Answ. III. That if it is said, that the pound sterling is in any case of the value of 1718.7 grains of fine silver, I am entitled to ask who can force any man in Great Britain to pay him at that rate? But if it be true on the contrary, that there is not any pound sterling due within that kingdom which may not be legally acquitted with 113 grains of fine gold, or with 1638 grains of fine silver, then I am authorised to state the present value of the pound sterling at that rate. If this be the case, then the addition of one grain of silver or of gold more, in a new coinage, necessarily implies a raising of the standard.
That it is not the regulation of the mint, but the disorder of the coin which must debase the standard.
Answ. IV. This objection lies against the rubbing of the coin, not against the regulation of the mint. I have frequently observed, that it is the rubbing of the coin which of itself debases the standard, in spite of the statute as it stands, but not in spite of what it might be.
There is no doubt, that as long as any nation permits her current coin to pass below the standard weight, by virtue of the stamp, she by that neglect, opens a door to the debasement of the standard, and totally disappoints that part of the statute which regulates the weight; consequently the act of making a new coinage afterwards, at the then debased value, is not of itself a new debasement.
The new coinage, in that case, is a temporary interruption put to the circulation of coin unequally worn, which is what occasions, more than any thing, the progressive debasement of the standard; but it is no new debasement in itself, nor is it any preservative against debasements for the future.
If it be not provided by statute, that debtors shall make good the weight of the coin with which they pay, in one way or other, of necessity the state must either go on regularly debasing her standard every new coinage, or be obliged to raise it by jerks, to the detriment of all the debtors who have contracted during the preceding debasement.
That people are obliged to measure by the standard weight, but are not obliged to pay by the standard pound.
Answ. V. The comparison between the standard weights in the exchequer, with the standard of the pound sterling, is not just. If a merchant offers me grain, bullion, or cloth, by a measure which is not of the legal content, weight, or length, I may refuse it. I have even an action against him for fraudulent dealing, in case I shall have unwarily accepted of the merchandize. But I cannot reclaim (as has been said) the measure of the money-unit according to the statute.
Now let me suppose, that for 40 years no access could be got to the standard measures of the exchequer, that during this time all the measures of the nation should be debased; that notwithstanding this, the landlords over all England should continue to stipulate their rents in grain, by the debased bushel of their respective counties: if after 40 years of such confusion, the exchequer should be opened, and all measures fitted to the standards, would it not be a horrid piece of injustice not to allow both landlords and farmers who had entred into leases within the 40 years, the liberty of converting their rents from the debased to the standard bushel.
That the loss upon light money when called in does not fall upon the possessors.