APPENDIX VIII.
Searching among the pamphlets of the Halliday Collection at the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, I came across a tract of twelve pages, printed by John Whaley of Dublin in 1723, with the following title:
"The Patentee's Computation of Ireland, in a Letter from the Author of the Whitehall Evening-Post concerning the making of Copper-Coin. As also the Case and Address of both Houses of Parliament together with His Majesty's Most Gracious Answer to the House of Lords Address."
The writer of this tract in defence of the patent maintained the following propositions:
(1) That the Kingdom of Ireland wants a Copper Coin.
(2) That the quantity of this coin will be no inconvenience to it.
(3) That it is better than ever the Kingdom had, and as good as (in all probability) they ever will or can have, and that the Patentee's profit is not extravagant, as commonly reported.
(4) That the Kingdom will lose nothing by this coin.
(5) That the public in Ireland will gain considerably by it, if they please.
(6) That the Kingdom will have £100,000 additional cash.
As he states his arguments, they are quite reasonable. On proposition three, if his figures are correct, he is especially convincing. He details the cost of manufacture thus:
s. d. Copper prepared for the coinage at his Majesty's
Mint at the Tower of London, costs per pound
weight 1 6
Coinage of one pound weight 3-1/2
Waste and charge of re-melting 1
Yearly payment to the Exchequer and Comptroller 1
Allowed to the purchaser for exchange, &c. 5
Total charge 2 4-1/2
"So that the patentee," he concludes, "makes a profit of only 1-1/2d. in the half crown or about 5%."
The tract, however, is more interesting for the reprint it gives of the twenty-eight articles stated by the people in objection to the patent and the coin. I give these articles in full: