. That when an Ounce of Standard Bullion costs a greater number of Pence in tale than an Ounce of that Bullion can be Coin'd into by the Standard of the Mint the Coin will be melted down I grant it if Bullion should rise to 15 Pence the Ounce above 5 s. 2 d. as is now pretended which is to say that an Ounce of Bullion cannot be bought for less than an Ounce and a quarter of the like Silver Coin'd But that as I have shew'd is impossible to be And every one would be convinced of the contrary if we had none now but lawful Money current But 't is no wonder if the price and value of things be confounded and uncertain when the Measure it self is lost For we have now no lawful Silver Money current among us And therefore cannot talk nor judge right by our present uncertain clip'd Money of the value and price of things in reference to our lawful regular Coin adjusted and kept to the unvarying Standard of the Mint The price of Silver in Bullion above the value of Silver in Coin when Clipping has not defac'd our current Cash for then the odds is very rarely above a penny or two pence the Ounce is so far from being a cause of melting down our Coin that this price given
above the value of the Silver in our Coin is given only to preserve our Coin from being melted down For no body buys Bullion at above 5 s. 2 d. the Ounce which is just the value for any other reason but to avoid the crime and hazard of melting down our Coin I think it will be agreed on all hands that no body will melt down our Money but for profit Now profit can be made by melting down our Money but only in two cases First When the current Pieces of the same denomination are unequal and of different Weights some heavier some lighter For then the Traders in Money cull out the heavier and melt them down with profit This is the ordinary fault of Coining by the Hammer wherein it usually sufficed That a Bar of Silver was cut into as many Half-crowns or Shillings as answer'd its due weight without being very exact in making each particular piece of its due weight whereby some pieces came to be heavier and some lighter than by the Standard they should and then the heavier pieces were cull'd out and there was profit to be made as one easily perceives in melting them down But this cause of melting down our Money is easily prevented by the exacter way of Coining by the Mill in which each single piece is brought to its just weight This inequality of pieces of the same denomination is to be found in our Money more than ever since Clipping has been in fashion and therefore 't is no wonder that in this irregular State of our Money one complaint is that the heavy Money is melted down But this also the making clip'd Money go at present for its Weight which is a suddain reducing it to the Standard and then by degrees recoining it into mill'd Money which is the ultimate and more compleat reducing it to the Standard perfectly cures The other case wherein our Money comes to be melted down is a losing Trade or which is the same thing in other words an over-great Consumption of Foreign Commodities Whenever the over-ballance of Foreign Trade makes it difficult for our Merchants to get Bills of Exchange the Exchange presently rises and the Returns of Money raise them in proportion to the want of money English men have in any parts beyond Seas They who thus furnish them with Bills not being able to satisfie their Correspondents on whom those Bills are drawn with the product of our Commodities there must send Silver from hence to reimburse them and repay the money they have drawn out of their hands Whilst Bullion may be had for a small price more than the weight of our current Cash these Exchangers generally choose rather to buy Bullion than run the risque of melting down our Coin which is Criminal by the Law And thus the matter for the most part went whilst mill'd and clipt Money passed promiscuously in payment For so long a clipt Half-crown was as good here as a mill'd one since one passed and could be had as freely as the other But as soon as there began to be a distinction between clipt and unclipt Money and weighty Money could no longer be had for the light Bullion as was natural rose And it would fall again to morrow to the price it was at before if there were none but weighty Money to pay for it In short whenever the whole of our Foreign Trade and Consumption exceeds our Exportation of Commodities our Money must go to pay our Debts so contracted whether melted or not melted down If the Law makes the Exportation of our Coin Penal it will be melted down if it leaves the Exportation of our Coin free as in Holland it will be carried out in specie One way or other go it must as we see in Spain but whether melted down or unmelted down it matters little Our Coin and Treasure will be both ways equally diminished and can be restor'd only by an over-ballance of our whole Exportation to our whole Importation of consumable Commodities Laws made against Exportation of Money or Bullion will be all in vain Restraint or Liberty in that matter makes no Country Rich or Poor As we see in Holland which had plenty of Money under the free liberty of its Exportation and Spain in great want of Money under the severest penalties against carrying of it out But the Coining or not Coining our Money on the same foot it was before or in bigger or less pieces and under whatsoever denominations you please contributes nothing to or against its melting down or Exportation so our Money be all kept each species in its full weight of Silver according to the Standard For if some be heavier and some lighter allow'd to be current so under the same denomination the heavier will be melted down where the temptation of profit is considerable which in well regulated Coin kept to the Standard cannot be But this melting down carries not away one Grain of our Treasure out of England The coming and going of that depends wholly upon the Ballance of our Trade and therefore it is a wrong Conclusion which we find p. 71. That continuing either old or new Coins on the present foot will be nothing else but furnishing a Species to melt down at an extravagant profit and will encourage a violent Exportation of our Silver for sake of the gain only till we shall have little or none left For example Let us suppose all our light Money new Coin'd upon the foot that this Gentleman would have it and all our old mill'd Crowns going for 75 pence as he proposes and the rest of the old mill'd Money proportionably I desire it to be shewed how this would hinder the Exportation of one Ounce of Silver whilst our Affairs are in the present posture Again on the other side supposing all our Money were now mill'd Coin upon the present foot and our Ballance of Trade changing our Exportation of Commodities were a Million more than our Importation and like to continue so yearly whereof one was to Holland and the other to Flanders there being an equal Ballance between England and all other parts of the World we Trade to I ask what possible gain could any English Man make by melting down and carrying out our Money to Holland and Flanders when a Million was to come thence hither and English Men had more there already than they knew how to use there and could not get home without paying dear there for Bills of Exchange If that were the case of our Trade the Exchange would presently fall here and rise there beyond the Par of their Money to ours i. e. An English Merchant must give in Holland more Silver for the Bills he bought there than he should receive upon those Bills here if the two Sums were weigh'd one against the other or run the risque of bringing it home in specie And what then could any English man get by Exporting of our Money or Silver thither These are the only
Coin that is to be raised and then we have Mr. Lowndes of our side too against its raising I think it is abundantly proved already that Standard Bullion neither is nor can be worth one fifth more than our Lawful weighty Money And if it be not by Mr. Lowndes's confession there is no need of raising our present legal mill'd Money to that degree and 't is only our clip'd Money that wants amendment And when that is recoin'd and reduced all to mill'd and lawful Money that then too will have no need of raising This I shall now prove out of Mr. Lowndes's own words here Mr. Lowndes in the forecited words compares the value of Silver in our Coin to the value of the same Silver reduc'd to Bullion which he supposing to be as four to five makes that the measure of the raising our Money If this be the difference of Value between Silver in Bullion and Silver in Coin And it be true that four Ounces of Standard Bullion be worth five Ounces of the same Silver Coin'd Or which is the same thing that Bullion will sell by the Ounce for Six Shillings and five Pence unclip'd Money I will take the boldness to advise His Majesty to buy or to borrow any where so much Bullion or rather than be without it melt down so much Plate as is equal in weight to twelve hundred pounds Sterling of our present mill'd Money This let him sell for mill'd Money And according to our Authors Rule it will yield fifteen hundred pounds Let that fifteen hundred pounds be reduc'd into Bullion and sold again and it will produce eighteen hundred and Sixty Pounds Which 1860 l. of weighty Money being reduced to Bullion will still produce one fifth more in weight of Silver being sold for weighty Money And thus His Majesty may get at least Three hundred and twenty thousand Pounds by selling of Bullion for weighty Money and melting that down into Bullion as fast as he receives it till he has brought into his hands the Million and Six hundred thousand Pounds which Mr. Lowndes computes there is of weighty Money left in England I doubt not but every one who reads it will think this a very ridiculous Proposition But he must think it ridiculous for no other reason but because he sees 't is impossible that Bullion should sell for one fifth above its weight of the same Silver Coin'd That is than an Ounce of Standard Silver should sell for six shillings five pence of our present weighty Money For if it will 't is no ridiculous thing that the King should melt down and make that profit of his Money If our Author's Rule p. 78 where he says That the only just and reasonable Foot upon which the Coins should be current is the very price of the Silver thereof in case it be molten in the same place where Coins are made current be to be observed Our Money is to be raised but an half penny in five shillings for that was the ordinary odds in the price between Bullion and Coin'd Silver before Clipping had deprived us in Commerce of all our mill'd and weighty Money And Silver in Standard Bullion would not be in value one jot above the same Silver in Coin if clip'd Money were not current by Tale and Coin'd Silver as Mr. Lowndes proposes p. 73 as well as Bullion had the liberty of Exportation For when we have no clip'd Money but all our current Coin is weight according to the Standard all the odds of value that Silver in Bullion has to Silver in Coin is only owing to the Prohibition of its Exportation in Money And never rises nor can rise above what the Goldsmith shall estimate the risque and trouble of melting it down which is so little that the Importers of Silver could never raise it to above an half penny an Ounce but at such times as the East-India Company or some Foreign Sale calling for a great quantity of Silver at a time made the Goldsmith scramble for it and so the Importers of Bullion raise its price upon them according to the present need of great quantities of Silver which every Goldsmith eager to ingross to himself as much as he could was content to pay high for rather than go without His present gains from those whom he furnish'd and whom otherwise he could not furnish making him amends The natural value then between Silver in Bullion and in Coin is I say every where equal bating the charge of Coinage which gives the advantage to the side of the Coin The ordinary odds here in England between Silver in Bullion and the same in our Coin is by reason that the Stamp hinders its free Exportation about an half penny in the Crown The accidental difference by reason of suddain occasions is sometimes but rarely two pence in five shillings or somewhat more in great urgencies And since the ordinary rate of things is to be taken as the measure of their price and Mr. Lowndes tells us p. 78. That if the value of the Silver in the Coins should be raised above the value or Market Price of the same Silver reduced to Bullion the Subject would be proportionably injured and defrauded I leave him to make the Inference what will be the consequence in England if our Coin be raised here one fifth or twenty per Cent. Mr. Lowndes says farther p. 80. That Silver has a price I answer Silver to Silver can have no other price but quantity for quantity If there be any other difference in value it is or can be nothing but one of these two First either the value of the labour imploy'd about one parcel of Silver more than another makes a difference in their price and thus fashion'd Plate sells for more than its weight of the same Silver and in Countries where the Owners pay for the Coinage Silver in Coin is more worth than its weight in Bullion but here where the Publick pays the Coinage they are of very near equal value when there is no need of Exportation For then there is no more odds than the trouble of carrying the Bullion to the Mint and fetching again is worth Or the charge of refining so much of it as will bring it to Standard if it be worse than Standard Or Secondly some Priviledge belonging to one parcel of Silver which is denied to another viz. Here in England a liberty of Exportation allowed to Silver in Bullion deny'd to Silver Stamp'd This when there is need of Exportation of Silver gives some small advantage of value to uncoin'd Silver here above Coin'd but that is ordinarily very inconsiderable and can never reach to one fifth nor half one fifth as has been already shewn And this I think will answer all that is said about the price of Silver in that place 'T is true what Mr. Lowndes says in the next words p. 81. That five shillings coin'd upon the Foâ—t propos'd will actually contain more real and intrinsick