In 1676 the printing of calicoes was commenced in London. A writer of the day says that “instead of green say, that was wont to be used for children’s frocks, is now used painted and Indian and striped calico, and instead of perpetuam or shalloon to line men’s coats with is used sometimes glazed calico, which in the whole is not a shilling cheaper, and abundantly worse.”
An Act passed in 1662 forbade the importation of foreign bone lace, cut work, embroidery, fringe, band-strings, buttons, and needlework on the ground that many persons in this country made their living by this work.
The art of tinning plate-iron was brought over from Germany. The first wire-mill was also put up at this period by a Dutchman.
In short, the development of the arts was largely advanced during the century, and almost entirely by foreigners—French, German, Venetian, and Dutch.
The income of the Crown does not belong to the history of London, except that the City furnished a large part of it. That of Charles II. was ordered by the Parliament, August 31, 1660, to be made up to £1,200,000 a year. To raise this sum various Acts were passed. Thus there was the subsidy called “tonnage” levied upon foreign wine, and that called “pundage” levied upon the export and import of certain commodities. These taxes were collected at the Custom House. There was also the excise upon beer, ale, and other liquors sold within the kingdom. There was the tax of hearth money, which was two shillings upon any fire, hearth, or stove in every house worth more than twenty shillings a year. There were also the Royal lands, such as the Forest of Dean, the duties on the mines in the Duchy of Cornwall, the first-fruits and tenths of church benefices, the Post Office, etc. Other duties were laid occasionally on land, on personal property, on the sale of wine, etc. It must be remembered, however, that the King maintained out of this income the Fleet and the Army.
The coinage current in London consisted of more kinds than the present simpler system. In gold there were sovereigns, half-sovereigns, crowns, and half-crowns; in silver, crowns, half-crowns, shillings, sixpences, half-groats, pennies, and halfpennies. To this there were added from time to time the Thistle crown of four shillings, the Scottish six pound gold coin valued at ten shillings, the French crown called “The Sun,” valued at seven shillings. There were also farthing tokens in lead, tin, copper, and leather.
Ben Jonson shows us what kind of money was carried about. “The man had 120 Edward’s shillings, one old Harry sovereign, three James shillings, an Elizabeth groat: in all twenty nobles”—a noble was worth 7s. 2d.; “also he had some Philip and Marias, a half-crown of gold about his wrist that his love gave him, and a leaden heart when she forsook him.”
“Before the reign of James I. nothing beyond pennies and halfpennies in silver appear to have been attempted to supply the poor with a currency. In 1611 Sir Robert Cotton propounded a scheme for a copper coinage; this was not, however, carried out. A scheme to enrich the king produced the farthing token, weighing six grains, and producing 24s. 3d. for the pound weight of copper; half the profit was to be the king’s and the other half the patentee’s. The first patent was granted to Baron Harrington of Exton, Rutlandshire, April 10, 1613, and a Proclamation was issued May 19, 1613, forbidding the use of traders’ tokens in lead, copper, or brass. The new coin was to bear, on the one side, the King’s title, ‘Jaco. D. G. Mag. Bri., two sceptres through a crown;’ on the reverse, ‘Fra. et. Hib. Rex., a harp crowned.’ The mint mark, a rose. A Proclamation was published June 4, 1625, prohibiting any one from counterfeiting this coin. Upon the death of Lord Harrington, in 1614, the Patent was confirmed to Lady Harrington and her assigns; subsequently it was granted to the Duke of Lennox and James, Marquis of Hamilton, and on the 11th of July 1625 to Frances, Duchess Dowager of Richmond and Lennox, and Sir Francis Crane, Knight, for seventeen years, the patentees paying to the King one hundred marks yearly. By a Proclamation issued in 1633, the counterfeiters of these tokens were, upon conviction, to be fined £100 apiece, to be set on the pillory in Cheapside, and from thence whipped through the streets to Old Bridewell, and there kept to work; and when enlarged, to find sureties for their good behaviour. On the 3rd of August 1644 the Mayor, Aldermen, and Commons of the City of London petitioned the House of Commons against the inconvenience of this coin, and the hardship suffered by the poor in consequence. No farthing tokens being issued during the Commonwealth, private persons were under the necessity of striking their own tokens. The practice being, however, contrary to law, was subsequently prohibited by a Proclamation issued August 16, 1672. It further appears, by an advertisement in the London Gazette, No. 714, September 23, 1672, that an office called the ‘Farthing Office’ was opened in Fenchurch Street, near Mincing Lane, for the issue of these coins on Tuesday in each week, and in 1673–4 an order was passed to open the office daily. These measures not proving effectual to prevent private coinage of tokens, another Proclamation was issued on October 17, 1673, and another on December 12, 1674. These farthing tokens encountered the contempt and scorn of all persons to whom they were tendered, as being of the smallest possible value. Sarcastic allusions were made to them by dramatists, poets, and wits. ‘Meercroft,’ in Ben Jonson’s Devill is an Asse, Act ii. sc. 1, played in 1616, alludes to this coin and its patentee” (Index to Remem. pp. 89, 90, note).
In 1694 the London tradesmen began to cry out about the badness of the coinage; vast numbers of halfpence and farthings were forged, and the chipping of the silver went on almost openly. The Government resolved on an entirely new issue, which was complete in 1699.
