DEFINITIONS.
Extrinsic Value of Money is the Denomination and Power, that is given it by Authority.
Intrinsic Value is the necessary and Natural Value, always and every where inherent in the Species.
Real Value is a Certain Value more or less than Extrinsic, or Intrinsic, adherent to the Species, with respect to time and place.
TWO things are now under Consideration. 1. The Badness of our Silver Coin.
2. The Scarcity of it.
CHAP. I.
Of the present badness of our Coin.
By Current Coin, I mean not that which is Current by Law, but by Custom; that which People are forc’d to take for want of better, to the great Grievance of the Subject, Dishonour of the Kingdom, and Obstruction of Trade.
For every Man now is destitute of a sufficient Pledge and Security for his Personal Estate, unless he will take Personal Security, or find out a Mortgage, or rely upon a Bank.
Personal Security is now less than ever, the publick Banks have so drain’d or so engag’d at least the Traders in Money.
Mortgages are very hard to be found, for small Summs, and much harder for great ones, since the establishment of the new Banks.
And as for a sole reliance on the Credit of the new Banks I leave that for other Heads to discuss; I am of the Opinion it was never intended that they should be the only Security for Personal Estates, and that People should carry in their Money to ’em out of necessity, and not choice.
And how dishonourable it is to the King and Kingdom that our Money should be so suddenly debased to such a shameful Degree, foreign States will soon determine:
Now that it doth not become so by publick Authority but by Connivence of the Sovereignty, or Necessities of the Nation, is not stating the thing at all less Dishonourably.
For Connivence at a Fault discovers either an Ignorance of it, or Inability to correct it, or design in making use of it.
’Tis plain enough the Government is not Ignorant of it.
His Majesty in His Speech to both Houses of Parliament, shews He hath no design in making use of it, because He recommends the redressing of it to their Consideration, and therefore the not redressing it, can be only imputable to the Weakness and Poverty of the State:
And what Inferences, not only the French, but all other Politicians may draw from thence are very obvious.
The finest Clothes that our Soldiers can put on, in the Field, would not at all dazzle the Eyes of the Confederate Princes, nor strike any despondencies into the Minds of our Enemies, if they shall all come to know that the whole Power of England is at this time held up by the imaginary Value of Birmingham half Crowns and Shillings.
It will hearten our Enemies, and discourage our Friends, very much, when they shall come to know that the Nummary Wealth of England is almost vanish’d, the Silver Coin gone, and the Royal Mint at a stand.
No Body will believe that we can long subsist at this rate; and indeed ’tis impossible we should, for if ’tis now much harder to redress than it was a year ago, and that means cannot be yet found out to do it, what Hopes shall we have of ever doing it ’till the War is ended? and what Hopes shall we have of bringing our Enemies to Terms, whilst they are sensible of our great Poverty.
The only way, sure, to bring the French King to Reason, will be by shewing him we are Able to continue the War as long as he can possibly be Willing, which he can never believe, so long as he sees our Money, by which he judges our Wealth to be imaginary only, and not real Silver.
Besides all this, we are in apparent Danger hereby of being more effectually and suddenly ruin’d by our Friends.
For if this Sessions of Parliament should break up without regulating the Coin, what Consequences may possibly ensue?
It is not impossible that Foreigners in all parts of Christendom should immediately set themselves to counterfeit our base Money.
There are beyond Seas as good Chymists, and Black-Smiths as at London, or Birmingham, and ’tis not impossible that they should secretly Import as much base Money, resembling that which goes current among us, and which hath not the intrinsic Value of One Shilling in Three, as if they please may not only buy up and Export Two or Three Millions Worth of our Staple Commodities, affording ’em Cheaper abroad than we can at home; but as much Worth of our imported Commodities, even Gold it self, if they like that Trade better.
Such an Importation of Money would I fear, be of worse Consequence than all our Exportation of Silver and Gold can prove.
If what cost our Merchants a Shilling, they should sell for a Groat, or if they shall buy of us an Ounce of Gold for Three or Four Ounces of Silver, or supposing ’em to buy it at 6 s. 6 d. per Ounce, they shall buy an Ounce for as much Counterfeit Money as shall not have 7 Peny-Weight of true Bullion in it, this would give our Balance of Trade, such a Terrible Swing, as no true Hearted English-Man would be willing to see.
This is a Danger which the easiness and small Charge of counterfeiting old Clipp’d Money threatens very much, unless it be speedily cry’d down.
And in the mean time, let us consider the Condition of the other Coin among us, not counterfeited, but Clipp’d, fil’d, or otherwise diminish’d.
’Tis plainly demonstrable by the Receipts of Money in His Majesty’s Exchequer, that one half of the Silver is already Clipp’d away, and there is no Security why half what remains wo’nt be taken off too.
The Laws are severe enough made, and put in Execution, and yet New-Gate is perhaps now as full of Clippers as it was Three or Four Years ago.
Nothing but a Sense of Religion doth restrain Men from profitable Sins, and the Ordinary of New-Gate can inform us, how little the Guilt of Clipping affects the Criminal’s Conscience.
Nor will preaching do much Good, upon those that never come to Church.
Clipping is the gainfulest Sin that ever was invented, and sits the easiest upon the Sinner’s Mind, and ’tis never to be remedied but by making it impracticable, which Mill’d Money only (and no other to be current) can do.
And what a perpetual Discontent and Confusion must it end in, if People shall come at last to proffer a Groat for a Shilling?
This must increase still vastly the Value of Guineas; this must raise the Price of all Commodities, this must make it impossible to expect any Money at all, either for the King’s Use, or Balance of Trade; and this will not only force us to recall our Troops from Flanders, and by a natural Consequence let in the War upon us, but it would put a sudden and universal stop to all Foreign Trade.
And what fatal Consequences may it have in the mean time at home let us consider.
It may very well be suppos’d that a Dragooner may proffer to a Corn-Chandler 2 s. for a Bushel of Oats, and that the Corn-Chandler seeing that there is not Three Peny wt. or 9 Peny worth of Silver in both the Shillings, should not like the Bargain, what’s now to be done?
Should There be a Law with Penalty for refusing clipp’d Coin, as there is for crack’d Six-pences, this would encourage Clippers to leave nothing remaining in a Shilling but the Figure XII.
Should the Law prohibit the passing of all Silver clipp’d within the Ring, than two Thirds of the present Money of England would be immediately cry’d down: Then the Loss of clipp’d as well as counterfeit Money would be very hard upon the Proprietors, and we should have two Thirds less Money for carrying on our Trade:
And now we have two Thirds less than we should have, and if that two Thirds, which is cry’d down at the Owner’s Loss, should be carry’d to the Mint, and new coin’d, it would scarce yield a twelfth Part of what we should then want.
If the Law should put down all Silver Money but of such a Weight, then certainly all Money above that Weight would be clipp’d down to it, and every Man must carry a pair of Scales in his Pocket, and we are still subject to the Consequence of the former Paragraph, as that former Paragraph would be to the first Conclusion of this, viz. That all Money would be soon clipp’d down to the publick Standard.
Let the matter be canvas’d never so much, it must at last come to this Conclusion.
We cannot subsist either in War or Peace if the Coin of England be not speedily regulated.
CHAP. II.
Of the present Scarcity of Silver Coin in England.
Now let us consider, that if all the current Silver Coin of England were passable and unalterable, yet we have vastly too little in Tale for carrying on the Trade of the Nation.
And this will appear several Ways, but chiefly by the high Price or Guineas and the Causes thereof.
Guineas have risen from 21 s. 6 d. to 30 s. either because the intrinsic Value of Gold hath risen near in Proportion to the Diminution of the intrinsic Value of Silver Coin, or by reason of the Scarcity of the Silver Coin, or the Uncertainty of it, or partly by Reason of one, and partly t’other, which I believe is the Truth, that the Badness and Scarcity of Silver Coin hath occasioned an extravagant Rise of Gold.
Now if so much as concerns the Scarcity of Silver be granted me, then I have nothing to do upon this Article, but shew that the present high Price of Gold is dangerous to the Nation, and more dangerous will a farther Advance of the Price thereof be.
And to them who think the Badness of our Coin the greatest Reason of the present high Valuation of Gold, I shall in the mean time say, that if the Price of Gold hath risen, suppose 4 s. or 5 s. in a Guinea, upon the Account only of the Baseness of our Silver Coin; then in handling that Notion we must look upon Gold not so much a Coin as a Commodity, and so indeed it is at this Present; because the Price of Gold in the Oar or Ingott hath risen almost proportionably to that which is coin’d; so that a Man doth not take a Guinea rather than 29 clipp’d Shillings, because the King’s Impress is upon it; for so ’tis upon the Shillings; or because Authority has made it pass so, for that Authority is wanting; but because it is of a greater intrinsic Value than is in 29 Shillings of clipp’d or counterfeit Money, which is now most current: So that the Valuation of the Commodity Gold hath encreased as the intrinsic Value of our Silver Coin hath decreased.
And if so, then it is to be suspected that the Price of all staple Commodities have encreased in equal Proportion, or that they are in such a Proportion now higher than they wou’d have been; for Gold and Silver being reciprocally the Standards and Measures of Proportion of one another, are so of every thing else; and if I can now buy as many Ounces and Peny-Weights of Silver for a Guinea, as I could have done formerly, then is not Silver Risen more than Gold: and if I can buy as many Grains of Gold now with an Ounce of Silver as I could formerly, then is not Gold risen more than Silver. And this is, perhaps more than a Supposition: For when Silver was 5 s. an Ounce, I cou’d buy 4 Ounces 6 Peny-wt. with a Guinea, and so I can now, that Silver is 6 s. 6 d. per Ounce. Again when Gold was about 3 l. 14 s. an Ounce, I cou’d buy an Ounce of Gold with 15 Ounces of Silver, and so I can now, or near the Matter: So that the Commodities of Gold and Silver answer one another as they did, or near thereabout, abating only for the Portableness of Gold and its Coinage; whereas no Coinage is now allowable for those Pieces of Silver wherein the Coinage is defaced and spoiled; and if those two Commodities are so much higher than they would have been: For they are the Measure and Rule of Proportion of all. Then when the Value of Gold and Silver rises, the intrinsic Value of all Commodities rise with ’em:
For suppose an Eastland or Hamburgh Merchant brings over a Barrel of Mum, which he (when our Money was old Standard) sold for 3 l. he disliking our Money now, sells his Mum, not according to the extrinsic Valuation of our Money, which is risen since he was here last; because the Intrinsic is diminished, but according to the common Value of Gold and Silver in the World; and therefore requires now 4 l. because he judges our Silver to be a fourth Part worse than it was, or if at 5 l. he judges it to be 2 Parts in 5 worse.
Again, suppose he sells his Mum for Gold, or is to exchange his Silver for Gold, that which he was wont to sell for 3 Guineas, he expects 3 Guineas for still; or if you are to pay him in Silver, he expects as much as he can change for 3 Guineas, he wo’nt be fobb’d off with less: So the Merchant sells as cheap as ever; but we pay more, because what we pay, is dearer than it was.
You’ll object against this way of reasoning, and say ’tis the Risques of the Sea, and Obstructions of Trade now in Time or War, makes all foreign Commodities dearer.
But I hope I don’t err in saying, that the Merchant notwithstanding the War wou’d take less of our Silver Coin for the same Commodities if it were better, and less Gold of us if it wou’d buy as much Silver in his own Country.
And there are Reasons which may ballance the Dangers of the Seas in Times of War in Reference to our Commerce with the Subjects of Neutral Princes.
On our side Taxes are great, and the Subject cannot afford to buy so many foreign Commodities as at other times: And on their side they have not so good a Vent as they had; so their Commodities must stick on hand unless sold so cheap as may make amends for the Hazards of the Sea, and the Cheapness of Commodities wou’d be the natural Effects of Scarcity of Money, if our Money had the same real Value as formerly.
Again a Collier who trades to Newcastle is wont to receive a Guinea for every Chaldron of Coals he brought into the River at such a Time of Year, and so he doth still, and no more; and who can say Coals are risen and Mum is risen? No such thing; but Gold and Silver are risen: And when we give the same Gold and Silver for a Commodity as we did, we wrongfully say the Commodity is dear, when ’tis not that but the Gold and Silver which costs us more. We give the same Labour, the same Leather, the same Mault, for the same Quantity of Gold and Silver which we did.
And now ’tis the Country Gentlemen, Artizans and Day-Labourers have the hardest Bargain of all.
The Farmer sells his own Corn and Cattle according to the Value of Gold and Silver, and the Mercer his Silks, and the Draper his Cloth, and the Tanner his Leather; but the Farmer in the mean time pays his Rent, and Husbandmen, and Artizans, according to the Value of our present Coin, and when he paid 28 Guineas a Quarter formerly, twenty shall serve turn now; and the Scrivener buys the Country Gentlemen’s Lands, according to the Valuation of Coin; and not Metal; and the Land which cost the Father 600 Guineas, is now sold by the Son for 430; and half a Year hence it may be proffered for 300. This is nothing but Ruine and Confusion to the Landed Men of the Kingdom.
But if the Buyers of Land, as the Merchants, Bankers and Scriveners are, were Sellers too, we should find Land rise in Proportion to every thing else.
And whereas you’ll say that Farmers and Grasiers are no Merchants, and wou’d be as well contented with passable Coin as old Standard, ’tis very true, but they keep up to such Prices as their whole-sale Chapmen can afford to give ’em; and when a Factor sells his Cloth at Blackwell-Hall; he considers the Necessity of the Buyer, as well as Expence of the Clothier; when a Merchant can make a better Profit, ’tis expected he should give a better Price.
But this with some unthinking People is the Effect of War; and because some things are dearer upon this Account than others, therefore every thing else that is dearer must have the same Cause assigned; but a general Cheapness of things should, methinks, be the Natural Effect of our War, if our Money with which we go to Market were as it should be.
The War consumes but little of our Product and Manufacture; it carries a great many Mouthes into Flanders, and that would naturally make Provisions cheap: Many of these Mouths had idle Hands, and so they are not miss’d in the Manufacture; but instead of them, a great many industrious Foreigners come among us who eat little and work much.
The Taxes, as I said, are great Inducements to Frugality, and the Advantages People have of late made of Money, have been no less.
These and other such like things if the Price of Gold and Silver had not risen, must have occasion’d a Fall of most other Commodities.
And now let us consider the Danger of the high Price of Gold as it stands at present.
Coin is the most portable Commodity, and Gold the most portable Coin; but we have run it up high, and therefore do’nt at present fear Exportation; but then, if ’tis considerably higher than among our Neighbours, there is great Reason to fear too great an Importation may be as dangerous, as a disadvantagious one doth already prove.
It seems to me so curious and nice a Commodity that always there may be Danger in it.
If in the great Thirst that’s now upon us, we take in too much that will occasion a still more dangerous Rise of Silver: For considering the present Balance of Trade, the more Gold is imported, the less there will be of Silver; and if we import too little, we leave our selves destitute of a Way of Trading.
And if the Gold which is our present Support, should by the Craft of Foreigners, or necessities of the War follow the Silver out of the Nation, we should be left, I doubt in a very bad Condition.
And if its Value should rise, as it must needs do if the Silver Coin grow worse and worse, then by how much it rises, by so much more all the Inconveniences and Dangers of its late Rise among us will encrease.
What those Dangers are at present is no great Mystery, the English Merchants will make none of it if they may be heard.
The melancholly Letters which their Factors abroad daily send ’em makes the Case plain.
That a Guinea in Holland and Flanders is now but 26 s. or to speak more properly and plainly too, so many Rials, or Dolars and Stivers as bear Proportion to 26 s. of our Money.
At that Rate they there buy our Guineas of Officers, which they can’t be hindered carrying over in their Pockets; then the Holland and Flemming Merchants send back to us the same Guineas to buy therewith our Staple Goods and Manufactures.
Here they are received at 30 s. And their Factors here, who buy our Manufactures as cheap of the Clothier or Stocking-Seller as our own Merchants, send back for 1000 Guineas. (for Instance) Received from Holland 1500 Pounds worth of our Goods, which when the Dutch or Flemming Merchant receives, he finds by his Accompts that these Goods stand him in no more than 1300 l. So that he has received beyond Sea the like Goods for 1300, &c. which hath stood our English Merchant in 1500 l. The English and Flemming Merchants then ship off each their Goods for Spain, Turkey, the East or West-Indies, and there they go to Market to sell these Goods, and the Flemming under-sells the English 13 per Cent. even in these Commodities which are the Product of England.
And now what is the plain Inference? but inevitable Ruine to the whole Trade of the Nation. Here’s an End of Merchandise, and (in Time of Peace) all Use of Shipping.
This I think is the natural and the present Effect of the Rise of Guineas.
But to return to my proper Subject, fare it as it will with Gold, the current Silver Coin of England is, by 3 Parts in 5 too little for our In-Land Trade, and must ruine in Process of time all those Traders who are wont to make several Returns of their Money in a Year; for the Scarcity of Money occasions the giving of longer Credit than is usual, and the giving of Credit hinders the Frequency of Returns.
Again, the Want of Silver Coin occasions the taking of Gold at such high Rates; and the Value of Gold Coin being uncertain, which Silver Coin hath not hitherto been, the Receiver will always allow himself for a probable Loss: (which would be the certain Effect too of making the Valuation or Silver Coin alterable and uncertain) that Allowance makes things bought so much the dearer, and that Dearness puts a Damp upon Trade.
So that the Scarcity of Silver is not only at present too visible, but so long as the Balance of Trade is lightest on our Side, is like to be more and more felt.
Yet the great Naval Stores we buy from abroad, the great Remittances to be provided for the Subsistence of our Armies and Fleets, are things inevitable, and ’tis impossible to hinder the Exportation of Bullion.
But ’tis very easie to hinder the Exportation of Money.
And as we shall do well to consider, that altho’ our Plate may serve us once at a dead Lift, as the French King show’d us the Way, yet it can’t serve us above once, and when that’s gone after the rest of our Silver, what are we to do next?
We must not only stop a present Gap, but provide for the future, and so I lay it down as a Conclusion.
That we are under a very great Want of Silver Coin to carry on the necessary Trade of the Kingdom.
CHAP. III.
Of the Importation of Silver.
That which encourages the Importation of any Commodity is the Certainty and Quickness of a Market at a good Price.
But notwithstanding Silver is dear in England, at present we are but dull Traders for it.
For the Mint and the Silver-Smiths being the chief Buyers, these cannot go to Market.
The Mint cannot afford to buy and sell to lose; if an Ounce of Silver cost the Warden of the Mint 6 s. 5 d. he can’t afford to make a Crown-Piece of it.
And the fear of Plate’s being call’d in, to the Disadvantage of the Owner, puts too great a Damp upon the Silver-Smiths’ Trade.
And the actual calling it in, upon such Terms, would very little mend the Matter; People will not be very fond of buying more, for fear at least the same Trick should be serv’d ’em twice.
And yet our Coin being altogether insufficient, we must provide for a considerable Quantity more.
The Quantity we want must be imported according to our Occasions, or what we have already, be augmented, by altering the Species, or by coining out our Plate.
It cannot be soon enough imported in such great Quantities as we at present want, and yet if we could immediately buy it from abroad, we could not afford to coin what we buy, without altering our Coin from the old Standard, seeing our Necessity of having it, will make its Price rise abroad.
Therefore I shall refer what I have more to say, concerning Importation, to the Chapter of Exportation, and first speak of altering our Coin, for ’tis evident we must alter our Coin, as well as coin our Plate, or otherwise our Plate will last us but a little while, and in the mean time we may admit this Conclusion.
That England must be as good a Market for Silver as other Countries, or we shall have little imported, be it never so plentiful abroad.
CHAP. IV.
Of Altering our Coin.
There are Three Ways of altering our Coin.
I. First, By not altering the Species of the Money, but the Value of it, as making a Crown Piece go for 6 or 7 s.
II. Secondly, By diminishing the Matter, but leaving the same Name, and there is no essential Difference between these two Ways.
III. Thirdly, by abasing the Fineness with more than ordinary Allay.
Mr. Lownds’s Report, p. 28. and onwards.
This has been judicially and fully stated by Mr. Lownd’s, who hath shown the undeniable Expediency of keeping up always our Silver Coin, to the present Fineness, as that illustrious and solid Writer Sr. Robert Cotton had likewise shew’d, and therefore I will say nothing on this Topic, lest I should seem to build upon other Mens Foundations; and I the rather omit it, because all that hath, or can be said, against the raising of the extrinsic Valuation of Coin, above the real Value, is applicable to the abasing of it by Allay, and I fully assent to that Axiom, That the debasing our Money, by Allay, and raising the Value of the Standard, is only doing one and the same thing, (to most Intents and Purposes) by two several Ways or Means.
Suppose then but two Ways of debasing it, by Quantity, or by Quality, and still that is all but debasing of it, that is, giving it a Value in Name, of more than it hath Intrinsically or Really; for this more than Intrinsic Value, is meerly Extrinsical, supposed, or denominated: in short ’tis a fictitious imaginary Value, and not a real one, above the intrinsic.
Cotton’s Posthuma, p. 287.
And this, to say no more of it, is the reviving of that Monster which Q. Elizab. of Happy Memory so gloried in the subduing; and I doubt we have Monsters enough to deal with, without reviving more.
This is such a devouring Expedient as will immediately swallow down a Part of every Man’s Estate, and at last consume the Nation.
The Price of every thing will rise instead of falling.
For if we were willing to submit to this at home, yet there is such a Combination, between our Foreign and Home Trade, and the Relation between ’em is so inseparable, that let the State give it what Name it will, it will pass for no more at home than it doth abroad, unless the heavy Balance of Trade was on our side the Water; and it will pass for no more abroad than it is really, not Extrinsically or Imaginarily, worth at home.
An Act of Parliament can as well make a Scotch Pound pass for an English, as half an Ounce of Silver in England to go for an Ounce in Holland, without some Consideration as may Balance the Difference.
Let us call a six peny-Weight of Silver a Crown-Piece, as loud and as long as we will, yet we shall never buy a Pound of Nutmegs with Four of ’em, unless you’ll give the Dutch Merchant a Yard of broad-Cloth, or something else into the Bargain.
’Tis a plain case, that when the real Value of Money is lessen’d, the Price of every thing will Rise accordingly, be the Extrinsic Value what it will.
Two Crown-Pieces do not buy a Yard of Cloth, because they contain Ten Shillings, but because they contain almost two Ounces of Silver.
Gold and Silver are the universal Pledges and Security of all Trade, in every Nation, and what’s wanting in their Value must some way or other be made Good, more than in Name or Supposition.
’Tis True, in Holland and elsewhere, they have a base Under-Money, and there is not an Ounce of Silver, perhaps, in as many Stivers or Schillings, as are Equivalent to Ten Shillings in our Money.
But if in Holland, you can exchange so many of them, as have not an Ounce of pure Silver in ’em, for as much of their better Coin, as contains two or three Ounces of good Silver, then doubtless you can buy as good Commodities for those, as you can proportionably for their better Money; as here you might formerly have bought as much Pack-Thread for 48 Tin Farthings as for a Silver Shilling; the Reason is, because there was a recourse; and base Money will have a proportionable Value to Good, in that place where it can be changed into Good; but that’s a very different thing, from debasing the whole Species of Money throughout the Nation, so that a Man shall be forc’d always to take Under-Money, without any prospect of remedy.
I have nothing to say against an inferior sort of Money; a Verna Nummus, provided there be a Regina Pecunia too; and it is indeed a dishonouring him, whose Image and Superscription our Money bears, if we shall make use of our Money to cover over a Fraud; it is a respect we owe to the King, not to suffer his Impress upon any thing but what is really Valuable; and it is for the Nation’s Honour that the vilest of our Coin hath a real Value; but if the Wisdom of the Parliament shou’d think otherwise, yet there is a vast Difference between having the under-Money, and all the Money of the Nation of an Imaginary Value.
The Arguments that may be made use of against such an imaginary Valuation of Money, are perhaps invincible, and almost innumerable; but were there no other but this, I think it might be sufficient without any more; considering our present Case.
We must have an Army in Flanders or a War in England.
I would I had nothing to do but to make out that.
How must we pay this Army? The Royal Bank of England, ’tis said, have established there a Mint for Coining of Money to pay the Army; I desire then to know if they will be contented to receive here an undervalued Money, and pay there our Army in Money which the Flemmings will take; If they do, the Cap lies between the Flemmings and them, I wo’nt award till I know more.
I rather think that the Hollanders and Flemmings will raise their Money proportionably to what we raise ours, and then in all Respects we are just as we were, till we rise higher than they, and then they higher than we; which will beget perpetual Wranglings and Wars in Trade.
I thought now to have done with this Article, but can’t omit one thing.
Which is that when you raise the Value of Money, you Naturally raise the Value of Silver, which is high enough already; and then indeed England will become the Best Market for Silver, because all Countries will sell it to us and get sufficiently by the Bargain: they’ll buy good peny-worths of our Commodities, giving us high Valued Silver for it, till we have a glut of Silver and the Price of Silver falls and then I suppose the Intrinsic Value of the Money falls too. Tho’ I confess as bad Consequences may follow too great an Intrinsic Value.
I speak nothing of the Confusions and Jealousie which will arise from hence, but there’s a long Chain of ill Consequences, and therefore I hope it will be allow’d as a Maxime.
That if our Silver Coin hath less than a real Value, it will not answer the Intentions of the Government.
CHAP. V.
Of Exportation of Coin’d Silver.
’Tis too well known, that when the Balance of Trade comes to be examined, we fall short of several of our Neighbours very considerably: By this Means the Exchange doth not only fall very low, but will become altogether insufficient for our present Occasions; so that as long as the War continues, there is an absolute Necessity that we export so much Silver and Gold in Specie as the Balance wants on our Side.
But this Exportation would not be at all prejudicial to us, if the Importation could be made equal to the Exportation, and a Balance in this Particular only would do our Business.
In vain therefore we labour to find out a Way to force a National Trade above what the State of Europe in general, or our own Nation in particular will allow; if that were not the Case, where would be the Inconvenience of a War? This is an Evil never to be cured, but in Times of Peace. But our Comfort is, that even in these Times of War War the Nation notwithstanding the balance of Trade, appears as wealthy as ever, excepting only in the Article of Coyn, so that it is not only fruitless but very needless to speak now of the balance of Trade either in general, or upon any Article but that of Money: Besides if we should begin at that end it would be a round about way, and so long in compassing, that we may be at the last gasp before we attain our end. He would be accounted no good Physician who in the case of an Hæmorrhage when the danger is very present should talk of Diet Drinks and Alteratives, whereas an actual and immediate application to the part affected, or a sudden revulsion is more to the purpose. But be the balance of Trade in general how it will, ’tis impossible it should be suddenly remedied, if at all during the War.
But if we can balance a little between that Article of Trade which relates to the Importation of Bullion, it will be soon much better with us than it is at present, ’tis something if we can give present ease, and not increase the Danger; and more if we can lessen the Danger which the want of ease seems to threaten.
Suppose for instance then the whole Trade of England to all parts of the World to be carried on by two Merchants, one at London, and the other at Amsterdam, and the only Commodities to be Cloth and Silk. Suppose he at London Exports every year 1000 l. worth of Broad Cloth and no more, and he at Amsterdam Imports hither 1500 l. worth of Silk, that here’s an inevitable necessity of the Londiners Exporting every Year 500 l. in Bullion can’t be denyed, and if this continue year by year it, will be, you’ll say, of pernicious consequence to England, and it will be a wonderful hard matter at this time to help such a Case.
But if we can at present so order it, that instead of importing 1500 l. worth of Silk we shall import 1000 l. worth of Silk, and 500 l. worth of Silver we shall be no losers in the Article I am upon, and which is the only thing I have undertaken to look after, viz. That the Nation shall never want Money be the Trade what it will: for if 500 l. in Silver be Exported and as much Imported every Year, we can never have a Peny worth of Bullion less than we have.
And if other Nations must get by us, they had better get any thing than our Money; if what they get by us they must be forced to spend among us, ’twill lessen I hope the Calamity, as will appear more hereafter.
Now this is not to be done by giving our Coyn a Nominal, fictitious or extrinsick value only above its intrinsick: Foreigners are not such Fools to be dealt with at that rate, as to pay you a Rex Dollar of 18 d. weight 18 grains in Amsterdam or Brussels, for a piece of Money of 15 penny weight in London.
Sir Robert Cotton’s answer of the Committee. September 1626. Pag. 306.
Turn the Tables, and suppose the King of Spain should advance his Real of Eight weighing but 17 Penny Weight 12 Grains to double the value it now bears, and yet needing by reason of the barrenness of his Country more of Foreign Wares than he can Countervail by Barter with his own; he must part with his Money and not gain by enhauncing his Coyn. One Real of Eight would not then buy of us as good a Yard of broad Cloth as two doth now, and why should we think to over reach them more than they us.
But then again, suppose the Money to be Coyned shall be (as our Mill’d Money and diminished hammer’d Money is) pretty near the Intrinsick value of the Silver in each piece, and this will doubtless facilitate Exportation. If a Foreigner for instance bring to London and sells 40 Bales of raw Silk, or 40 Tun of Wine, and meets not here with such a Market for the buying of other Commodities to be Transported as he expected, perhaps those he wants are not of our Growth or Manufacture, or it may be he is in hast, or the Season calls him home; how easie is it for him to sheer away, and go to another Market, having Money in his Pocket passable every where, at the rate he took it, that inconsiderable allowance for Coynage only excepted!
This I think is plain, but as yet there is more in it than so; and suppose it, any other Nations turn to want Silver as much as we now do, and Silver should be there at an higher price than with us, then our Money becomes good Merchandice, and he gets most who carries most over: And the lower the value of our Coyn is the less Foreign Commodities we shall have for it.
You’ll Prohibit you’ll say the exporting of it, and so you have upon pain of Death prohibited the Exportation of our Wooll, yet to the comfort of our Grasiers ’tis still Exported, though it’s very bulky Ware. But Money lies in a small Compass, a Sea Captain knows very little of his chief business if he knows not where to stow a 1000 l. undiscovered.
And if after all we should be very severe in the execution of such prohibitory Laws, it would put such a damp to Foreign Trade as every body is not aware of.
And indeed if Money were not allowed to be a commodity, yet ’tis a Pledge and Surety of every Traders Property, and I am not reconciled to the Justice of that Law which forbids a man to take his Pledge along with him.
Such a Law makes money nothing but a Commodity, and then we must pay dear for what we buy of Foreigners, for most men will sell Cheaper than they will Barter.
This Article needs I think no more illustration, if it doth the Merchants can tell more of it than I, and I hope they will grant me this Conclusion.
That if our English Money will pass in any other Country for as much as it doth here, ’tis impracticable to hinder the Exportation of it.
CHAP. VI.
Of melting down the current Coyn of England by our Goldsmiths and other Artificers.
Another great grievance of the Nation in the matters of Coyn may be thought the melting of it down.
This hath been a vile and great practice for many Years.
The Criminals have been under two temptations:
1. The inequality of the Mint in all the hammered money; some milled Pieces were of more Intrinsick than Extrinsick Value, and some of less, so that in culling out of the bigest, they made an evident advantage.
But that sort of money being almost all gone and never like to be coyned again, I shall altogether wave the consideration of it.
2. The other Temptation is the great Intrinsick Value of our mill’d money, most of which was coyn’d when Silver was 5 s. 2 d. 5 s. 4 d. or 5 s. 6 d. per ounce, and the price of Silver rising, a Crown piece has now the intrinsick value of 6 s. or thereabouts, this is a mighty temptation to melt it down.
Titius owes Sempronius 10 l. and pays him in mill’d money, Sempronius owes a third man as much, but first melts it down and sells it to a Goldsmith for 12 l. and so puts 40 s. in his Pocket. This might have been prevented you’ll say before all the mill’d money was gone; by crying down all other money, for if the Goldsmiths had given 12 l. in mill’d money for an Ingot melted out of ten Pounds, they must at length have been ruined; and therefore the Crying down all other money must have brought down the price of Silver necessarily, or none could have been sold.
If 5 s. melted down would not have yielded a Crown Piece, who would have melted ’em; and if they would have yielded more, the money of the Nation how much soever must soon have vanished, for more could not have been coyn’d, till the price of Silver should fall: But how could the price of Silver have fallen so low in England, as not to be worth any mans while to melt down the milled money, if Silver should at the same time of its melting bear an higher price in other Countries than it did here at the time of its Coyning: So that the Coyning down of base money would at any time have been so far from helping us, that it would have immediately ruined us, it being impossible to Coyn more upon the old Standard, if the price of Silver is higher beyond Sea than it was when that old Standard was Coyned: And ’twill be impossible for us to Coyn new money after the old Standard (till we can bring down the Foreign Price of Silver) so fast as it will be melted down.
To make this plain upon which so much depends, put the Case thus.
Suppose you called in by compulsion and Coyned all the Plate of England, and suppose it never so many Millions, and all after the old Standard, when the Plate is all gone people will have more Plate, and Silversmiths must still have work, and Goldsmiths their Trade, unless by prohibiting the use of silver Plate we proclaim an hypocritical Beggary to all the world, and ruin many thousand Families of Artisans. The Silver then of which you coyn your new Plate must come from abroad, or be procured out of your money.
The Goldsmith will go the cheaper way to work, and rather than he’ll give 5 s. 10 d. to a Merchant for an ounce of Plate, he’ll fling in a Crown and 6 d. into the melting Pot, and though the Laws against melting down Coyn be never so severe yet people will venture any thing for gain, as you may see Clippers do daily; especially if their Consciences don’t check ’em, and few mens Consciences will scruple making the most of their own.
And as the accurate Mr. Lowndes observes, notwithstanding ever since Ed. 3d’s. time prohibitory Laws have been against melting down Coyn, pag. 68. and the profit of melting it sometimes very inconsiderable, pag. 69. the practice hitherto was never prevented. But it may be said money shall be coyned of an intrinsick value or near thereabouts (Coynage only allowed) in proportion to the present value of Silver, be it more or less as it shall alter from time to time, and so the abatement for Coynage shall always keep the Estimate of the Coyn above the Intrinsick value of the Silver, but instead of bringing remedy this will make the Case tentimes worse, for then upon every rise of Silver the Goldsmiths and others will melt down all that was Coyn’d at a lower Price, and if the form of the Coyn don’t direct ’em to be dextrous, the Prentices shall follow the old Trade of weighing money Night and Day too.
So that without going farther upon this Topick, I may lay it down as a Conclusion or Maxim.
That if the Intrinsick Value of Coyn be subject to alteration the Coyn is always in danger of being melted down.
CHAP. VII.
Of Hoarding up of the Silver Coyn.
People who have several uneasinesses upon ’em at one and the same time, are very apt to attribute ’em all to one, which is the most hated, the most invidious, or at least the most visible cause, though in reality every one may have sprung from a several and very different root.
Thus our present War with France is to some few people odious, to many invidious, and to all visible, and this therefore must be the cause of all National Calamities.
Whereas many things are better with us now than if we had no War; a frequency of Parliaments, an universal vigilance, a care of Shiping; a choice of able Ministers, (and not unskilful Favorites in most places of greatest Trust;) an intire Allyance with the most useful Neighbours; an honest imployment for all dissolute Men; an honourable provision for younger Sons of Gentlemen; a perfect understanding between the King and his People; an almost total desistance from an unreasonable and disadvantageous Commerce with France; a more brotherly Correspondence with the Dissenters (being all equally engaged in the Publick danger). We have great Honour by the Bravery of our Arms, and the most important assistance we give to all Christendom against French and Turk. Our King is become the Generalissimo of Europe, and his Fleet give Laws in all Seas.
These and many more to the better part of the Nation are the advantages of this necessary tho’ expensive War.
But there are some that look upon it with an evil eye, and then the badness of money, and the scarcity of it, and the Exporting and melting down, and hoarding it, and the rise of Gold, and the dearness of Commodities, and the badness of Trade are all as evident effects of the War as the Taxes are.
Though in truth this is all Humour and Caprice, and none of it more ridiculous than when the hoarding up of Money is imputed to the War, which is the meer effect of the dearness of Silver, as the dearness of Silver in England is the natural effect of its dearness abroad, and its dearness abroad to the obstructions of Trade, which would be if only France and Spain were at War, since Spain is the Silver Market of the whole World.
Ever since the extraordinary abasement of Coyn by an unparalleled Counterfeit and Clipping, people have hoarded up Money apace, not knowing how far the debasement would run; and fearing if they put their good Money out they should at the long run be forced to be paid back in they know not what themselves.
Nor hath the beauty and rarity of uncorrupted and undiminished Coyn, added a little to the humour of hoarding it up.
Undefaced and weighty pieces are now as so many Medals, people think it a great happiness to have a store of ’em. And as the Coyn degenerates these are more charily preserved, and will be so till the intrinsick value of ’em diminishes. I could give a shrewd guess where this weighty Money is to be found in great quantities, but be it where it will as I said before, I think every man hath a right do what he will with his own, so far as it is his own.
All that I at present aim at is to show.
That Coyn which hath an Intrinsick value above the Extrinsick, and is withall rare or uncommon will inevitably be hoarded up, and continue so to be.
CHAP. VIII.
Of Regulating our Silver Coyn.
To give an exact Estimate of what Silver Coyn is necessary for the carrying on our Trade in its full Vigor, is a task I am not at present willing to undertake, but the least I can guess at is 5000000 l. considering that great Sums will always remain in the Exchequer, and Banks; for I look upon the Banks not as Chanels only, but as great Receptacles likewise, wherein money must rest and wait for opportunities of disposing it.
None of Hypotheses depend upon definite or determinate Sums, and I shall beg nothing essentially necessary to the carrying on of my design, but I desire for the present working only of my Proposition, that a few Postulata be a while granted me.
It matters not much whether any of ’em be true for they may easily be varied Mutatis Mutandis.