a cleare and evident way for enriching the nations of england and ireland and for setting very great numbers of poore on work this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (wing k ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing k estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a cleare and evident way for enriching the nations of england and ireland and for setting very great numbers of poore on work keymor, john, fl. - . raleigh, walter, sir, ?- . i. d. [ ], p. printed by t.m. & a.c., and are sold by john saywell ..., london : . the dedicatory preface signed: i.d. variously attributed to john keymor and sir walter raleigh. reproduction of original in thomason collection, british library. eng currency question -- great britain. great britain -- commercial policy. a r (wing k ). civilwar no a cleare and evident vvay for enriching the nations of england and ireland, and for setting very great numbers of poore on work. [no entry] d the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the d category of texts with between and defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - ali jakobson sampled and proofread - ali jakobson text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a cleare and evident way for enriching the nations of england and ireland , and for setting very great numbers of poore on work . chron. . . and the king made silver in jerusalem as stones , and cedar-trees made be as the sycamore-trees , that are in the low plains in abundance . london , printed by t. m. & a. c. and are sold by john saywell at the grey-hound in little-britain . . to the people of england & ireland ; whether nobles , gentry , or commons . right honourable , &c. for these thirty yeares past , it hath been observed , that those in publique place or trust have plotted and contrived little , but how to enrich themselves ; whether you look upon protestant , or puritane : most , if not all of both , laying about them like mad , untill they could say with dives ; soule , thou hast enough laid up for many years ; eat , drinke , and take thy rest ! in all which time , and with the generality of such persons , the publique good hath been no further cared for , then the egyptians did ; that they have their tale of brick or taxes : being not ignorant , that the hard labour in brick-making , with the want of straw , had made the israelites cry , and not without feare that that cry was come up to heaven . lest that after a getting over the red-sea , with the destruction of very many of these task-masters , these two nations should make indentures in the wildernesse for forty years , before they get to canaan , and only caleb and joshua get thither : knowing that miracles are ceased , this essay is published for advance of trade ; having ready another of excellent use for enriching by land , as this by sea ; which , if this have encouragement , shall follow : thereby to helpe you all either a neerer way to the land of promise , so much prayed for , and so dear bought ; or to enable you to beare the difficulties and miseries you are like to suffer in the journy . you shall do well to fall close to the businesse , and set on work what is here laid down : you have old laws enough to beare you out ; and certainly none will hinder your gathering straw , who will exact and need your tale of bricks , if they put you not upon bringing in more : and for your encouragement , whosoever shall agree in the city of london , or any other part of this nation , or that of ireland , to set the busines on foot ; a way shall clearly be laid down for the income of ten per cent. possibly twenty , thirty , or more , which will ballance the experience , and so underselling of others ; and no more hazard of principal or profit , then is in putting mony to use upon good security . this edge ( it 's confest ) must have an additional law . by this , you will do that really in way of help to the poor , that hundreds of thousands loynes will blesse you , all will be bettered , and you had in everlasting honour . which is all eyed by him , who desires no longer to breathe , then he shall be ready to shew himself your , or the nation 's humble servant , i. d. some years past was presented to his late majesty a model of extraordinary importance , honour and profit : which being laid aside ( as was conceived ) the ensuing was tendered , consisting of several propositions ; gathered from the fruition of those wonderful blessings england's seas and land were furnished with ; not onely to enrich and fill coffers , but increase such might and strength , as would , being put in execution , make in short time this nation of so great power , that all the princes-neighbours shall be glad of its friendship , and fearful to offend it . peruse this advertisement with care and judgment , and you will discern as much . by way of introduction consider , . the true ground , course and form by which other countries make themselves powerful & rich in all kinds of all merchandizing , manufacture , & fulnesse of trade , and yet have no commodities in their own country growing to do it withal . . that this nation it self may improve its native commodities , with other traffique , as well and better , yea to millions of pounds more yearly then now they are ; and bring not only to englands representatives coffers within the space of two or three years millions of pounds , increase the revenues many thousands yearly , please , and greatly profit the people ; but also set at work all sorts of people in the realm , as other nations do , who raise their greatnesse by the abundance of this nations commodities , whilest we are parlying and disputing whether it be good for us or not . for other nations ▪ those who have travelled the united provinces , have observed those countries grow potent , and abound in all things to serve themselves & other nations , where little groweth : raising their estate to such an admirable height , as they are at this day even a wonder to the world ▪ which well weighed , will appeare to come from these seas , and this land ; out of which they draine and still covet to exhaust our wealth and coyn , and with our own commodities weaken us , and finally beat us quite out of trading in other countries . which experience tells , they more fully obtain , by their convenient priviledges and setled constitutions , then england with all the lawes and super abundance of homebred commodities which god hath vouchsafed these seas & this land . by these priviledges they draw multitudes of merchants to trade with them , and many other nations to inhabite amongst them , which makes them populous : they make store-houses of all forrain commodities ▪ wherewith upon every occasion of scarcity and dearth , they are able to furnish forrain countries with plenty of those commodities , which before in time of plenty they ingrossed , and brought home from the same places : which doth greatly a●g●●●n● power and treasure to their state , besides the common good in setting their people and poor on work . to these priviledges ▪ they adde smalnesse of custome and liberty of trade , which makes them flourish ; and their countries plentiful of all kind of coyn and commodities , and their merchants so rich , that when a losse cometh they scarce feel it . they have also at present many advantages of us : one is by their fashioned ships , called ●●●vers , hoyb●rks , hoyes , and others , that are made to hold 〈◊〉 bulk of merchandise , and to saile with a few men for profit ▪ for example : though an english-ship of tuns , and a holland-ship o● any other of the petty-states of the same burthen , be at da●●k o● any other place beyond the seas , or in england ; they do serve the merchant better cheap by l . in the . in his fraight , then we can , by reason he hath but nine or ten mariners , and we neer thirty . thus he saveth twenty mens meat and wages in a voyage , and so in all other their ships accordingly to their burthen ; by which meanes they are fraighted wheresoever they come to great profit , whilest our ships ●e still and decay , or go to newcastle for coals . adde to this their smalnesse of custome inwards and outwards , whereof we have daily experience : for if english ships , or of any other nation be at burdeaux , both laden with wines of tuns apeece , the one bound for holland or any other petty-state , the other for england ; the merchant shall pay about l . custome here , and other duties , when the other in holland or any other petty-states shall be cleared for lesse then l . and so in all other wares and merchandises accordingly , which draweth all nations to traffique with them . and although it seems but small duties which they receive ; yet the multitudes of all kind of commodities and coyn is so great that is brought in by themselvs & others , and carried out by themselves and others , that they receive more customes and duties to the state ( by the greatnesse of their comerce ) in one yeare , then england doth in two ; for the hundreth part of commodities are not spent in holland , but ven●●d into other countries ; which maketh all the country , merchants , to buy and sell , and increase ships and mariners to transport them . notwithstanding their excises brings them great re●en●es ; yet whosoever will adventure to burdeaux but for sixe tuns of wines , shall be free of excise in his own house all the yeare long . and this is done ( of purpose ) to animate and increase merchants in their country . and if it happen that a trade be stopped by any forrain nation ( which they heretofore usually had ) or hear of any good trading ( which they never had ) they will hinder others , and seek either by favour , mony , or force , to open the gap of traffique for advancement of themselves , and imployment of their people . and when there is a new trade or course erected , they give free customs inwards and outwards , for the better maintenance of navigation , and encouragement of the people to that businesse . a little to enlarge upon the following particulars , to prove that thus they and others glean the wealth and strength from us to themselves , and become the traders of the world . . merchant-staplers make all things in abundance , by reason of their storehouses continually replenished with all kind of commodities . . the liberty of free-traffique for strangers to buy and sell in countries and states , ( as if they were free-born . ) . the small dutles levied upon merchants . . the fashioned ships , continually fraighted before ours , by reason of their few mariners and great bulk , serving the merchant cheap . . the forwardnesse to further all manner of trading . . the wonderful imployment of busses for fishing , and the great returns made . the giving free-custome inwards and outwards for any new-erected trade : by means whereof they have already gotten almost the sole ●●●de into their hands . and this is not in the netherlands only , but all nations may buy and sell freely in france , and there is free-custome outwards twice or thrice in a yeare ; at which times our merchants themselves do make their great sales of english commodities , and do buy and lade their great bulk of french commodities to serve for the whole year . in rochel and in britain ; free custome all the year long ( except some small toll ) which maketh great traffique , and maketh them flourish . in denmark , to encourage and enrich their merchants , and to increase ships and mariners , free custome all the year long for their own merchants , ( except one moneth between bartholmew-tide and michaelmasse . the hance-towns have likewise advantage of us , and in most things imitate the hollanders , which maketh them exceeding rich and plentiful of all kinds of commodities and coin , and so strong in ships and mariners , that some of their towns have neer sail of ships . the merchandises of france , portugal , spain , italy , turkey , east , and west indies are transported most by the hollanders and other petty-states into the east and north-east kingdoms of pomerland , spruceland , poland , denmark , swe●hen , leifland , and germany ; and the merchandise brought from the last mentioned kingdoms ( being wonderfully many ) are likewise by the hollanders and other petty-states transported into the southern and western dominions ; and yet the s●ituation of england lieth far better for a store-house to serve the southern , east , and north-east regions then they , and hath far better means to do it , if we will bend our course for it . no so●●er a dearth of ●●●● , wine , or corn here , or other merchandise , but forth with the embdeners , hamburgers and hollanders , out of their storehouses lade . . or more ships , dispersing themselves round about this kingdom , and carry away great store of coyn and wealth for little commodities , in those times of dearth : by which means they suck our commonwealth of their riches , cut down our merchants , and decay our navigation , not with their natural commodities which groweth in their own country , but the merchandises of other countries and kingdoms . therefore it is far more easie for us to serve our selves , hold up our merchants , increase our ships and mariners , strengthen the kingdome , and not only keep our mony in our own realm , ( which other nations still rob us of ) but bring in their who carry ours away , and make the bank of coin and storehouse to serve other nations as well and far better cheap then they in england . amsterdam is never without . quarters of corn , besides the plenty they daily vent , and none of this groweth in their own country . a dearth in england , france , spain , italy , portugal , or other places , is truly observed to enrich holland seven yeares after , and likewise the petty-states . for example : the dearth , novemb. . the hamburgers , embdeners , and hollanders , out of their storehouses furnished this kingdom , and from southampton , exeter , and bristol , only in a year and a half , caried away neer two hundred thousand pounds : which being true , then what great quantity of coyne was transported from all ports of this nation ? it cannot be esteemed so little as two millions : to the great decay of this realm , impovererishing the people , discredit to the company of merchants , and dishonour to the land , that any nation that have not corn in their own country growing , should serve this famous kingdom which god hath so enabled within it self . and if so much in . five times as much between . and . these have a continual trade into this kingdome with or ships yearly , with merchandises of other countries and kingdoms , and store them up , untill the prices rise to their mindes : and we trade not with ships into their country in a yeare ; their number are about this realm every easterly winde for the most part , to lade coals and other merchandise . again . unlesse there be a scarcity , dearth , or high-prices , merchants do forbear that place , where great impositions are laid upon the merchandise ; and those places slenderly shipped , all served , and at deare rates , and oftentimes in scarcity , and want of imployment for the people . and those petty-states finding truly by experience , that small duties imposed upon merchandise draweth all traffiique unto them ; and free liberty for strangers to buy and sell , doth make continual marts : therefore whatever excises or impositions are laid upon the common people ; yet they still ease , uphold , and maintain the merchants by all possible means , of purpose to draw the wealth and strength of christendome to themselves : whereby it appeareth , though the duties be but small , yet the customes for going out , and coming in , doth so abound , that they increase their revenues greatly , and make great profit by sea and land , in serving themselves and other nations : likewise the great concourse which comes by the same means , enableth the common-people to beare their burthen laid upon them ; and yet they grow rich , together with the great comerce and trade occasioned by their convenient priviledges and commodious constitutions . there was an entercourse of traffique in g●●●a , and in that city was the flower of comerce , as appeareth by their ancient records and sumptuous buildings ; all nations traded with merchandises to them , and there was the storehouse of all italy and other places : but after they had set a great custome of xvi . per cent. all nations left trading with them , which made them give themselvs wholly ●o usury ; and at this day we have not ; ships go thither in a year . on the contrary , the duke of florence builded ligo●● , and set small customes upon merchandise , gave them great and pleasing priviledges ; which hath made that a rich and strong city , with a flourishing state and trade . concerning the particular of fishing , and the greatest in the w●●ld , which is upon the coast of england , scotland , and ireland , the fishermen living ( to our shame ) in the low-countries and other petty-states , wherewith they serve themselves and all christendome . in four towns in the east-kingdomes within the sound , viz. quinsborough , elbing , statten , and da●zick , there is carried and 〈◊〉 in a year between & lasts of herrings , sold at or pounds the last , which is pounds ; in such request are our herrings there , that they are oftentimes sold for , , , and pounds the last . england sends not one barrel into all those countries . the hollanders send into russia neer lasts sold at or about ● the ●●r●el , which amounteth to pounds . england , about or lasts . to sto●d , hamburgh , breame , and embden , up the river of elve , weazer , and embes , is carried and vented of fish and herrings about lasts , sold at about or pounds the last , which comes to pounds yearly . england , none . cleveland , gulickland , and so up the rhine to cullen , frankford on the main , and so over all germany , is carried and vented of fish and herrings lasts , sold at l . the last , which is l . and we none . up the river of maze , leige , mastrick , vendlow , zu●phen , deventer , campen , swole , and all over lukeland , is carried and vented of herrings lasts sold at l . the last , which is . and we none . to gelderland , artois , henalt , brabant , flanders , up the river of antwerp , all over the archdukes country , is carried and vented between or lasts of of herrings sold at l . the last , which is l . and we none . the hollanders & others carried of all sorts of herrings to roan only in one year , besides all other ports of france , lasts of herrings , sold at l . the last , which is l . and we not ●ast thither . they are sold oftentimes there for , , and l . the last . between christmas and lent , the duties for fish and herrings came to crowns at roan , that year the late queen dec●ased , ( sir tho. parry was agent there then , and st. savours his man knoweth it to be true , who handled the businesse for pulling down the impositions . ) then what great summes of money came to all the port-towns to enrich the french kings coffers , and to all the kings and states throughout christendome to enrich their coffers ? besides the great quantity vented to the straits , and the multitude spent in the low-countries , where there is likewise sold many l . worth yearly . if this stream were turned to the good of this n●tion , to whose sea-coasts only god hath sent and given these great blessings and multitude of riches for us to take ▪ how happy were it ! the hurt , on the contrary , that any nation should carry out of this realme yearly such great masses of money , for fish they take on our seas , many of which sold againe by them to us ; must needs be great , and as great dishonour to this nation . from any port town of any kingdome in christendome , the b●idge-master or the wharf-master , fo● s . a year , will deliver a ●●e note of the number of lasts of herrings brought to their wharfs , and their prices commonly sold at . the number brought to dansick , cullen ; rotterdam , and enchusen , it will cost , , or l . for a true note . the abundance of corne groweth in the east kingdoms : but the great store-houses for grain , to serve christendome , and the heathen countries ( in the time of dearth ) is in the low-countries , wherewith upon every occasion of scarcity and dearth , they enrich themselves seven years after , and imploy their people , and get great fraight for their ships in other countries ; and we not one in that course . the mighty vineyards , and store of salt , is in france and spain : but the great vintage , and staple of salt , is in th●low-countries ; and they send neer . saile of ships with salt and wine onely into the east-kingdomes yearly , besides many other places ; and we not one in that course . the exceeding groves of wood are in the east-kingdomes : but the huge piles of wainscot , clapboards , fir-deale , masts , and timber , is in the low-countries , where none groweth ; wherewith they serve themselves and other parts , and this kingdome with those commodities . they have or great long ships continually using that trade ; and we not one in that course . the wooll , cloth , lead , and tyn , with divers commodities are in england : but by means of our wooll and cloth going out rough , undrest , and undyed , there is an exceeding manufacturie in the low-countries , wherewith they serve themselves and other nations ; which advanceth greatly the imployment of their people at home , and traffique abroad , and putteth down ours in forain parts where our merchants trade unto , with our own commodities : we dressing and dying it basely ; they to that perfection , that they will not fail colour , or be threed-bare in seven years wearing . we send into the east-kingdoms yearly but ships ; and our trade chiefly dependeth upon three towns , elbing , kingsborough , and dantzick , for making our sales , and buying their commodities sent into this realm at dear rates , which this kingdome beareth the burthen of . the low-countries send into the east-kingdoms yearly about ships , trading into every city and port-town , taking the advantage and vending their commodities to exceeding profit , buying and lading their ships with plenty of those commodities which they have from every of those towns l . per cent . better cheap then we , by reason of the difference of their coyn ; and their fish yieldeth ready mony : which greatly advanceth their traffique● and decayeth ours . they send into france , spain , portugal , and italy , from the east-kingdoms , ( that passeth through the sound , and through our narrow-seas ) yearly of the east-country commodities about ships , and we none in that course . they trade into all cities and port-towns in france ; we chiefly to five or sixe . they traffique into every city and port-town round about this land , with or ships yearly ; and we chiefly but to three towns in their country , and but with ships . notwithstanding the low-countries have as many ships and vessels as all the kingdomes of christendome have , ( let england be one ) and build every year neer ships , and not a timber-tree growing in their own country ; also all their homebred commodities that grow in their land in a yeare , lesse then good ships are able to carry away at one time : yet they handle the matter so ( for setting them all on work ) that their traffique with the hance-towns exceedeth in shipping all christendome . we have all things of our own in superabundance to increase traffique , and timber to build ships , and commodities of our own to load about ships and vessels at one time , ( besides the great fishing ) and as fast as they have made their voyages might lade , and so year after year ▪ all the year long to continue : yet our ships and mariners decline ▪ and traffique and merchants daily decay . the main bulk and masse of herrings , from whence they raise so many millions yearly , that enricheth other kingdoms , kings and states coffers , and likewise their own people , proc●edeth from our sea and land ; and the return of the commodities and coin they bring home in exchange of fish and other commodities , are so huge , as would declare a large discourse apart : all the amends they make us , is , they beat us out of trade in all parts with our own commodities . for instance : we had a great trade in russia years ● and about years past , we sent store of goodly ships to trade in those parts , and three years past we set out but four , and this last year two or th●ee . but to the contrary ; the hollanders about years since traded thither with two ships only , yet now they are increased to about thirty or forty , and one of their ships is as great as two of ours ; and the same time ( in their troubles there ) that we decreased , they increased ; and the chiefest commodities they carry thither with them is english cloth , herrings taken on our coast , english lead and pewter made of our tin , besides other commodities : all which we may do better then they . and although it be a cheap country , and the trade very gainful , yet we have almost brought it to nought by disorderly trading , joint-stock , and the merchants bandying themselves one against another . we used to have or great ships to go continually a fishing to wardhouse , and this year but one ; and so pro rato they out-goe us in all kind of fishing and merchandising in all countries , by reason they spare no cost , nor deny no priviledges that may encourage advancement of trade and manufacturie . if it stand with the good liking of the states to take notice of these things conceived to be fit for their consideration , which is tendered unto them out of unfained zeale to the advancement of the generall good of all subjects ; it being apparent that no three kingdoms in christendome can compare with this for support of traffique , and continual imployment of the people within themselves , having so many great means both by sea and land to enrich , multiply the navy , enlarge traffique , make the nation powerful , and people rich , who through idlenesse are poor , wanting imployment ; many land and coast-towns much ruinated ; need of coyn ; shipping , traffique , and mariners decayed ; whil'st neighbour-princes ( without these means ) abound in wealth , enlarge their towns , increase their shipping , traffique , and mariners , and find out such imployment for their people , that are all advantages to their commonwealth ; only by ordaining commodious constitutions in merchandizing , and fulnesse of trade to all their people in manufacturie . god hath blest this nation with incomparable benefits : as , with copper , lead , iron , tinne , allome , copperas , saffron , fells , and divers other native commodities , to the number of an hundred , and other manufacturies vendible to the number of a thousand , ( as shall appeare ) besides corne , whereof great quantity of beere is made , and most transported by strangers ; as also wooll , whereof much is shipped forth unwrought into cloth or stuffs , and cloth transported undyed , which doth imploy and maintain neer people in forain parts , our own people wanting that imployment in england , many of them being inforced to live in great want , and seek it beyond the seas . coals , which doth imploy neer strangers ships yearly to transport them out of this kingdom , whilst we do not imploy twenty ships in that course . iron-ordinance , which is a jewel of great value far more then it is accounted , by reason that no other country could ever attain unto it , although they have assayed it with great charge . timber for building of ships , and commodities plenty to lade them , which commodities other nations want ; yet wee decline in shipping , traffique , and mariners . these inconveniences happen by three causes especially . . the unprofitable course of merchandizing . . want of the true course of full manufacturie of our home-bred commodities . . undervaluing our coynes contrary to the rules of other nations . for instance : the merchant-adventurers by over-trading upon credit , or with mony taken up upon exchange , whereby they lose usually . or . and sometimes . or . per cent . are inforced to make sale of their clothes at under-rates , to keep their credit ; whereby cloth ( being the jewel of the land ) is undervalued , and the merchant in short time eaten out . the merchants of ipswich , whose trade for elbing is chiefly for fine clothes , and some few sorting clothes , ( all died and dressed within this land ) do for the most part buy their fine clothes upon time , and by reason they go so much upon credit , they are enforced ( not being able to stand upon their markets ) to sell , giving or moneths day of payment for their clothes ; and having sold them , they then presently sell their bills ( so taken for cloth ) allowing after the rate of or ▪ and sometimes per cent . which money they imploy forthwith in wares at excessive prices , and lose as much more that way , by that time their wares be sold at home . thus by over-running themselves upon credit , they disable themselves and others , inhancing the price of forain commodities , and pulling down the rates of their own . the west-country merchants that trade with clothes into france or spain , do usually imploy their servants , young ▪ men of small experience , ( and doth not london so likewise ? ) who by cunning combining of the french and spanish merchants are so intrapped , that when all customes and charges be accounted , their masters shall handly receive their principal-mony . as for returns out of france , their silver and gold is so high-rated , that our merchants cannot bring it home , but to great losse . therefore the french merchants set higher rates of their commodities , which we must either buy dear , or let our money lie dead there a long time , untill we may conveniently imploy the same . the northern merchants of york , hull , and newcastle , trade onely in white-kersies and coloured-dozens ; and every merchant ( be his adventure never so small ) doth for the most part send over an unexperienced youth , unfit for mechandising ; which bringeth to the stranger great advantage , but to his master and commonweale great hinderance . for they , before their goods be landed , go to the stranger , and buy such quantities of iron , flax , corn , and other commodities as they are bound to lade their ships withall , which ships they engage themselves to relade within three weeks or a moneth , and do give the price the merchant-stranger asketh , because he giveth them credit , and lets them ship away their iron , flax , and other commodities , before they have sold their kersies and other clothes ; by which means extraordinary deare commodities are returned into the realm , and the servant also inforced to sell his clothes underfoot , and oftentimes to losse , to keep his credit , and to make payment for the goods before shipped home , having some dayes or a moneths respite to sell the clothes and to give the merchant satisfaction for his iron , flax , and other wares ; by which extremities our homebred commodities are abased . touching manufacturie . there hath been about undrest and undyed cloths yeerly transported . which in years , is neere millions that would have been gained by the labour of poore workmen in that time , with the marchants gains for bringing in dying stuffs and return of cloths dressed and dyed ▪ with other benefits to the realm ; besides exceeding in larging of traffique , and increase of ships and mariners . there would have been gained in that time about three millions by increase of custome upon commodities returned for clothes dressed and dyed , and for dyeing stuffs , which would have more plentifully been brought in and used for the same . there hath been also transported in that time yearly by bayze , five northern and devonshire kersies white , about ▪ clothes , accounting three kersies to a cloth , whereby hath been lost about five millions by these sort of clothes in that time , which would have come to poore workmen for their labour , with the custome of dyeing stuffs , and the peoples profit for bringing them in , with returns of other commodities . bayze are transported white unto amsterdam , and being there drest and dyed are shipped into spaine , portugal , and other kingdomes , where they are sold in the name of flemish bayze , setting their own town-seale upon them : so that we lose the very name of our homebred commodities , and other countries get the reputation and profit thereof . lamentable it is , that this land should be deprived of so many aforementioned millions , and that our native commodities of cloth ( ordained of god for the natural subjects , being so royal and rich in it selfe ) should be driven to so smal advantage of reputation and profit to the people , and so much improved and intercepted by strangers , considering that god hath inabled & given this nation more conveniency to advance dressing , dying , and transporting of all cloths . all the companies of the land transport cloths dressed and dyed to the good of the kingdome ( except the merchant-adventurers ) whereby , the easterland and turky marchants with other companies do increase customes by bringing in and spending dyeingstuffs , and setting people on work by dressing and dying afore they transport them ; and they might increase far more custome to , and make much more profit to themselves and this realm , and set many thousands of poore people more on work ( for dressing and dying ) and likewise imploy more ships and mariners for bringing in dyeing stuffs , were it not for the merchant-adventurers who transport their cloths white , rough , undrest , and undyed into the low-countries , where they sell them to the strangers , who afterwards dresse , dye , and stretch them to such unreasonable lengths ( contrary to our law ) that they prevent and forestal our markets , and crosse the just prohibition of our state and realm by their agents and factors lying in divers places with our own cloths : to the great decay of this nation in general , and discredit of our cloths in particular . if the account were truly known , it would be found that they make not cleere profit ( only by cloth undyed ) . l. a yeer . but it is most apparent in customes , the merchants in their sales , and prizes ; subjects , in their labours for lack of not dressing ; ships and mariners in not bringing in of dying stuffs , and spending of allome , is hindred yearly a million of pounds . so that trade is driven to the great hinderance of the people , by putting native commodities to passe rough , undrest and undyed by the merchant-adventurers . touching fishing . the great sea-businesse of fishing doth imploy neer ships and vessels , and people are employed yearly upon the coasts of england , scotland and ireland , with ships of war , which may prove dangerous . the hollanders only have about ships to fish withal , and people are imployed yearly upon the coasts of england , scotland and ireland . these fishing-ships and vessels of the hollanders , doth imploy neere other ships and vessels , and persons more by sea and land , to make provision to dresse and transport the fish they take , and return commodities ; whereby they are inabled , and do build yearly ships and vessels , having not one tymber tree growing in their own country , nor homebred commodities to lade ships , and yet they have ships and vessels , and all imployed . king henry the seventh , desirous to make his kingdomes powerful and rich by increase of ships and mariners , and imployment of his people , sent unto his sea-coast towns , moving them to set up the great and rich fishing , with promise to give them needful priviledges , and to furnish them with loans of mony ( if need were ) to incourage them ; yet his people were slack . having traced this businesse , and made known to this state , the marchants and others , it will do well , the able and well-affected set down under their hands for more assurance and promise , to disburse sums of mony for building this great and rich large sea-city , which will increase more strength to the land , give more comfort and do more good to all cities and towns , then all the companies of the kingdome , having fit and needful priviledges for the upholding and strengthening of so weighty and behoveful a businesse . for example , twenty busses built and put into a sea-coast town where there is not one ship before ; there must be to carry , recarry , transport and make provision for one busse , ships : likewise every ship setteth on work several trades and occupations , and persons by sea and land , insomuch as persons are not able to make one fleet of nets in moneths for one busse , which is no smal imployment . thus by busses are set on work neer persons by sea and land , and an increase of above marriners , and a fleet of sayle of ships to belong to one town , where none were before ; to take the wealth of the sea , to enrich and strengthen the land , only by the raising of busses . then what good a thousand or two will do , i leave it to consideration . it is worthy to be noted how necessary fishermen are to the common-wealth , and how needful to be advanced and cherished , viz. . for taking gods blessing out of the sea , to inrich the realm , which otherwise we lose . . for setting the people on work . . for making cheapnesse and plenty in the realm . . for increasing of shipping to make the land powerful . . for a continual nurcerie for breeding and increasing of mariners . . for making imployment of all sorts of people , as blind , lame , and others , by sea and land , for , or years upwards . . for increase of custome upon merchandises returned from other countries for fish and herrings . for increase and inabling of merchants , which now droope and daily decay . touching the coyne . for the most part all free-states ( both heathen and christian ) as turkey , barbary , france , poland , and others do hold for a rule of never failing profit , to keep their coyn at higher rates within their own territories , then it is in other kingdoms . the causes . . to perserve the coyne . . to bring unto themselves that of foraigne princes . . to inforce merchant strangers to take their commodities at high rates , which this nation beareth the burthen of . for instance . the king of barbary perceiving the trade of christian merchants to increase in his kingdom , and that the returns out of his kingdom was most in gold , whereby it was much inhanced , raised his ducket ( being then current for three ounces ) to . . and . ounces ; nevertherlesse it was no more in england , being so raised , then when it went for three ounces . this ducket current for three ounces in barbary , was then worth in england s . d . and no more , being raised to vj . ounces , since which , adding to it a small piece of gold , he hath raised it to . and lastly to ounces , yet at this day it is worth but xs . and one penny , notwithstanding the raising gold in england . having thus raised his gold , he then devised to have plentie of silver brought into his kingdom , raised the royal of . being but ounces currant , to . and . and ● . which caused great plenty of silver to be brought in , and to continue in his kingdom . in france . the english jacobus goeth for s . in merchandizing . the french crown for s . d . also silver is raised . souce in the crown . north-holland . the double jacobus goeth for s . sterling . the english shilling is there stivers , which is two shillings over in the pound . poland . the king of poland raised his hungary ducket from to . and ½ . polish groshes ; and the rich-dollar from to . and ½ . groshes : the rich-dollar worth in poland . and ½ . groshes , is by accompt valued at s . d . sterling , and here in england is worth but s . d . the hungary ducket is worth by accompt in poland s . d . and in england is worth but s . d . the jacobus of england here current for s . in poland s . at the rate of s . d . for the hungary ducket . now to turn the stream of riches raised by native commodities , into the natural channel from whence it hath been a long time diverted ; consider these points following . . whether it be not fit , a state-merchant be setled in these lands ; which may both dispose more profitably of the riches thereof , and encounter policies of merchant-strangers , who now go beyond us in all kind of profitable merchandising . . whether it be not necessary that the commodities should receive their full manufacturie in these dominions . . whether it be not necessary the great sea businesse of fishing , be forthwith set forward . . whether it be not fit the coals should yield us a better value , by permitting them to passe out of england , and that they be in english shipping only transported . . whether it be not fit , presently to raise coyn to as high a rate as it is in the parts beyond the seas . if these considerations be approved , then is it necessary to put them in a right course of execution ; and ( by gods help ) in short time customes will be exceedingly increased , ships and mariners trebled , land-waste-towns ( now run out of gates ) better replenished , and people imployed , to the great enriching and honour of the nation , ( with the applause ) and to the comfort of all loyal subjects . this pains is the rather undergone , because the hollanders have been heard professe , they hoped to get the whole trade of christendome into their hands , not only for transportation , but also the command of the seas . to which end they do daily increase their traffique , augment their shipping , multiply thei● mariners , strength and wealth in all kinds . whereat there is the more cause of griefe , when we consider how god hath afforded more to this nation then any three kingdoms in christendome , with divers varieties of homebred commodities , which others have not , and cannot want ; besides sundry other meanes to continue and maintain our trade of merchandising and fishing above them all ; whereby we might prevent the deceivers , ingrosse the commodities of the ingrossers , inrich our selves , and increase our navigation , shipping ▪ and mariners : so as it would make all nations to vaile the bonnet to england , if we would not be still wanting to our selves in imployment of our people . which people being now divided into three parts , two parts of them are meere spenders , and consumers of a commonwealth . therefore , this done , you . allure and encourage the people ( for their private gaines ) to be all workers , and erectors of a commonwealth . . enrich and fill the coffers of the state by a continual coming in ; and make the people wealthy by means of their great and profitable trading and imployment . . vent our homebred commodities to far more reputation , and much more custome , and benefit to the merchant and the nation . . return the merchandises of other countries at far cheaper rates then now they are , to the great good of the realm in general . . make the land powerfull , by increasing and multiplying of ships , mariners , and people . . make the peoples taking in generall much more every day then now they are , which ( by gods help ) will grow continually more and more by the great concourse and comerce that will come by setled constitutions and convenient priviledges , as in other parts they do , by this their great freedome of trade . if this and much more be done in other countries ( where nothing groweth ) then how much might we make , where so great abundance and variety of homebred commodities and rich materials groweth for the people to work upon , and plentiful meanes to do it withall , which other nations have not , nor cannot want , but of necessity must be furnished from hence ? and now whereas our merchandising is wilde , utterly confused and out of frame , ( as at large appeareth ) a state-merchant will roundly and effectually bring all the premises to passe , fill the havens with ships , those ships with mariners , the nation full of merchants , their houses full of outlandish commodities , and the states coffers full of coyn , ( as in other parts they do ) and the people shall have just cause to hold in happy memory the beginners of so profitable , praise-worthy , and renowned a work : this , ( with other that might be added ) being the true philosophers stone , to make a rich and potent state , and a happy people , only by setling as before ; whereby the people may have fulnesse of trade and manufacture , and the government made both honourable and profitable . there 's but one objection against this noble and gallant enterprise ; which is , — they who shall adventure as a state-merchant , must expect to lose for divers years , as in all new beginnings of trade men do . the answer is , that the publisher of this will undertake to lay down a way how to bring in . . or . in the hundred profit , from the first , as evidently as a man shall expect percent . upon good security . finis . an essay towards carrying on the present war against france and other publick occasions as also for paying off all debts contracted in the same, or otherwise : and new-coyning of all our moneys, without charge to the great encrease of the honour, strength and wealth of the nation : humbly propos'd, for the parliament's consideration and submitted to their great wisdom and love to their country, etc. / by john blackwell ... blackwell, john, fl. . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) an essay towards carrying on the present war against france and other publick occasions as also for paying off all debts contracted in the same, or otherwise : and new-coyning of all our moneys, without charge to the great encrease of the honour, strength and wealth of the nation : humbly propos'd, for the parliament's consideration and submitted to their great wisdom and love to their country, etc. / by john blackwell ... blackwell, john, fl. . [ ], p. printed for the author, london : . reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng currency question -- england -- early works to . finance -- england -- history -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - derek lee sampled and proofread - derek lee text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an essay towards carrying on the present war against france and other publick occasions . as also , for paying off all debts contracted in the same , or otherwise . and new-coyning of all our moneys , without charge , to the great encrease of the honour , strength , and wealth of the nation . humbly propos'd , for the parliament's consideration , and submitted to their great wisdom , and love to their country , &c. by john blackwell , &c. london , printed for the author , . an essay towards carrying on the present war against france , and other publick occasions , &c. sect. . about three years since , i humbly proposed ( amongst other things ) the new coining of all our silver moneys : and gave these reasons for it , viz. . they were generally so bad , as to be refused abroad ; and so , were unserviceable in other countries . . the suffering them to pass , gave advantage to the further clipping them : as is manifest in our sad experience ; for , they are now much worse ; and so unserviceable at home . . it was reproachful to us , that it should be suffered to pass ; and therefore worthy consideration and inquiry into the causes of it . : it was no otherwise to be prevented or reformed , than by new coyning all ; and then , prohibiting the passing of any clip'd money , from and after a certain day to be limited ; under the penalty of seizure and sequestration ; in whose hands soever the same should afterwards be found . sect. ii. since which ( and as the natural consequence thereof ) the value of our gold-coyn hath been enhansed , to about half as much more as the same was coyned at . the inconveniences and damages whereof to the nation and trade thereof , are , and will be at least as great , as the clipping of the silver : and , if not timely prevented , will utterly ruine us in our trade : and the longer this is suffer'd , the firmer will the disadvantages be fix'd ; till the root of all our commerce becomes worm eaten , and canker'd ; and we lose the sweet fruit thereof for ever . sect. iii. in short , the whole nation is almost destitute of moneys : not only , for the carrying on the war ( in , or by any ordinary course of procedure ) but , for our home markets : and , taken off from trade abroad , as , by means hereof , so , partly by their losses at sea ; partly , by the more-advantageous proposals for lending or laying out their moneys , on the lotteries , and other ways and means found out , and pitch'd upon , by the late parliament , for carrying on the war : and lastly , by the high exchange of moneys abroad , for commodities imported hither ; and paying our forces there , who must otherwise have had more of our moneys sent hence to our further streightening . is there any remedy ? viz. q. first , how shall the silver be new coyned ; so , as to become a due measure and standard for traffick ? q. secondly , how shall our gold be reduced to it s coyn'd value ? q. thirdly , how shall the war be carried on thereby ? q. fourthly , how shall the trade be recover'd , so as to preserve our coyns , and augment bullion ? to the first , viz. how shall the silver be new-coyned ? &c. sect. iv. i humbly proposed , that all the clip'd moneys might be called in , by a certain day to be limited : that the value in weight might be deliver'd out again new-coyn'd : and , that the damage accrewing , as well to the publick as the private persons concern'd , by the new-coinage thereof , might be made good to both , by issuing so many bills of credit , made current by act of parliament , as would countervale the same ; so , as there should be no lessening of the nation 's stock ; and would cost nothing . and , to facilitate this : that all unnecessary silver-plate ( especially in taverns , inns , alehouses , and victualling-houses ) might be prohibited , called in , coyned and delivered out , immediately , to such as should bring in the same , at s. d. per ounce , deducting the coynage . to the second , viz. how shall the gold be reduced to it s coyn'd value ? sect. v. i humbly propose : that all coyned-gold may be likewise called in , by a certain day : and each piece punch'd , and deliver'd back again to the owner ; thenceforth to pass but at s. each guinney , &c. and that like bills of credit may be also delivered to the parties concern'd , for s. more , upon each guinney ▪ and so proportionably for other pieces of gold , &c. and thus , both silver and gold become reduced to their coyn'd values , without prejudice , loss , or damage , either to the parties concern'd , or to the publick stock of the nation : no body is injured , but all greatly obliged , in thankfulness and loyalty to the king , for recommending the care thereof ; and to the parliament for their enacting the same . for , thus , our home-markets and manufactures will be supplied , and carried on , in future , to general satisfaction . and , for preventing , as much as may be , this additional charge upon guinneys , i humble propose , care may be taken , that from henceforth no guinneys may be coyned , till this work be over ; and , afterwards , only such as shall be distinguished from those already coyned , by some special mark in the stamp thereof , to be passed at s. and no more . which is , also , the reason of propounding , all guinneys already coyned may be punch'd viz. that they may not be twice allowed for . to the third , viz. how shall the war be carried on thereby ? sect. vi. i formerly proposed : st , that whatsoever taxes or assessments should be thought fit and necessary to be raised or levy'd , for carrying on the present war , and other publick charges of the nation , whether by or upon lands , tenements or hereditaments , poll-moneys , or personal estates , might be paid by the parties so assessed , quarterly ( as had been done before ) in ready moneys , or silver-plate at s. d. per ounce . this , i argued to be necessary , upon several accounts , ( ) to assist and facilitate the coynage proposed . and ( ) for pay of our forces abroad ; tho' possibly not needful to be all sent over in specie , but , partly remitted by bills of exchange charged by merchants , &c. and partly supplied by the products , manufactures and provisions that may be sent from england , scotland , and ireland . [ by which i mean , not only of such things as are needful for the soldiers , or them only , but of others to be transported to our confederate countries , at merchantable rates , instead of moneys : out of the proceed whereof , the soldiers may be paid in the respective moneys or coyns of such countries . ] which would be a meanr to keep much of our moneys amongst us , and afford employment to our own manufacturers at home , in this dead time of trade ; and keep them in peace . sect. vii . dly , i also proposed , that every person so assesled , who should voluntarily advance and pay in one full years tax , at one entire payment , to the parish or county-collector , or receiver , within one month after demand made of the first quarterly payment ; might , in lieu thereof , have like bill or bills of credit deliver'd him , for the re-imbursement of his said full sum paid : and so , be out nothing . and , sect. viii . that , in case the party taxed should not comply therewith , if any other person should ( within one month after that ) pay in the said whole years tax ; and should declare his willingness to accept his repayment thereof quarterly , from such tax'd-party's-self , or from the said collector or receiver , when it shall grow due , or be receiver , when it shall grow due , or be received , he might , in like manner , receive also half the value thereof in like bills of credit , for his incouragement so to do . sect. ix . . that the like method rules and advantages might be allowed , in case the parliament shall annually repeat and pass acts for that purpose , during the continuance of the war , and for carrying on thereof . and not otherwise . sect. x. . that , in case the sums appointed to be assessed , taxed and levyed , &c. shall not amount to the respective values or sums , at which they shall be declared , by the parliament , to be computed or estimated [ as for example , if s . per pound ( or what ever other proportion ) chargeable on lands , shall be so computed and granted to his majesty , for two millions ( which , were it duely tax'd , no doubt it would raise ) and , upon the taxing and levying thereof , it shall appear to amount to no more than one million and a half , &c. ] who so ever shall voluntarily advance and pay any sum or sums of money , or plate , as aforesaid , towards the making up the same , might , for every hundred pounds sterling so payd by him , receive and have like bills of credit deliver'd him to the value of l. and so proportionably for any lesser or greater sum that shall be so payd in and receiv'd on that account . on which terms , no doubt , but such sums as the parliament shall think fit to raise , for carrying on the war ( from year to year ) may , and will be raised , in money , for that service ; as long as there shall be so much money in trade , or hoarded up , in the nation , to be had : which is our present consideration and care. and , further than that , is to be over-fore-sighted in the the present christs . and , if any object , this will reflect on , and lower the reputation of our nation abroad ; as if we were reduced to so sinking a condition , as not to have money sufficient to carry on the war : and , thence , that we can not hold out , to the length of the french king , &c. i answer , first , sect. xi . such as so think will but deceive themselves ; and , if they be our enemies , be necessitated to take new measures ; for , ( which they might have observed before ) the king will certainly be supplyed by this means with ready moneys , as much as he shall need , each year , and that , in the beginning thereof ( and by no other way whatsoever ) for carrying on the war. for , these advantages will bring out all the hoarded best money which any have cull'd and layd by against a more clowdy day . if means be used for promoting trade ( as is hereinafter proposed ) otherwise , 't will be in vain to conceal our poverty : all the world will see it , what ever taxes shall be layd on the nation , cannot otherwise be payd : so that , if our dependance should be thereon , they must and will fail , for want of a money-stock to pay them : but , sect. xii . second , it 's well known , that all nations , and persons , improve their credit ( some banks of credit ) as well as moneys for carrying on their respective trades , and occasions , both at home and abroad ; without the least reflection of dishonour ; and , grow rich thereby [ to which many of our wealthiest men in this city and kingdom , must subscribe , who began with little of their own ] and , much more may these nations . for , sect. xiii . third , his majesty and parliament [ designing vast improvements , both of wealth and power , for these nations , by their own products and manufactures ( which may be as well done by bills amongst our selves , as by ready moneys ) beyond whatever was in prospect , attempt or attainment heretofore , by us , or any nation under heaven , by all their or our ready moneys ] by this medium of bills of credit , added to our money-stock , for the inlargement and increase thereof to what proportion they please will be able to carry on the same , pari passu , with this expensive war : and thereby become more formidable to our enemies . and , the rather , sect. xiv . for that , no other nation will be able to keep pace with , or go to the length of these kingdoms , nor to imitate us considerably , in these undertakings ; by reason of our products and manufactures , to so great excess of theirs , &c. which must of necessity bring in great plenty of gold and silver . nor , will they be able to hinder our free trading , during the lasting and continuance of this war ; if we be not wanting to ourselves : and , consequently , in an ordinary course of providence , we shall find our enemies disposed , or necessitated to seek our peace and friendship , when they shall find us disposing ourselves into such a flourishing condition . which brings on the consideration of the ways and means next to be treated of , viz. under , the fourth question , viz. how shall our trade be recover'd ? so as to preserve our coyn , and augment bullion ? &c. sect. xv. i answer , first , by the parliaments owning and encouraging the royal fishery company and trade , to the encrease of one , two or three millions per annum export , of that sea-product : which , added to our other products and manufactures , and they also improved and multiplied as aforesaid , must necessarily produce and bring in great wealth , of all kinds : and particularly , plenty of moneys , for its balance , from the masters of it in all countries , &c. for , the situation of these islands , being such as may justly challenge to be the emporium or mart of all trade , beyond all others put together ; and furnish'd thereby , at all times , with magazines and stores of all sorts , for war and peace ; for our selves and all our neighbors , must needs be attended with this success ( our ports being made free for their importation , and exportation after a time to be limited . ) and , we shall not need to fear the vent of such surplusage of imports as we shall not use , even for ready-moneys of all countries who shall need them : nor shall we have any occasion to send out our moneys , to fetch in like proportions yearly . sect. xvi . secondly , by taking care , that guards and convoys be always in a readiness to attend , as well our fishing-trade , as our foreign exports and imports : to which purpose , it is humbly proposed ( as necessary hereunto ) that a select number of ships of war be set apart for that sole use : and be under such conduct and commanders as may be accountable for their miscarriage , by the neglect of their duty therein . the raising , charge and paying of which ships may be born , and provided for , by the bills of credit afore-mention'd , which will cost the nation nothing . and this may be called ( in way of distinction ) the trading admiralty , or fleet volant for trade ; as the other is the navy royal. it may also be done by commissions from his majesty , and be but temporary , viz. whilst his majesty , being engaged in wars abroad , cannot so well , or seasonably attend the particular consideration of such things , as may encourage and enlarge so great trade of these nations , or addresses cannot be made to him in order thereunto . if it be said , this seems to lay the whole foundation of our trade and commerce , on bills of credit , which have neither intrinfick value , nor fund . sect. xvii . admitting that , yet ( . ) if we have a sufficiency of these bills in our counting-houses , pocket books , or letter-cases , uncounterfeitable , made current ( as moneys ) by act of parliament : which will answer all our occasions at home , as well as moneys in specie ; and particularly may as well be disposed forth at interest on bonds , as ready-money in baggs : and consequently we become as rich in these , for all uses to which we would employ moneys , as now we are ; yea , and much more : where then lyes the force of this objection ? for , sect. xviii . ( . ) it cannot be deny'd , but that , if we were twenty times as rich , in that which will effectually carry on trade and manufactures , pay debts , purchase lands , and manage our markets , amongst our selves , as now we are , or ever were , we shall be able thereby to multiply and export our manufactures proportionably ; and carry on our fishing-trade ( the richest golden mine in the experience of our neighbors ; so called by them , for that it infallibly brings them gold in ) to far greater value ( from the greatest masters of it ) than our necessary imports of commodities from other countries need to be , for our home expence : and what 's imported more , may be easily ship'd off to other countries ; as is aforementioned . as for example : sect. xix . if we were wont to export cloths , stuffs , lead , tin , iron , moneys , bullion , &c. to the value of two millions yearly ; and , by the fish we may take , to export one , two or three millions more , without any moneys , &c. the product and ballance thereof must be answer'd to us in other goods from other countries ; or remitted or brought to us in bullion , or ready-moneys , ( as it has with our neighbors to above five millions per annum , on that account ) or it must remain in our factors hands abroad , for supply of our foreign occasions : so our riches will encrease , proportionably as the export can be encreased , whether of our own products and manufactures , or other importations ; for , there will be no occasion for transporting our moneys for goods : and it is undeniable , that whatsoever means may be suggested for furnishing or keeping of moneys amongst us , must be fruitless : for , there will abide no more with us , than such proportion , as the superbalance of our exports shall amount unto , let what value will be set on our moneys , above the current price thereof here , and in other countries with whom we deal . sect. xx. ( . ) it 's found by experience , that , bills are judged so necessary ( whether of intrinsick value or not ) as that , without them , these kingdoms cannot otherwise subsist , or pay taxes much longer . and they are become so useful and eligible already , as that most men desire them rather than our present moneys : upon which presumption ( since the erecting the bank of england ) banks of credit are multiplied , upon mens voluntary undertakings ; on various principles or funds , methods and pretensions , also uses and ends : most of them for the private advantages thereof to the undertakers , and without any reference or regard to the supporting the parliamentary funds and credit given by them ; or , having the least respect to the present exigences of the publick , or how they shall be provided for next year . by which means , nevertheless , the moneys we have are , for the present , eek'd out for our necessary occasions : and both our markets at home , and bills of exchange from abroad , have been supply'd and answer'd . and , if so , sect. xxi . why may not such bills of credit as are proposed , be made current , for the service of the publick , by act of parliament ; and regulated or kept within bounds by law , for carrying on this necessary war ; wherein the king has been engaged by parliament . particularly , why may not his majesty be supplied with such number and values of them , as , added to what present taxes the condition of the nation will bear to have imposed , upon the terms aforesaid , may compleat the sum needful , for carrying on the present war , this next year ; and , so much longer as that shall continue ; and also , pay off the debts contracted last year , &c. thro' the deficiency , or falling short , of the sums or funds setled for the same ; in the way and manner before proposed ? as touching that part of the objection against the want of a fund for these bills , &c. i answer , sect. xxii . tho some things might be offer'd ( which possibly might silence some objectors ) yet the debt ( should the war continue ) would be so vast , as , nothing less than the whole nation can be equivalent : and , that can no otherwise be engaged , than by an act of parliament . it cannot be rationally expected , they should expose particular estates of this , or that , or another sort of men , to become liable , exclusive of others : and it 's manifest , if the people were ever so willing , they cannot pay down so much money , yet the war must and may be carried on by bills , &c. if ( then ) the parliament shall judge it necessary to make use of such bills of credit , and to make them current by law , and for facilitating the new coynage of our present moneys , and giving some respite and ease from greater taxes , shall enact , that they shall be , and continue , current until the nation be in a better capacity and condition to pay them off , by laying moderate taxes on all mens estates and persons in general ; and shall rather chuse to have them so paid off , than to continue ; that will be as good a fund as can be expected . for , why should they be called in , at any time , to become so burthensome ? first , they will be of such general use and great conveniency , when understood and further experimented , as , people will chuse to have them rather than moneys in specie ; as is found true in fact amongst our selves , to the value of many hundreds of thousand pounds already given out by the ' foremention'd banks erected . besides which , they have also been so found and approved of in other places of the world , even where money-banks have been erected by publick authority , viz. in holland ; where their bills , or credit in bank , are ordinarily better than moneys , by at least three per cent. ( sometimes four , five , and more . in venice also ; where their credit is better by per cent. and was once at above per cent. and with much difficulty reduced to per cent. where it 's fix'd to be so . by which means also that state has answer'd a debt of above two millions borrowed of their people , and spent on their publick occasions . and , all their creditors are so satisfied , as , that , never will any of them ask l. for the the state had of him ; being sure of l. for the same from any other hand . sect. xxiii . and if any enquire , what induced that people thus to raise and value their said bills or credit ? i answer , . the ease of counting , carriage , and preventing damage to the receiver by counterfeit , clipp'd and base coyn ; which is as valuable with us , at this juncture . ( as is obvious to all. . their safety in travelling , &c. ( as visible as the other . . the advantage that was to be made by the exchange , on the account of such conveniences , &c. where then is the necessity or vsefulness of a fund , in our case ? sect. xxiv . i answer , ( ) some late proceedings , for raising moneys , have given a rise for such an expectation ; but , there , men parted voluntarily with their estates ; whereas , in this case , men have these bills for nothing , and may dispose them to the uses of such trading and manufactures , as may bring in riches to themselves , and the whole nation . ( ) 't is objected , upon a supposition , that some persons , ( perhaps of those who will be concern'd to give a sanction to the matter of these proposals ) may imagine , that the bills delivered out must necessarily be call'd in , at one time or other , &c. whereas such consider not , that the usefulness of these bills will make them current for continuance , and preferable to moneys , upon the forementioned accounts ; as it hath proved in the two forementioned instances . and , if still any doubt , that bills may prove prejudicial in after-times , and , that if any future parliament shall conceive them to be so , they 'll make them voyd , &c. sect. xxv . that 's thus resolv'd , viz. instead of prejudicing the nation , they will continue to promote , improve and carry on our home-trade , manufactures , and fishery , as aforesaid . and thereby answer our expectations as effectually as moneys in specie : and , the rather , for that the generality of the people ( at their first receiving of them , ( viz. for the re-imbursing of their taxes ) will be thereby prepared to esteem them , by their propriety in , and possession of them , in the way and manner before proposed , and become enrich'd thereby . it will therefore be , as far from any parliament to pass a law to make them voyd , ( without first paying them off ) as , to pass an act , for taking away all their lands , ( which , their justice , as well as interest will not suffer them to do ) for every parliament-man , and person in the nation , will have a considerable part of their personal estates lye principally in these bills . so , that fear is sufficiently removed , by interest , which will not lye . but , may not our coyn be so raised in denomination , price or value , as to bring in gold and silver plentifully ? sect. xxvi . i answer , it 's evident , ( even to a demonstration ) that the inhansing the value of our moneys , whether silver or gold , is , and will be a very great impoverishing of , if not utterly destructive to the nation . for , that , will , unavoidably raise the price of all our foreign exchanges , and work confusion in our trade . and , that raises , consequentially , the price of all goods ; not only of foreign but domestick . which , though it may not be any great damage ( possibly ) to our retaylers thereof , and such as bring to our markets ( for they will not sell to loss ) yet , to the body of the rest of the people ( the buyers thereof ) and , the poorer sort , especially , viz. servants , day-labourers , artificers , seamen , souldiers , &c. it cannot be otherwise : and what a condition then will this bring the nation into ? sect. xxvii . now , that it is , and will be so : i shall give two instances . within his majesties dominions in america , which occured to my own observation , whilst i was the unworthy governour , of the province of pensylvania , viz. about seven years since . the one is , in new england ; where the government , conceiving they had power by their charter from the king , to coyn moneys ; coyned shillings of about the value of nine pence sterling , and stamp'd the same twelve pence : they also raised the value of spanish pieces of eight , of above seventeen penny weight , from four shillings six pence to six shillings , ( which held proportion with their shillings ) this they did , upon this vulgar error , and misapprehension , that , by this inhansing the price of silver , they should , both keep their own coyn , and , bring in and retain other imported moneys , amongst them . but , this ( instead of answering their expectation ) raised the value of all goods , to , at least per cent. and likewise all their exchanges , whether to , or from england , or other parts , proportionably : or , so much more of their moneys were carryed forth in these species ( tho' they were sufficiently severe against its exportation ) to their disappointment . the other instance ( and more notable ) is in pensylvania ; where , tho' they coyned no moneys , yet , suffering spanish pieces of eight , of not above or penny-weight , ( and consequently not above shillings in value sterling ) to pass current at shillings : and , tho' the exchange did not rise proportionably ( for , they had little or very seldom occasion to return any in trade ) ; yet this other consequence attended their so doing , viz. that such as brought thither any goods or merchandizes , needful for that plantation , from england , &c. when any came to contract with them for their goods , they treated them after this manner , viz. ( says the importer ) the cargo cost me l. in english ready-money , at about s. per ounce sterl . whereas your money is not half the value : so , i must have l. of your money , or , i shall be a loser of my first cost : and i cannot take less than l. sterling per cent. for my freight , risque , and profit , which will be l. more of your money : and accordingly receives of the retailer there l. who , generally raises the price of the same goods to another l. whereby , the price of the same goods which cost l. english-money , costs the people there , four hundred pounds . the importer , having receiv'd his l. buys therewith ( only ) such commodities of the country-products , as he needs for his voyage ; and carries away the rest in specie ( making money , which ought to be the standard of traffick , to be the merchandise ( as they must do who take it at enhaunc'd values , &c. ) and , thus three pieces went for one , and their moneys decreas'd proportionably . the effect whereof was , the generality of the people ( except their shop-keepers , artificers , handycrafts-men , carpenters , bricklayers , labourers , and servants ) grew poorer . and , particularly , it had this influence upon the landed men ( whether proprietors or farmers ) viz. that they are forced to give great wages to all these sorts of poor people , especially to ploughmen , carters , &c. viz. from l. per annum wages to l. ( besides victuals , &c. ) and , at this charge , they get a little corn ; which , if they spend not all in their own families , they bring ( what 's left ) to the market , and sell that there , at s. d. the bushel of wheat , which , in english money , is but d. per bushel . which impoverisheth the masters ( many of them ) to such degree , as , after a while , their servants set up in their steads , on new plantations given them for their encouragement to plant the country : and their masters children become their servants : all which naturally ensues their enhaunsing the value of their moneys , amongst themselves : for , say their servants , &c. we must have such wages , or we cannot live : we can buy nothing we have occasion for , but at four times the rate of what 's paid in england . and therefore , whilst we plead ( tho' under the most specious pretences having regard barely to the theory and notions of things taken up thence , or from vulgar misapprehensions ) for the enhauncing of our silver or gold , to above the par , intrinsick value and ancient mete-yard of traffick , between us and other nations , we are , in truth and reality , steering by the same needle , or common politicks of pensylvania ; and discern it not . which will ( in time ) be like ruinous to us. nor is it any answer to our assertion , to tell us , our servants , &c. need nothing that comes from beyond sea ; ( which may be as truly predicated of our selves too , could we be contented ( with sobriety ) to use our own products and manufactures ) : for , what does that avail ? such do not observe or consider , that the prices ( even of our home-commodities and manufactures that are necessary , ( as well as foreign , that are less necessary ) are raised alike upon us all , since our coyn hath been at this pass . nor do such give us any estimate of the height to which servants , as well as their masters , are grown , ( since the last act of state for enhauncing the value of silver and gold ) in their expectations , and deportments . which yet can no more be reformed , than the nation converted from their atheistical prophaness , and impieties , &c. till their superiors and masters set them better copies to write by . there is , then , a necessity of putting a stop to the enhaunsing of our moneys : and , if any easier , safer , more probable or advantageous means , ways , or methods of doing it to general satisfaction , than these afore mention'd , and humbly propos'd , be offer'd ; i shall readily receive my dismiss from this controversie , having offer'd my poor mite . but , there remains yet one stumbling-block , in the minds of some ; who do not duly weigh and consider , that there 's no perfection attainable under the sun , &c. 't is this , viz. the danger of counterfeit bills . touching which , i shall offer some considerations , viz. i humbly proposed , . that the said bills of credit should be printed or impressed on paper , from engraven copper-plates ; and gave reasons for it . which , together with a specimen of such bills , being uncounterfeitable , i shall readily evince when required . . that the said paper should be of a different make and mark from any yet extant in the world. . that the indented counter-parts of each bill , should be filed up , and kept in a publick office or offices , to be erected for that purpose ; in order to the discovery and preventing of damage thereby , to the publick . . that the printing or publishing such bills , to any greater number , value , or proportion than shall be allowed and appointed by act of parliament , ( tho' by the persons that shall be thereunto authoriz'd ) might be made as penal as coyning or counterfeiting the current moneys of the kingdom . or , that the same : and , particularly , . that the engraving all such plates , and making , having , or keeping undiscover'd any such paper , so made and mark'd , as from time to time shall be made use of upon this occasion : or bringing the like into this kingdom from beyond the seas , by any other person than by order of such as shall be by such act of parliament appointed and authoriz'd thereunto , might be punish'd with great severity , both corporal and pecuniary ( in terrorem ) viz. ( being convicted thereof ) may be branded in the right hand and forehead , or cheek : so , as to be known thereby ever after ; and thenceforth kept strictly to the most severe , servile , constant , hard work and labour : enjoyned a daily task ; and on failure of doing it , have correction at the keeper's or workmaster's discretion : never to be pardoned , remitted , or mitigated , but upon the discovery and producing of other his partners , accomplices , associates or other offenders in like nature , and proving the same . which , undoubtedly , if pursued , will deterr and keep all men , who have the least spark of ingenuity or humanity from attempting to counterfeit these bills , if any thing will. and , . that tho' it is impossible in nature these bills should be so counterfeited , as to deceive the office ; or , that in millions of them , printed off from the same copper-plates , any two should agree , [ as hath been acknowledged by several engravers and other counterfeiters of writings critically skil'd in such affairs , and call'd together for advice in the like case ] yet , that persons abroad may not , in all cases , be so critical as to discern true bills from false , through the niceities of them . it may be therefore queried , viz. is there any course to be prescribed by way of remedy for avoiding false bills ? i answer , . where the distance is not great , persons may repair to the office , where the counterparts of all true bills remain ; and , have them examined , as exchequer-tales by applying the counterparts : and , if remote , they may be sent up per post , &c. or , the person who offers them , may be put upon the proof of them ; or , if suspected , give security . and being made to continue but for a year , from the respective dates of them , ( as is propos'd ) they will then be certainly detected , and the values of them known . . suppose that there should be some bills counterfeited , which may be thought fit to be repaired ( to the person deceived thereby ) by the publick : it would ( in the whole ) be far less ( being thus annually detected ) than the twentyeth part of the interest-money , hitherto allowed for moneys borrowed upon the funds settled , and layd upon the nation according to mr. brisco's computations , in his printed treatise . ) besides , the repaying of them might be by other bills , which would cost nothing . but , . the risque of such is no greater than of gold and silver coyn , of which the nation has been , and dayly is , and will be deceived : nor than that of all merchants bills of exchange , and letters of advice from foreign parts : all which may be more easily counterfeited . besides , . there 's no sorts of deeds , conveyances of lands , or bonds given for moneys , but , they , also , are more lyable to be counterfeited , both as to the hands and seals of the granters , obligors , and witnesses : all which , &c. may be so counterfeited , as , the parties themselves will not be able to deny them to be theirs . yea , even exchequer-tales , are lyable to be counterfeited , so as persons may be doubtful , till they come to the office , &c. yet , by these more uncertain methods of common dealings , and dangers , we are not affrighted , or taken off from our correspondencies , and businesses , as men. why then , in this case only , and upon this urgent occasion ? wherein , if now we become so singularly wise or cautious , as to stumble at the threshold , we endanger our selves , and these nations and government , to all our unavoydable ruine , rather than run the hazard of ( probably ) some small inconsiderable sum per annum , which will certainly come to be discover'd , at each years end , at farthest , and cancell'd ? this were to be penny-wise , but pound-foolish , according to our english proverb . a discourse of the general notions of money, trade & exchanges, as they stand in relation to each other attempted by way of aphorism : with a letter to a minister of state, further explaining the aphorisms, and applying them to the present circumstances of this nation : wherein also some thoughts are suggested for the remedying the abuses of our money / by a merchant. clement, simon. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing c estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a discourse of the general notions of money, trade & exchanges, as they stand in relation to each other attempted by way of aphorism : with a letter to a minister of state, further explaining the aphorisms, and applying them to the present circumstances of this nation : wherein also some thoughts are suggested for the remedying the abuses of our money / by a merchant. clement, simon. , [ ] p. [s.n.], london printed : . 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't is not to be doubted , but that the first ages were altogether unacquainted with trade and commerce . . for being content with the simple productions of nature , every one furnished themselves therewith by the labour and industry of their own particular families . . but when the world became more populous , divers persons addicted themselves to more peculiar managements , either from the propensity of their genius , or the conveniency and aptitude of those habitations that fell to their lot ; some employing themselves chiefly in the breeding of cattel , others of corn , some acquired skill in architecture or building of houses , others applied themselves to the making of utensils and other needful conveniencies . . and thus people found a greater convenience in making use of each others assistance , and that they were better suppli'd thereby , than when they were forc'd to divert themselves from their own more peculiar employments , to attempt those things for which they were not so well qualified . . by this means then was commerce begun . yet in the beginning 't was manag'd no otherwise than by exchanging commodities for commodities . . but this method became very difficult , when people could not readily find mutual demands for those things they had to exchange . . some things , either by reason of their being more rare of production , or requiring more art or labour to acquire them , came to obtain a greater value or esteem among men. . of these 't is probable that metals gain'd the first estimation , because of their hardness , and the many uses they were applicable to : and among those , gold and silver came to be most valued , as much excelling the others in the perfection of their natural fineness and duration , and being more rare to be found . . a small bulk or weight of these finest metals , being esteemed of great value , they were therefore made choice of as the fittest medium for the exchange or purchasing of all other commodities . . but as these were subject to be adulterated by the mixture of baser metals , certain standards were agreed upon to adjust the fineness ; and the value thereof was computed by weight . . yet that the same might become currant , and the trouble of proving every piece be avoided , 't was found needful , that every prince or state should affix a mark or stamp on such pieces as were currant in that countrey ; thereby giving publick credit to the truth thereof : and this obtained the name of money or coin. chap ii. of the progress and various methods of trade . . money then becoming the means whereby all things necessary for human life might be purchased , . people exerted their utmost industry for procuring the same , esteeming it their chiefest treasure . . but the almighty creator had so disposed the world , that as particular persons , so also did different nations , stand in need of the various productions of each other . . and this made way for trade and merchandize , by the carrying and vending the commodities of one countrey into another ; which also occasioned the more frequent use of money . . yet did trade admit of very different kinds of management , according to the different occasions of divers countries . . sometimes the merchant carried his goods to another countrey , and brought home the whole produce in other commodities of that countrey which were required in his own ; sometimes he brought part goods and part money ; and to some places he was forc'd to carry the greatest value in money for the purchasing such goods as were wanted in his own countrey . . either of these trades might be equally profitable to the merchant ; but that trade brings most profit to his countrey , when he returns with most money . . yet it may not be disadvantagious to a nation , to send out its money for the purchasing some profitable commodities ; if so be the money they draw in by their trade with other countries , doth in the whole surmount the value they shall so send out . . for by this means their people , beasts of burden , and ships ( where they have them ) come to be employ'd , and the greater circulation of riches is made among them . . nay even superfluities may be admitted , where they have no worse a consequence upon the publick , than the drawing money from those that most abound in wealth , and causing it to circulate among the needier sort who depend upon trade . . likewise when a trading nation doth by such means procure commodities , to export them to other people , who are less industrious in serving themselves ; such a trade is to their advantage , for as much as it returns at last with a surplus of money . . from hence 't is evident , that the profit of a trading people , is not to be computed from their negotiations with any particular countrey , whether it be by money or goods , but from the ballance of their trade in general . chap. iii. of the different computations of money in distinct governments . . as we have already noted , that money is become the medium of all commerce , we are yet to consider that different nations have very different computations of the value even of this medium . . for distinct governments made the allay of their metals finer or courser , and gave their coins such denominations , and as many different species , as they thought necessary to themselves , without regard to the different usage of their neighbours . . therefore people do not currantly receive or esteem foreign coins according to the value or computation that foreigners put upon them ; but according to the weight that the silver and gold will yield , reduced to the standard of their own countrey . . moreover , silver and gold themselves ( which we may call by the general name of bullion ) are to be considered but as a finer sort of commodities ; and as such , are capable of rising and falling in price , and may be said to be of more or less value in divers places , according to their plenty or scarcity . . bullion then may there be reckon'd to be of the higher value , where the smaller weight will purchase the greater quantity of the product or manufacture of the countrey . . and according to this rule , the riches or poverty of a countrey is to be computed ; even as the riches of a private man is to be reckon'd from the weight of bullion he can command . . 't is therefore an infallible demonstration of the decay of wealth in any countrey , where they are reduced to a necessity of abating the standard of their coins , or causing it to pass above its wonted value ; because he that parts with his commodities , becomes then possessor of a less weight of bullion in lieu thereof . . also when the merchant trades to such countries from whence he must make his returns in bullion , he doth not only regard the weight thereof , but hath also consideration to the hazard , time , and charge of transporting it into his own countrey . . and this charge is sometimes more , sometimes less , and according to the more or less difficulty of transportation or carriage , occasioned by war or any other contingencies . . wherefore there can be no constant standard or adjustment made , to reduce the computations of foreign coins to the exact value of those of our own countrey . . yet such alterations upon these most staple and precious commodities can never be great , unless by some extraordinary accidents , which rarely happen . . so that a very near regulation is always made by the exchanges : of which we come next to treat . chap. iv. of the introduction and nature of exchanges . . in taking notice of the many different managements of trade , we have before shewn , that trading people do from some places import bullion in return of their merchandise sent out , and yet must send bullion to other places , for the purchasing of such goods as they have need to import from thence . . those countries also that take bullion from some places , because they have no occasion for the commodities that they produce , must yet send bullion to other places , to procure what themselves need , and have not other commodities to purchase . . some merchants also that trade to the same places , apply themselves only to the importing of commodities purchas'd with their money ; whereas others , on the contrary , trade only by sending of their goods to the market , and making their returns by money . . to avoid then the charge , trouble and hazard in carrying money in specie to and again for the supplying all these differing occasions , the method of drawing and remitting money by bills of exchange was found out . . for hereby people were mutually serv'd , the one delivering his money to the person who wanted it at home , to receive the value where his occasions required it abroad . . but in this also it was difficult for particular persons to find out each others conveniencies . . therefore some merchants applied themselves to study the advantages of different exchanges , and made it their trade to furnish all people according to their demands . . but whensoever the demands for bills to any place is greater , than that these exchangers can find other remittances to imburse their correspondents , they are then necessitated to transport so much in bullion as will make the ballance . . and here again it may be noted , that in this case they are not to have regard to the computations of their own money , but to the value that the foreign nation puts upon the weight . . the exchanger also takes such a consideration from the remitter , as may not only pay his charge and hazard , but also redound to his profit . . yet this praemio , or advance on the exchanges cannot be great , unless ( as is aforesaid ) upon some extraordinary emergencies . . because people would then rather chuse to send their own bullion to answer their particular occasions . chap. v. of the rising and falling of exchanges and bullion . . as we have before said , that bullion is capable of a small rising and falling in price . . exchanges are also reciprocaly subject to the same alteration ; the one being commonly influenced by the other . . and in the commerce of most countries there are times and seasons when the exchanges are subject to rise and fall . . at such times when ships usually come to carry off the product of any countrey , the exchanges are wont to rise ; but when that demand ceases , the exchanges generally fall. . these are the occasions by which bullion and exchanges do ordinarily come to rise and fall ; but these alterations , as before noted , cannot be great . . yet there are some extraordinary emergencies whereby the exchanges , and consequently bullion , may come to advance much more considerably . . as when any nation shall become so profuse as to expend more of the product of other commodities , than the value of the commodities they send abroad . . or if being engaged in a foreign war , they shall be obliged to maintain an army out of their own countrey , the charge whereof shall come to exceed the whole ballance of their trade . . in either of these cases 't is evident , that what the value which that nation sends to foreign countries shall fall short of the expence , must unavoidably be sent out in bullion . . and as this will first cause the exchanges to rise extravagantly , so the necessity of purchasing bullion to export for the satisfying the over ballance of their trade , will of consequence cause an advance upon the price of bullion . . neither can such a nations raising the computation of their coins , or abasing of their allay , prevent the sending out one peny the less ; because there is no other medium of paying the over ballance : and therefore the exchange will infallibly rise proportionable to the same alteration they shall make in their coins ; because ( as is before observed ) foreigners will only respect the weight of the bullion we bring them , without having any regard to the computations we put upon it . . such a nation then must infallibly grow poor , if this expence continue long ; even as a private man will be impoverished , when he spends more than his income ; though a rich man , or nation , may hold it out longer than a poorer . chap. vi. of the abuses of money , and the remedies . . there is scarce any nation that hath been free from the practices of ill men to corrupt and abuse the currant coins . . and this is done either by counterfeiting the same in baser metals , or by clipping or diminishing the true moneys . . either of these are made capital crimes in all governments . . to prevent the counterfeiting , the government usually employ the most curious artists to make such stamps as may not easily be imitated . . so that for the most part , this abuse is discovered by those that are skilful in the knowledge of money . . yet there are some counterfeits so neatly done , that even the most skilful are sometimes deceived by them . . to obviate which there is no means so certain as to try the money by weight ; for there is such a difference between the weight of metals as may discriminate the fraud . . if any shall attempt to make their counterfeit pieces of the due weight , they will so much differ in breadth or thickness , as may make it discernable by the eye : and people that want that judgment , may as well keep a pair of small calliper compasses as a pair of scales , a trial by both which would infallibly discover all frauds . and then the false pieces might be ordered to be immediately broken , and the offerer questioned how he came by them . . and this method would not only destroy all the bad money as fast as it should be discovered ; but also so soon hinder the vent of it in quantity , that it must utterly discourage the undertakers from proceeding in a business of that hazard , when they could make but small earnings of it . . the clipping of the coins can never be introduced , but through the neglect of the government . . yet this mischief hath proceeded so far in some countries , as to spoil a great part of the currant coin. . and though several methods may be attempted to prevent it , yet none can ever prove effectual , but the calling it all in , and causing it to be new coin'd , and the loss made up to the proprietors at the publick charge , prohibiting the passing of any such for the future . a letter to a minister of state , further explaining the foregoing aphorisms , and applying them to the present circumstances of this nation . may it please your honour , observing the remedies that have been proposed for the preventing the carrying out the bullion of this kingdom , and reforming that intolerable abuse of clipping our money , to be different from my apprehensions thereof ; and the difficulty there is to convince people by discourse , that the abasing of our coin , or raising the value of our currant money , would prove no effectual means for the remedying of the former , made me think of digesting my sentiments thereof into writing ; thereby to give such men who look no further than the out side , and search not into the bottom of things , a clearer understanding of what money is in its own nature , and how it is subject to alter in its value , by the various influencies of trade and exchanges : but then i found it would be absolutely necessary to give the general notions of all these , and to shew how they stood in relation each to other . and this i have attempted by way of aphorism , because i have thought that the most concise method of arguing ; and which ( if the writer be not mistaken in his propositions ) cannot fail of leading people to the truth , without a multitude of words , which in discourses of this nature especially , doth more often puzle the cause than give a clear understanding of the matter . such then as i have been able to make them , i take the liberty humbly to offer them to your honours perusal , with a resolution never to trouble the publick with them , unless they may seem so valuable as to pass the test of your honours judgment . ; yet for as much i have been necessitated to confine my self to shortness , and only carry on my argument in general terms , i think it needful to add some few remarks , partly for explanation , and partly to inlarge the discourse with some necessary additions applicable to the present circumstances of our nation , which the brevity of the aphorisms would not admit : with which i shall proceed in order . in the second chapter then i take notice of the different managements of trade between nation and nation , and conclude that the profit of a trading people is not to be reckon'd from their trade with any one countrey , but from the ballance of their trade in general . to illustrate which argument , i will instance in the trade of this nation with france in time of peace , from whence we brought a far greater value of their commodities than they receiv'd of ours ; so that the ballance of that trade was in that respect apparently to our loss : yet when it shall be considered that we sent a greater over ballance of our product to spain , holland , and germany , than we required of their productions ; it will appear , that we had no need of sending out our bullion , but that we could supply our occasions in france , by remitting thither by bills of exchange , the over ballance of trade which we had with those countries . and the advantages we made to our selves by the french trade was , that it employ'd our navigation , and caused the money of such who consumed those french commodities to circulate among merchants , and all tradesmen that had a dependance upon that business , and to contribute considerably to the publick revenues arising by the customs ; neither may we expect to drive a publick trade in the world without some such seeming disadvantages , with more reason , than that a private man should refuse to buy of his neighbour what his necessity requires , and he cannot so conveniently procure from another , because that neighbour hath no occasion to lay out any of his money with him . yet to apply this last instance to our trade with france , 't is but common reason that we should rather chuse to reject theirs , and use our selves to the drinking of the wines of spain and portugal , since they take off much more of our commodities than the french do ; and more especially , since the last prohibition with france hath shewn us , that we might find out wines in those countries , which are better in their own nature , and with use become even as pleasing as those of france . and it might be a thought not unworthy the consideration of our government , whether we may not reasonably lay four times the wonted duty on french wines , when ever that trade shall come to be open ; to continue , until that prince shall recall that extravagant duty which before the war he laid upon our manufactures , amounting to little less than a prohibition . what i hinted in the twenty third aphorism of this chapter , may be well instanced in our trade to the indies , whether we sent considerable quantities of bullion ; for which many people were apt to censure that trade as wholly prejudicial to the nation : yet if it shall appear , that if that business were well managed , we should be able to send so much of the goods brought from thence to our neighbour markets , as would return us more money and moneys worth than what we first sent out for india ; they will then be fully convinc'd that such trades are not to be declin'd : and that we have so done , is well known to those who understand trade . from the consideration of this chapter also , may well be argued the irrationality of any peoples making severe laws to prohibit the transportation of their bullion : for the experience of all the world shews , that wheresoever the advantages of trade require it , people do and will find ways enough for the conveyance of a commodity whose bulk is so small . neither can it be any prejudice to an industrious trading nation , because the more demand there is for its exportation , the higher the price will be , and that never fails to encourage the merchants , whose trade it suits with , to supply the market with more . but if any one will take occasion here to tell me , that people under this liberty , may come to carry out more bullion than they bring in ; i have shewn in the fifth chapter , that any nation that shall continue to do so , must infallibly ruine themselves in time : but then i cannot call that an industrious , but an improvident nation . the third chapter is to convince such of their mistake , who may think that foreigners are governed by the computation or value we put upon our coins ; and that if we raise its worth amongst our selves , they must be oblig'd to esteem it at the same rate , or else cannot afford to carry it from us ; whereas i think nothing is more plain , than that the weight is the only true standard of its value ; and if we should make our crowns to pass for five shillings and six pence , the exchange must advance just ten per cent. more to answer it ; because ( as it is shewn in the fifth chapter ) if we have occasion to send out bullion for the payment of our bills , we must send so much in weight as will make up the value which foreigners expect from us ; and consequently not one ounce the less will be sent out while our occasions require it abroad : and then the effect upon our selves will be , that every man will be really so much the poorer , as he shall become possessour of so much the less weight of bullion for the commodities he parts from : which i take to be a general declination of riches in a nation . the fourth chapter shews the cause and nature of exchanges ; and that though some men have skill to manage that kind of business to a competent advantage , yet there can be no such miracles wrought by it , as an ancient writer hath imagined ; because it is wholly influenced by the ballance of trade between nation and nation ; and when that falls short , it must be supplied by the sending of bullion : for that there must always be a value to answer the draught , or else the credit will be broken : for the drawing and re-drawing without a fund , is only a trick of necessitous men , and if continued will end in loss and ruine . the fifth treats of the rising and falling of exchange and bullion : and what i shall here take notice of on that head , is the extraordinary emergencies which cause a considerable advance thereon ; and this can never happen , but when a nation hath occasion to send out more bullion than it receives in from abroad : and these may be reckon'd the unnatural affects of trade , and are like convulsions in the body , the continuance whereof cannot but be dangerous ; and the way to remedy them , is not to begin with the effect ( as i have before observed , in shewing the deficiency of prohibiting exportation , or advancing the value of the coin , &c ) but to apply such means as may take away the cause . how the case is with us is no mystery , because 't is evident , that the charge of maintaining our army abroad doth exceed the ballance of our trade ; yet the inevitable necessity for that is such , that no man who loves his countrey can grudge the expence , because we are thereby preserved from the devastations , plunderings , sackings , burning , and slaughter , which we must have been subject to , if the seat of war had not been kept out of our own countrey . and indeed nothing could have given so great an evidence of the incredible riches of this nation , as the being able to bear so great a real expence ( for i call not that so which circulates amongst our selves ) so many years , with so few inconveniences as we have hitherto felt : so that we may yet think no worse of our selves , than we would say of a nobleman that might have ten thousand pounds per annum , and one hundred thousand pounds in his purse , if he should be forc'd to spend fourty thousand pounds of it in the defence of his just title to his estate , that he yet remains in a good condition . however the continuation of this expence must in time prove more injurious ; and therefore it cannot be amiss to think of some expedients that might make the lengthening of the war less burdensom to us : to which i should freely offer my mite , but that i fear to go beyond my line ; lest i might justly incur the censure due to such , who being over confident of their own notions , expose themselves , by publishing their thoughts , before they have tried the soundness of them , by conversing with other men of better judgments in those matters than themselves . but as to the business of carrying out our bullion , ( excepting our present occasion of paying our army abroad ) we of all nations of europe have least reason to be apprehensive of it ; because our own native commodities are so valuable in most foreign markets , that they turn to much more profit than the carrying of money would . the last chapter discourses of the abuses of money , and i think needs no explanation till i come to the sixty seventh and sixty eighth aphorism ; and i will only add to that , that i think upon mature consultation , such a scheme might be fram'd from that foundation , that might effectually answer the design . for it is to be considered , that upon the new coining of the money , most payments would be made in the mill'd crowns , and half-crowns , or in the old money of its true weight ; and people would immediately learn to try all their money , both by the scales and the calliper , so that few pieces would escape three hands ; for it would behove all people to be very exact and curious , both to avoid the loss and the suspicion that the offering bad money would subject them to . and though this method at the first may seem troublesom , yet 't is to be considered that in paying sums , there would be no need to try many pieces , so that the trouble would indeed be less than now it is ; besides the loss would be avoided , and a little time would quite put a stop to it . and i will here take occasion to suggest a thought which i have had for the putting a speedy end to the vexation , trouble and loss that people daily endure by the abominable money which they are forc'd to receive ; the currant cash of the nation being in a manner quite spoiled by clipping , or by the introducing a sort of counterfeit money , even worse than that , which daily increases upon us , and will continue so to do as long as any clipt money shall be permitted to pass . i would propose then , that the government should issue a proclamation , declaring , that for the putting a stop to the abuses of the money , the laws should be put in execution against any person that should presume to offer any clipt money after a certain prefixt day . but that for the ease of the people , officers should be appointed in the tower of london , for that city , and parts adjacent ; and a convenient place should be appointed by the magistrates in all the cities and market towns through the rest of the nation , where the like officers should attend to receive in all the good clipt money that should be brought them ; and that they should enter the sum and weight of every mans parcel in a book , and seal the same up in bags , giving them as many certificates as they please in parchment , to the amount of the sum they brought in . these certificates , with an indorsement , should be delivered from man to man in payments : but if any one should doubt the verity thereof , he might go to the officer and examine it . if any man shall refuse these certificates , and demand to be paid the money in specie , the debter should only be obliged to carry him to the officer , and calling for the bag certified , count it over to him before the officer , and so discharge himself ; the officer sealing the bag again , as before . if any persons should not like to have their money kept in such appointed place , they should have liberty to keep it themselves , or lodge it where they please , but not to open the seal but in the presence of the officer : yet it is rather to be supposed that the money would be in less danger of thieves , by being kept in a strong place , secured by the publick , than if it were kept in private houses : neither can the sum be so large , as to encourage a great number to make any attempt upon it ; for there are above eight hundred market-towns in the nation , which having one thousand pounds one with the other , would make eight hundred thousand pounds ; which perhaps may be double as much as will be found , out of london , and three or four of the other cities ; and 't is certain that the most will always be in the largest towns , and therefore most secure . the trouble of this will be less than might at first be imagined ; for all people of business in the countrey generally meet at the market , where the officers should give their attendance : so that this business would be dispatcht with as much ease as people could do it at home , and with no hazard of losing by bad money . neither would there be any injury offered to any man , for he that will keep his money himself may ; he that is content to take the endorsed certificates , cannot be unsecure , because the fund for them is unquestionable , being no less than the very same money , which otherwise he should have received in specie ; and he that desires to receive his money by tale , as before , may continue to do so , only he must submit to the trouble of doing it before an officer , which no honest man can think too much for the preventing such a mischief . also when there may be occasion to carry money from one place to another , the person should have his money told over and seal'd up a new , his old certificate cancell'd , his credit in the book discharg'd , and another certificate given , mentioning to be carried to such a place ; and the officer , appointed for that place , should receive it , enter it in his book , and give him certificates thereof as before : but to prevent abuses , any person , not well known , should be obliged to bring some credible person of the place to vouch for his honesty . some may object , that money will be wanting to supply the running cash ; but the project it self answers them , if they consider , that all the money continues to have the effect of running cash ; for every one may take the certificate as low as he pleases ; and then the circulation of a very little broad money , will serve the occasion of daily expences ; of which there could be no want : for besides , that most people will be able to pick out some broad money out of the parcels they have in their custody ; those people who have been able to keep money by them , have made such sorry money , as they are forc'd to take , serve for their necessary payments , and laid up the best ; which they will not scruple to bring out , when they shall be assured that no more can be clipt . and from this reason it may well be supposed , that the quantity of clipt money will prove much less than is generally thought . yet if the want of changing money , as i may call it , proves somewhat troublesom in some places , people might and would invent ways of helping themselves ; and this might be much better born for a while , than the continuation of so great a loss , which we see daily growing upon us . as for the poor , the overseers may be oblig'd to change what small matter they have out of the parish stock . also if this method were put in practice , an exact account would be taken of all the clipt money in the kingdom against the next sessions of parliament ; which would much facilitate their settling such a certain tax upon the publick , as would make good the loss , and give every man new mill'd weighty money for the clipt money he had brought in ; likewise the present counterfeit money would be destroy'd , because 't is all clipt . neither need the government be put to any charge , for 't is presum'd , that no people who are perplext with the base money , which now they must take , will bethink the giving two pence in the pound to be eased of that trouble and loss ; which 't is probable might defray the whole charge of this management . i will add but one thing more , and that is my observation on the late rise of guineas amongst us , and the ill consequence that attends it . the reason that is pretended for this , is the badness of the silver money ; when as people should consider , that 't is their own fault if they receive the counterfeit money ; and for the clipt , they may be sure to have it exchang'd for good money without loss , when the parliament can settle it ; and then consequently ( if not before ) guineas will fall again : but there will be no reparation for the great loss which such must suffer , who shall have quantities of them remaining on their hands . but some argue , that gold is risen proportionably , and therefore the price of guineas must keep up ; and that this doth not only keep our own guineas at home , but also cause them to be brought over to us from holland and other places whither they were carried . but to answer these , gold is only risen amongst us , because of the rise of guineas : and though this may make gold to advance also something in our neighbour countreys , when they see us so imprudent to take it from them at so high a price ; yet their advance is through our demand , and we shall find in the end that we may buy gold too dear ; which our neighbours of holland have wit enough to know , and therefore they will coin all the gold of their own countrey into guineas for us , if we will give them ( as we lately did ) five ounces of our standard silver for a guinea , which a little time before they would part with for four ounces : but as there is a necessity for sending out bullion for the payment of our army , so if this also continues , we may be sure to have but little silver left in a short time ; and both our silver and the exchange to holland is already advanced , yet more in our disfavour by this occasion . * neither shall we be so rich as those people imagine , by having such high prized gold in the stead on 't ; for those that treasure it , will find their coffers lighter than they would have been at the old rate , by near one third ; and those that should send it to india ( for we send little or none to any other parts ) would find that those people will give them no more of their commodities for it , than it would purchase when it cost them but four pounds per ounce at home ; and whether then it may not be more likely to fall again to the old price , than to keep up , let all prudent men judge . moreover all that now have them , know that they are held up at a strain'd value ; and though they are forc'd to take them in payment , or be without their money , yet every man is willing to be rid of them as soon as he can : so that when once they begin to fall , all people will be for parting with them before they come lower , and so they will come to tumble down faster than at first they rose . and all these inconveniencies are brought upon us by certain tricking men amongst us , that having the command of large cashes , do contrive , by such means , the raising great advantages to themselves by the greater injury of the publick ; and i am sorry to see that people are content so tamely to submit thereto , and do not represent these mischievous practices to the government , in order to stir them up to apply some speedy remedy . but before i have quite done , i will offer one remark more , to shew that notwithstanding what any particular government may do amongst their own people , it will yet be impossible to make a greater advance on the value of silver and gold through europe ; because the great supplies thereof , which have been brought into these parts of the world , since the discovery of those rich mines in america by the spaniards , have made it much more plenty than it was in former ages ; and while these mines continue , we may always expect a greater increase ; by which means its value may come to be less , but can never be more . * and let me add ( though it be a digression ) that the trading nations do get the greatest share of this ; which is the cause why we see that the potentates of those trading nations , are become much more powerful , being able to maintain far greater forces than they could in the last age : whereas on the contrary , we may observe some other great governments , who throught the extravagant expence of their own treasure , and for want of trade , and industry to acquire to themselves a proportion of this general increase of riches , are extreamly declin'd in their strength , though perhaps their territories may not be much less , nor the people they govern fewer than they were formerly . may it please your honour , my thoughts on these things would carry me much farther ; but when i consider that i have already toucht at divers great and weighty matters with too unskilful a hand , i think i have adventured but too far at the first attempt , and therefore shall close my discourse with a good observation made by a late ingenious author ; that so curious a subject as trade is , would not have wanted many excellent discourses , to shew the great advantages it brings to a nation , and the proper methods to seek its improvements ; but that men of learning are but little acquainted with it ; and those that are in the practice of it , do , for the most part , either want ability or leisure from their private affairs to do their countrey that right . and though i have addicted my self to search after the true notions of these matters , beyond many other merchants , who have their heads continually filled with business ; yet i see my self so defective in these respects , that i can rather wish , than ever hope to be master of those accomplishments , that might render me capable of expressing my thoughts with less difficulty to my self , and more clearness to others ; and from this reason it is , that i can never read over what i have written , without mending some faults , or espying others that i have not skill enough to help : and i cannot but expect , that all men , of your honours judgment , must find yet a great many more ; for which i can make no better apology than this , by acknowledging my own imperfections , and begging your honour only to have regard to the notions that i aim at ; neither in those dare i to be too confident of all that i have offered ; but if your honour shall think any of them to be instructive , i humbly pray you thereby to esteem of the good i design'd to the publick , by doing what i was able , and offering nothing but what according to my present understanding seems right : and i promise your honour , that when ever i shall be convinc'd to the contrary , i shall not only be willing to retract my error , but also to make amends by doing better for the future , if ever i shall be capable ; and in the mean time i crave leave to subscribe my self , may it please your honour , your honours most obedient humble servant . an appendix offering some further reasons against raising the value of our coin . the foregoing papers were written last summer , in hopes that they might have been of service , in order to the putting some stop to the daily increasing abuse of our money , and the injury accruing to the nation by the extravagant rise of gold : but finding that the government did not think fit to meddle in so weighty a matter out of parliament , the publication was omitted till the opening of the present session . but since my having finisht the former part of this discourse , mr. lowndes , secretary to the right honourable the lords of the treasury , and a worthy member of the present honourable house of commons , did me the honour to shew me a tract of his upon the same subject ; in which he hath given a very exact deduction of the various alterations that have been made in the coins of this nation , since the first institution of our mints ; shewing the measures that have been taken from time to time for regulating the abuses of the money ; and proposing a method for the rectifying the present defects thereof : the whole discourse being most ingeniously performed , and furnisht with many excellent notions on that subject , worthy the observation of all curious persons . yet , as he proposes that in consideration of the present high price of bullion , our money ought to be made adequate thereto , that thereby encouragement may be given for people to bring in their silver to the mint , and that there may be no temptation hereafter for the melting down or exporting our coin : having already given my opinion so contrary thereto in the foregoing discourse , i cannot yet bring my judgment to agree with him for the raising of our money to per cent. above its former value : although i will confess , that i think the system which he hath fram'd for the effecting the matter in that way , to be the most compleat that can be , if it shall be thought absolutely necessary for us to proceed upon the foundation of raising the value of our money . and although i am not willing to contravert this point with a person , whose abilities i esteem so much beyond my own ; yet forasmuh as i expect this matter will become the serious debate of the parliament ; and that i am very confident that that worthy gentleman will readily acquiesce in whatsoever shall be thought most expedient for the publick good ; i cannot think it will be any offence to him , if i here add some reasons why i continue to dissent from him in that notion . first then , i doubt it will not in the least measure prevent the carrying out of our bullion , or exporting our coin ; because ( as i have already shewn ) if our occasions shall continue to require more money abroad than doth arise from the ballance of our trade , there can be no other way of supplying it , than by sending the overplus in bullion ; and this must be had in the full quantity by weight which shall be wanted : and therefore , if we should advance the value of our money , so as to make our present crown pass amongst our selves for seven shillings six pence or more , the price of our bullion would yet be somewhat higher . for i believe it may be admitted for a certain rule , that whensoever there is such a demand , the price of bullion will always advance something above our coin'd money , because of the penalty and hazard that attends the melting or transporting the latter ; and yet notwithstanding that hazard , we see people are not to be deterr'd from it , when a considerable profit tempts them thereto , by the price of bullion rising much above it ; so that it seems to me altogether as impossible to find out any regulation that can keep our silver , either coin'd or uncoin'd , at home , whensoever our necessities abroad demand a greater value than the produce of all our merchandize exported can furnish ; as to take away the effect , while the cause remains . secondly , i think that an advance of twenty five per cent. upon our money , if it hath any effect at all upon us , must tend very much to the impoverishment of the nation ; to confirm which opinion , two dilemma's will offer themselves , and i know not how they can be avoided . for , if the species of our coin be rais'd to pass for one fourth part more than formerly , either the price of the product of our lands and labour will rise in the same proportion thereto , or else they will be bought for one fourth part less than the due weight of our present coin. now if it may be suppos'd that our product will rise in the same proportion , then this alteration will conduce nothing , either to the multiplying of the currant cash necessary for the circulation of our trade ( because every man will have need of the same quantity of silver and gold in weight as before ) or to the giving any encouragement for the bringing in of silver from abroad , because it would really buy no more of our goods to transport than it did before : so that thus the difference would be nothing more to us than in the computation , and will only appear in the swelling of the figures of our accompts . but if this alteration shall obtain , to cause the product of our lands and labour to be sold for the same computation of pounds , shillings and pence , as now , although the coin will be one quarter part less in weight ; it must consequently have a very fatal influence upon the trade , from whence we draw all our wealth . for to instance in the trade of spain ( because that is as the fountain of silver and gold to all europe ) when the merchant shall come to find that his bullion imported thence , will purchase in england one quarter part of our commodities more than formerly , the encouragement by this extravagant profit will be so great , that not only our own , but foreign merchants also , will presently be at it , and bring all their bullion hither to lay out in our english goods . and this will certainly be a brave trade , and will seem to answer the end of drawing in silver and gold to us for a while : but what will follow ? why , in a few months time , the multitude of seekers after this profitable trade , will have crouded the spanish markets with such gluts of our goods , that they 'll presently find out the blind side , and will infallibly take occasion by the over-plenty of goods at market , to beat down the prices , even lower than the twenty five per cent. which he hop'd he had gain'd by the laying out his money in england ; neither will they ever rife again higher than just to afford such a profit , pro rato , to the money , which us'd to content the merchant , when he formerly kept jogging on in his spanish trade : so here our violent start will last but a little while , and ever after we must not expect , that the product of our nation will afford us , in foreign countries , any more than three quarter parts of the value it yielded before this alteration . but the mischief will not end here ; for foreigners will not be hereby perswaded to part with what we want of their product , for less weight of bullion than they us'd to have before ; so that if we formerly could afford to consume amongst our selves , above three quarter parts of the produce of our foreign exports ( which i doubt we did , and yet were good gainers by our trade too ) we shall then come to spend more than our income ; which i am sure will be the way to impoverish us quickly , unless we alter our course of living , which a nation that hath long been us'd to such plenty , is not apt to be brought to . let us see then how this will operate amongst us at home : the labourer and manufacturer must come to take less weight of silver for their wages , and yet must continue to pay the same weight as formerly , for what foreign commodities they spend ; whereby they will be reduc'd to a necessity of faring harder , and spending less in provisions , which must cause the product , and consequently the rents of our lands to fall in the same proportion . the gentleman then , who lives upon the rents of his lands , must expect they will fall one fourth part in their yearly value , and yet he must give at least twenty five per cent more for all the foreign commodities he spends , which to persons of that rank , may modestly be computed to affect them ten per cent. more ; so that hereby they will be reduc'd above one third part of their subsistance . but what is yet worse , there will be a stop put to the increase of our riches arising from foreign trade , the only source of national wealth ; and that must reduce the strength and power of the kingdom , and make us unable to resist the insults of such of our neighbours , who shall use more prudent methods for the introducing plenty of gold and silver among them : and indeed i cannot determine wherein the happiness of a nation , rich in that kind of wealth consists , above others , which abound in plenty of all things necessary for human life , only in that the former are enabled to sustain the chargeable provisions of war , as it is now manag'd , when as the latter must be enforc'd to submit to the oppressions of others , for want of such means to defend themselves ; there being nothing more plain , than that according to the present constitution of these parts of the world , he that hath the longest purse , will certainly have the longest sword. but here will now arise another dilemma ; for , either this alteration must continue amongst us , or our money will come to revert to its former standard of value . if the alteration continues , and have its effect , i think the fatal consequences shewn in the foregoing argument cannot be avoided : but if the coin shall , after such an alteration , return again to its old adjustment , manifold injuries and inconveniencies must attend it , of which , i will offer a few instances : if a man hath lent two thousand pounds upon personal or land security , the debter shall upon this regulation be able to pay off his debt with such money as will be really worth but one thousand six hundred pounds ; and on the other hand , if a man borrow two thousand pounds of this regulated money , and continue the debt till the money be again reform'd to its former value , it will cost him five hundred pounds more than he at first receiv'd , to pay off this debt of two thousand pounds . all debts due from the crown , will be paid to the lenders in one fourth part less value than the money lent ; so likewise what moneys the crown may borrow under the regulation , must be paid again after the reformation thereof , with the addition of one fourth part value more than borrowed . all tradesmen must on the regulation , receive but three fourth parts real value for all the debts they have trusted out ; but on the reformation , all people that owe money to the tradesmen , must really pay one quarter part more than the value of what they bought . now as 't is not to be thought but that this loss and gain will fall very unequally among the mass of the people , according as the accidents of their affairs may bring them under the influence of it ; let us next consider what profit the crafty money'd men may infallibly raise to themselves , by taking the natural advantages of such alterations of our money . suppose then a banker , worth twenty thousand pounds of his own estate , had a prospect of this rise , it will easily be allow'd , that such an one by drawing in all the money he could into his hands , might certainly command sixty thousand pounds , by which sum he will immediately upon the propos'd advance , gain fifteen thousand pounds profit , and whensoever he shall be apprehensive of a reformation of the money to its old standard , he may pay off his debts in the light money , and lay out his own estate on good securities or purchase of lands , till it will bring him in the same sum in heavy money , and so secure him in the aforesaid profit . in like manner , foreigners may on the prospect of so large a profit ( besides the common interest ) bring money into our nation to let out on valuable securities , while this regulation continues ; but when the same is reform'd , will be paid again in money worth twenty five per cent. more than what he lent ; which will be so much clear loss to the nation , in as much as they carry away from us both principal and profit . i shall only note further , that it will be in this as in the case of guineas , that as some will seem to get , and none to lose by it in the beginning , the people will admit it to be introduc'd without any uneasiness ; but when the money shall come to be reform'd again , the loss will affect them so generally , that it may endanger the raising of mutinies and disturbances among the people . thirdly , with submission to better judgments , i humbly conceive that better and more effectual methods may be provided , for the bringing down the price of bullion , and making it near adequate to the value of our currant coin ; which ( as that worthy gentleman well observes ) will be the proper means to prevent the melting down of the one , and hindring the exportation of th' other . and that would be by bringing our affairs into such a posture , as that our expences abroad may be kept within the compass of the ballance of our trade : for this , and this only , will be able to take away the evil by the cause ; and is of that absolute necessity , that without it 't will be impossible for us to maintain an army abroad much longer , without being drain'd of all the riches in the kingdom . which being a matter of that great consequence , if i should , ( contrary to my intent in the first writing of these papers ) presume to suggest my thoughts of such courses as may be requisite to be put in practice in order to attain that end ; i hope i shall at least deserve pardon , if i may be mistaken in any of them ; since the deep sense i have of the injury daily accrewing to the nation under the present methods , and my not having seen any thing of that kind offer'd by abler hands , is what prevails upon me thus to expose my humble opinion to the scrutiny of stronger judgments . what then occurs to me as fit measures to be taken , in order to bring our expence within the compass of the ballance of our trade , i shall recommend in the following particulars : . by sending all provisions necessary for the sustenance of our army abroad , as full and compleat as we provide for our seamen on board our ships ; by which means , and by lessening the subsistence of the officers to what should be but of absolute necessity , reducing also all their unnecessary equipages ( which would be much to their advantage ) 't is probable we might sustain our army for less than one half of the money we now pay abroad . if it should be objected , that all such provisions may be had cheaper there than we can send them from hence ; let it be considered , that if we lost twenty per cent. in the cost ( which is not to be suppos'd ) the nation yet gains eighty per cent. by keeping so much money at home : for whatsoever is sent out of the kingdom , is so much clear loss to it . . it might be reasonable , that since the maintaining so great an army abroad is very injurious to us being an island , that our confederates the dutch might be prevail'd with to make some commutation with us , by their taking some regiments off our hands into their pay , and we to take upon us and excuse them from as much or more charge in the sea-service : all which would be so much sav'd to us , whilst the money circulates amongst us at home , and no injury to them ; because by a treaty on this foot , we might afford , even somewhat to lessen theirs , and heighten our own quota of the general charge of the war. . by lessening our expence of such foreign commodities which we can well be without ; which may be effected by prohibiting for a time the importation of all sorts of red wines , and all other sorts of fruit and wines , except such as are of the growth of spain or the rhine ; all sorts of fine linens , and all other linens , except some few sorts to be particularly named ; all kinds of silk manufactured abroad ( except what comes from india ) and making it penal to sell or wear such , or any sort of foreign lace * . for all these things , conducing but to luxury , people may very well content themselves for a while without them , when the publick weal of the kingdom is so much at stake , especially since they will not be denied the use of them but by degrees ; for it may be suppos'd that the stock which will be in the nation at the time of such prohibition may last two years ; by which time 't is possible we may be in a better condition to indulge them again . moreover , by this means the product and manufactures of our own countrey will be highly encouraged , and perhaps some of them be brought to that perfection , as that we may never more need foreign of the same kind . if the defect of the revenue arising from the customs should be objected , we shall be hereby enabled the better to supply that and more by other taxes . . by reducing the price of gold so , as that people may not make profit , by sending out our silver in exchange for it . . by regulating our money , and bringing it to its just standard ; by which means the exchanges between us and our neighbours will be brought to be near equal : because when the money of any countrey is of its true known weight and goodness , it cannot fail to obtain near the same weight of the money of any other countrey alike fine upon exchange , allowance being only to be made for the time , charge , hazard and profit of the exchanger , which is called the praemio , and ( as i have before shewn ) can never be great between neighbour nations ; because people would then decline the charge , and transport their own money , which common sense tells every man , must needs be valued at its own weight in any countrey . however , to prevent exchangers taking advantage by the demands of so great sums , the government may enjoyn that all the money they want abroad , may be sent in coin ( by which we could lose but the coinage , and that too is earn'd by our own people ) whenever they cannot get it return'd by exchange at a certain moderate rate to be set ; and this would infallibly keep a just regulation upon the prices of bullion and exchanges , and consequently bring more silver to the mint , especially if some small encouragement of two or three per cent. were given by the publick , when we find running cash scarce among us . . by taking more care in the protection of our trade than hitherto hath been ; for perhaps what we have lost this year by our east and west-india ships , would not have put us less than a million value into foreign parts ; and that would have sav'd us the sending out of the same value in silver ; which if it were duly considered by our government , they might easily be perswaded , that no part of the publick charge could be better employ'd for the service of the nation , than in taking due care of our merchants ships . by what i have said then , i hope it will be evident to all men that are solicitous for the good of their countrey , that unless these or such like methods are taken , whereby we may be made able to support our foreign expence , without being oblig'd to send out more silver yearly than we receive in from the product of our trade with other countreys , the scarcity of bullion amongst us will become so great , that we shall soon be put under an incapacity of maintaining the war. and , i believe , i may further presume to say , that the nation might be able longer , and with more ease , to bear seven millions per annum in taxes , which should only be expended , and have their circulation amongst our selves , than to pay but one million per annum , to be exported in silver while the ballance of our trade could bring us in none . but could we once effect this great thing , of making the product of our foreign trade support our foreign expence , the war would not make the nation poor though it should last these seven years : and i hope this short essay hath given a specimen , how it may be possible for us to do so , if we have virtue enough to retrench our luxury , and manage our affairs with prudence and integrity . and now , though i have done with this argument , i cannot yet finish , 'till i have added a further thought touching the reformation of the money , in which i heartily agree with that worthy gentleman , earnestly to recommend it as a matter of necessity , to be done with as much speed as possible ; neither do i think , there can be a better method than what he hath proposed , by erecting mints and officers to receive in , and new-coin the money in divers parts of the kingdom : yet i will beg leave to offer as my humble opinion , that we need not at present be over solicitous for the coining more silver than shall be voluntarily brought in ; nor for the delivering to the proprietors more new-coin'd money than the weight of the silver they bring ; and for the remainder , to give them tickets payable with interest , upon a certain fond to be settled for that purpose , till the nation may better spare money to discharge the principal ; which would certainly be more currant than money it self , by the constant growing of the interest . but i know the doubt is , that we shall not then have money enough to circulate in trade : in answer to which , i would observe , that money may be considered to have a threefold use , viz. for treasure , or hoarding up ; for supplying the use of trade in gross sums ; and for going to market , or small expences . the possessors of the first sort can never want money , and so they may be out of our care. the second is what requires the greatest regard : and yet , even now , when silver money is the most scarce that ever was known in our time , people do by means of the plenty of gold , and the help of goldsmiths and bank-notes , for ought i can perceive , make their payments well enough : from whence i am inclin'd to think , that when , besides the present banks , the land banks also ( which are now in a fair way of being established ) come to be opened , they will supply the place of running cash as largely , as ever it was in the plentiest of times ; for i cannot but think , that lands securely settled will be esteem'd so certain and valuable a fond for a bank , that it must obtain as solid a credit , as if the whole value were coin'd into money ; and that it will become no less serviceable in trade . and when i further consider , that our clipt money of the true coin , was plenty enough before the rise of guineas , and the introduction of the counterfeit money that is now so common , but soon after did for the most part vanish away ; i am ready to conclude , that upon the apprehension of its being called in , and the loss made up by the government , people chose to lay it by , and make the guineas and false money serve for their running cash , as what they were willing to be rid of , as soon as they could , for fear of a loss at last ; but in as much as the clipt money is not worth the melting down , i expect it will be brought out again in greater plenty than people may imagine from the present appearance of it , when it shall be called in to be chang'd ; neither is it to be doubted , but that considerable quantities of the old unclipt money will appear again , when our coin shall be regulated : so that i am of the judgment , that by all these means , the circulation of the larger payments will become much easier than now : and then for the lesser expences , so small a quantity will supply that occasion , that it cannot be wanting . finis . postscript . upon further discourse with the forementioned worthy gentleman , he offer'd me a very weighty objection against the new-coining of our money to the old weight : for that the nation is at this time very largely indebted to foreigners , as well for the great quantities of gold they have of late brought us , as otherwise ; which because of the high price of bullion , and the exchange , they have not yet been able to withdraw ; but will certainly carry it away in the new moneys , as soon as the same shall be made of its old weight . to which i can give no better answer , than that i am sorry that we have been so negligent in not preventing the cause ; for i doubt the consequence is too natural to be easily avoided : and therefore i must refer it to abler heads than my own , to consider , whether we were not even better to submit to bear that loss , than to draw upon our selves the fatal inconveniencies i have before mentioned . yet i will add a sudden thought , whether we might not upon this occasion lay a temporary duty of sixpence per ounce upon all bullion to be transported ; admitting none to be entred out , but such of which due proof was made of its importation ; and not only confiscating all that should be found shipt without entry , but adding very severe penalties upon all that shonld be concern'd therein : and a little diligence in the execution of this , might quickly operate so far upon those wary people , who are the common traders that way , as that they might rather chuse to pay a duty of ten per cent. than run so great a hazard without it . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e * i am not ignorant that it 's common among merchants to call the exchange to holland falling , when the dutch give fewer schillings for our pound , and this indeed may well be reckon'd falling in their favour ; but with respect to us , if we could formerly purchase thirty five schillings for our twenty shillings , whereas we must now pay twenty five shillings for the like number of dutch schillings , i am sure we may more properly say 't is risen twenty five per cent. to us . * since writing the above , i am inform'd by very worthy and knowing persons , that within late years , very rich mines of gold have been open'd in the east-indies ; so that we should not only have no need hereafter to send gold thither , but that gold might be brought from thence purchas'd with silver , to yield in europe sixty to eighty per cent. profit ; from whence we may certainly expect , that the value of gold must , in some short time , become of less worth in proportion to silver than it hath been formerly . notes for div a -e * i know this may be thought hard to some people , whose trades chiefly depend upon such commodities : but i think we ought to have more regard to the publick good of our countrey , than to any such , who will not be content for its sake to divert their trades , and shift as well as they can for a year or two . decus & tutamen, or, our new money as now coined in full weight and fineness proved to be for the honour, safety and advantage of england, written by way of answer to sir richard temple and dr. barbon ; to which is added an essay to preserve our new money from being hoarded, melted down, transported or counterfeited. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing h estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) decus & tutamen, or, our new money as now coined in full weight and fineness proved to be for the honour, safety and advantage of england, written by way of answer to sir richard temple and dr. barbon ; to which is added an essay to preserve our new money from being hoarded, melted down, transported or counterfeited. e. h. viii, p. [s.n.], london : . dedicatory signed: e.h. reproduction of original in british library. decus & tutamen. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng temple, richard, -- sir, - . barbon, nicholas, d. . -- discourse concerning coining the new money lighter. coinage -- great britain. currency question -- great britain. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - jonathan blaney sampled and proofread - jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion decus & tutamen : or , our new money as now coined , in full weight and fineness ; proved to be for the honour , safety , and advantage of england . written by way of answer to sir richard temple and d r barbon . to which is added , an essay to preserve our new money from being hoarded , melted down , transported or counterfeited . london printed , and are to be sold by most booksellers , . to his honoured friend g. clive of the middle-temple , esq sir , as the many civilities receiv'd from you , most justly challenge an acknowledgment , so your exquisite perfections in learning and ingenuity , render this dedication duly applyed ; by the former whereof , to own your candor and generosity , by the latter to bespeak ( by the touch-stone of your perusal and approbation ) a sufficient security from the snarlings and insults of those carping zoylus's , who are such self-admirers , to approve of nothing of which themselves are not authors ; and are more disingeniously witty in criticising , and discanting on others performances , than in rectifying and amending what they pretend so defective . and here , sir , i am not ignorant , that while i am barely owning your favours instead of a compensation , i am running farther on the score , which i doubt not however , but your goodness will readily pardon , since 't is not practicable for one to pay , where another is not willing to receive . there is one things , sir , i have omitted in the following discourse ( as not being practised till it was finished , ) i. e. to observe how great a mischief we are falling into , by giving considerable sums of money for the prompt payment of bank and other notes , of which the rates grow so high , as 't is to be feared will in a short time ruine our paper credit , which used to be very considerable in the way of trade , and which must needs be abated if not totally ruined thereby , unless the government by some means or other put a speeedy stop thereto ; for men are grown to that pass , that few will pay their just debts ( tho' of money lent , and they have considerable sums by them , ) unless you 'l take a note , which they have made by this ill practice , at least per cent. less than money : so that tho' we had our complement of running cash , we shall find , that if this practice be permitted , we shall never have notes in better credit , nor ready money paid in much more plenty than now it is , as i could easily prove by sundry instances , were it not matter more proper for another place , than this epistle : which before i. conclude , i shall only further observe , that i look upon the great mistake of such as are for having the nominal value of our coin raised , the alloy therein more , or the same coined lighter , to be owing chiefly to this misguided supposition ; that we in this island live independantly without having any thing to do with foreign countries , which did we do the making any thing currant by stamp , that has little or no value in it self , would i coefess , be sufficient to make it serve to most ends and purposes of inland trade and bargains : but if we consider our selves , with respect to foreign dealings and traffique , we shall find we are so much the more at a loss , by how much the extrinsick value of our coin exceeds the real or intrinsick . but lest i should by prolixity misuse the liberty of this dedication , and retain your thoughts too long from the entertainment of subjects more noble , and solidly refined , i subscribe my self with all sincerity , your most humble , and obliged servant , e. h. decus & tutamen , &c. such is the folly , as well as the ambition and envy of the present age , that nothing can be propounded as advantagious to the publick , that meets not with opposition , to the great hindrance not only of the riches and prosperity of the nation , but also to the unspeakable scandal and discouragement of its true policy . and upon such irregular principles , no doubt but sir richard and the doctor undertook , to write against mr. lock 's book concerning coin ; a book which for its excellent prescriptions of curious remarks and political maxims on that subject , cannot be sufficiently valued , but by those of equal judicious accomplishments , and clear notions with himself . but before i proceed , that the aforesaid remarkers may not think , this discourse undertaken out of any prejudice conceived against them , i do sincerely profess , i know neither of the two ; but that this is published out of pure zeal for truth , without any prejudice against any party whatever . first then in general , i cannot but admire that sir richard temple should be the author of such mistaken notions concerning coin and trade , as he has publish't in his said remarks , in which i see not any thing of weight or reason in all his seven objections ; nor does he make out any thing he assigns , to be an erroneous assertion of mr. lock , unless we must believe meerly because he says it , whose authority must be lookt upon unquestionable , because of his quality . but tho' these gentlemen have taken the pains to impose their sentiments on the world , yet i hope they 'l have no better reception than they had in the honourable house of commons ; for how much soever the leaving open the price of guineas , and advancing the value of coin , might have been to sir richard , and to dr. barbon as to his expected bank , ( by which means the sum subscribed would have been ¼ more ) yet sure i am , we should thereby have ▪ had miserable convulsions in trade , if not a total ruine , before the next session of parliament . and here i remember what the doctor says in answer to this , in his epistle : that he could have got more by melting down the new coin of the present standard , than he could propose to do by a new coinage of advancing the crown piece to six shillings and pence . but this he should talk to children , or such projectors as himself ; for i would fain know , whether is safer and more for advantage , to gain pence in a crown legally , or to gain but penny , ( for bullion is but at s. d. per ounce , ) in a crown , and incur thereby the penalty of the law against such melting down . but i 'll leave the doctor a while , and return to sir richard , who in his first remark says ; first , that an ounce of silver is equal to an ounce of silver of the same weight and fineness , but that an ounce of silver will buy an ounce of silver , of like fineness ( he says ) is absur'd , since there is no occasion for any barter . this remark consists of two parts : the first he grants , the second he denies ; and i think the first , which is that he grants , is more absur'd , or at least has more inpropriety in it than the latter ; for two ounces of silver of the same fineness , he needs not question are of the same weight ; for an ounce troy is always equal to an ounce troy ; so that he had better have left [ of the same weight ] out . then as to his second part , i dare appeal to all the world , whether it is absur'd to barter silver for silver ; i am sure , it s a thing done every day , and no doubt but sir r. has done it himself , unless he always paid for his plate with farthings and halfpence , which few goldsmiths would take , unless the quantity bought were inconsiderable ; so that its just as absur'd to say , that an ounce of silver will buy an ounce of silver of the same fineness , as it is to say , an ounce of sterling plate is sold for a sterling crown piece ; and that 's no absurdity at all , for the plate bought is an ounce of silver , and the crown that paid for it is near ℥ of sterling silver of the same fineness , which barter is very proper and practicable ; and therefore his reason [ since there is no occasion for any barter ] is vain and frivolous , since nothing is more true , than that silver coin and old plate are daily bartered for new plate . his second remark , is , that the intrinsick value of silver is the true instrument or measure of commerce , ( he says ) is partly true and partly false ; for the money of every country is the measure of commerce there . to this i answer , that tho' the money of a country is the instrument of commerce , yet the intrinsick value of silver is nevertheless the true measure thereof , by being the measure of that money ; for by how much the more there is of silver in any money , by so much the more it is valuable ; and by how much the more is is valuable , by so much the more of any commodity it will purchase : and in all buying , selling , and bartering , tho' the persons concerned were guided as to the worth of the thing , bought , sold , or bartered , by the coin of the place where such bargains are transacted . yet all or the greatest part of the coin in all countries , being either silver or gold , whose value is computed by that silver . to say , that because coin is the instrument of commerce , that silver is not so , ( as the doctor does positively , and sir r. in part affirm ) is to say , that the coin of all trading nations is no silver , which is false , and the remark very weak . but the doctor says , pag. . that if men made their bargains only for the quantity of silver , to what purpose is there any copper money coined , which reckoning one country with another , is ⅓ part of the money in europe . to which i answer , that copper money is in all places , except sweedland , designed only for conveniency in paying small sums , which cannot so well be paid in silver , because the quantity thereof being very small , wou'd be ( and is as we see in our silver ½ pence , pence , two pences , &c. ) in danger of being lost . and as to there being ⅓ of the coin in europe made only of copper , i dare affirm , and appeal to all the merchants and travellers in england , that not one hundredth part of the coin in all the traffiquing nations in the world , except sweedland , is any thing but gold or silver ; and i am farther confirmed in this opinion , not only because i have some knowledge of the several coins , but from this computation of it in our own nations coin. the most ingenious calculator sir william petty has told us ▪ that l. in farthings and half pence , is a sufficient quantity of copper money for england : but i am of opinion , that we have not so many now , because we want . and the running cash of gold and silver is computed modestly at , , il . which divided by l. quotes ▪ : so that at that rate , instead of ⅓ , there is but a one hundred and twentieth part of the running cash of england made of any thing but gold and silver . and we have great reason to believe , that copper money in other countreys , being but for the same use we make of it in england , ( viz. for change , and paying small sums , as is said above , ) is near the same proportion to their gold and silver cash . and therefore as to what the doctor says , page . ' that there are more bargains made with copper money than either with gold or silver , and would make good this assertion by an instance of half penny loaves being bought and sold , ( which by the way is a ridiculous one . ) i say , it is egregiously false , to instance in some useful things for the body and mind , ( as the doctor has it , page . ) in a whole-sale trade , where the commodities bought and sold are not cutt or divided into lesser parts than they were brought in . daily experience tells us , there is no such thing as paying in copper money , for it is a small whole-sale parcel that is not worth d. and all or most parcels above ( not to say some below ) that price , are paid for in silver ; and tho' the copper money has the king's stamp on it , which the doctor lays such stress on , pag. . ' yet so prudent and wise were our law-makers , that no one can be forced to take this money for rent or debt , because it has not a universal value , nor was intended to be receiv'd or pay'd in large sums in the way of trade , by reason of its being far less portable than silver ; farthings weighing grains more , and taking up as much room as half a crown in silver , and consequently omitting the grains l. in copper , as much as l. in silver ; and at this rate , how troublesom would it be for a man to be obliged to receive copper money for packs of sheeps wool , or sacks of cotton , bales of silk , hogsheads of sugar , wine , brandy , &c. nay , if this mony were paid for the greatest part of bargains , as the doctor says it is , it would cost less money to carry most sorts of goods to a fair or mart , than the money those commodities were sold for home again ; but to come nearer the doctors half penny loaves , how few are there that pay for either victuals , apparel or lodging in this sort of money ? for does any man pay for a years board , or so much as a joint of meat at the market in farthings ? does any man pay for a hatt , coat , &c. or so much as gloves or thread stockings , in farthings ? does any one pay their house-rent , or so much as for a half peck loaf in copper money ? nay , to come to the doctors own instance , of the vast number of half penny and penny loaves that are bought , i dare engage ¾ thereof are paid for in silver coin ; for the baker i 'le warrant , never buys a bushel of wheat , and pays for 't in farthings or copper money , nor the victualler ( in whose house most of the bakers half penny loaves are spent , ) pays for a dozen or two ( than which he has seldom less ) in copper money , no nor even the person who buys these of the victualler for his own eating , comes to his house only to eat ; for 't is a hundred to one , but this guest and his friend , ( for few drink alone ) if he calls for a role or two , but he has some cheese or butter , and two tankards of ale , which makes d. in all which trade , there is no copper money used ; and i think all these cases may and do happen every day . and as for books , there 's scarce a bound one in any volume bought under d. and where one pounds worth is bought with copper money , l's . worth are bought with gold and silver . all which is sufficient to shew , that it is with silver money and not copper ( as the doctor says , ) that our inland trade is managed , and consequently that silver is the measure thereof . and after the same manner is the traffique of other nations , their money being for the most part made of silver , contrary to what the doctor says , page . viz. that the merchants both in their bills of exchange , and in their accounts do as often reckon by the copper money as the silver money . this i utterly deny , and will prove it a mistake in the doctor , by shewing what money other nations keep their accompts in . and in what money they exchange with london . that all trading nations that have commerce with england , do keep their accompts in , and buy and sell with and for silver money , for the most part will appear as follows : . in the netherlands , viz. at amsterdam , rottordam , and antwerp , accompts are kept in pounds , shill . and pence , flemish , or in guilders and stiver ; there is likewise current the holland dollar , duccatoon , and other pieces , all of silver , some , some , and some ounces fine . . in france accounts are kept in livres or franks , souze and deniers , and there are curant the crown of livres , and other pieces , all made of silver , some ounces , some ounces pw . fine . . in spain accounts are kept in some places , viz. valentia , saragota and barselona , in pounds , shill . and pence ; and there are currant the ducats of ½ , and ryalls , which is silver coin of ounces , ½ pw . fine ; and at cadix , are currant the piece of sevill and mexico , the first ℥ pw . the latter , ounces fine . as also the pattacoon , &c. . in portugal , their chief money used in traffique are milrees , crusado's , and testoons : and they in some parts keep their accounts in these , and some in rees , which is copper . but the exchange is made with london upon the mill-ree , which is par with s. d. sterling ; all these denominations of money , except the rees are silver , some ounces pw . and some of ounces fine . . in germany the coins of silver are too tedious to mention here ; the most usual of which in trassique , are the rix dollar above ounces fine , creutzers of ounces , pw . fine of silver ; and at hamburgh , accounts are kept in pounds , shill . and pence , in which they likewise exchange with london shill . being par there , with one one pound sterling . . in italy , as at leghorn and genoa , accounts are kept in pounds , shill . and pence de ovo , the testoons of mantua and milan of ounces , pw . fine , also ducats , tary , and many other silver coins , too tedious to relate here ; but we exchange with venice and places thereabout , upon the ducat de banco , which is par with pence sterling , and with legorn upon the crown de ovo , which is par with ½ d. sterling . . the money of ireland in which accounts are kept , are pounds , harps and obbs , the harp is ℥ pw . fine , the obb is half the harp , and harps is their pound ; and exchange at london with dublin by the pound irish , which is par with english . . the money of scotland , is pounds , marks , nobles , and small pieces , the former of ℥ . pw . ( or sterling ) fine . and in short , all other trading countrys , except sweedland , have their commerce carryed on chiefly by silver coin , as the rupee and ½ rupee of east india , all sine , the piece of eight , mexico and peru in the west indies , fine as abovesaid ; the s. danzick , guilders , &c. in poland , ℥ . pw . fine ; the deghen , &c. of russia , ℥ . pw . fine ; the danish dollar ℥ . pw . fine . and in sweeden , besides their copper dollars , they have the sweeds dollar of the same fineness , with the rix dollar of germany , and half its value ; tho' i confess , a great part of their trade is carryed on with the copper money ; but the like is not done ( as appears by the foregoing account ) in any other nation , and no doubt but the sweeds would glad enough be rid of it for silver , were it not the product and manufacture of their own , and that they are very poor : for as the learned and ingenuous malynes says on the same subject , necessitas non habet legem . and thus i think , i have sufficiently proved from matter of fact , that more bargains are made with silver than copper money , since there is abundantly more of the former than of the latter , and consequently that silver is the measure of commerce : and i have likewise proved , that merchants do not either in their accounts or bills of exchange , reckon any thing near so much in copper money as in silver . for whereas the doctor says , pag. . as in portugal , the merchant often draws his bills of exchange , to be paid in rials of rees ; and says he , and so in spain , he draws his bill to be paid in rials of malvadies . he is in this very much out , as well as in his copper money bargains ; for our exchange to lisbon is in milrees of s. d. sterling per millree , & to s. &c. in circa & to cadiz . the par is . d. sterling for one piece of eight ; and the course ( now ) d. and upward ; to which two places are the principal exchange of that country with london made ; and what they do among themselves , is nothing to us . and therefore it does not appear , that the doctor has any more experience in these matters than mr. lock ( nor indeed so much ▪ ) notwithstanding his great profession , in condemning ▪ mr. locks definition of the par of exchange , page . which with the doctors notion , i●ll incert as follows , and leave it to those that have long known the practick part , whether of the two is the most true and genuine . mr. lock 's definition of the par. the par of exchange ( pag. . of his considerations ) 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 . the doctor 's definition . the par of money is made by computing the valuation that the several governments set on their coins , which is not from the equal quantity of silver in each piece of money . now i take the doctors notion of the par of exchange , to be very false , and what was never thought of being the par by any but himself ; for to say that the value of money ( for i take the par to be value , ) is made by computing the valuation that the several governments set on their coin , is not only false and nonsensical contradiction ; but also ( if he means , that one nation must take anothers money for what they please to call it , ) pernicious to trade , and destructive to the very foundation of all exchange , and a thing never practised . for instance , suppose in the year , i had paid l. at london , that my factor or correspondent might receive the value at dublin , where the person on whom the bill was drawn , pays my factor copper half crowns , which were equal to my silver ones which i paid here , according to the doctors par of the valuation the government had put on them , ( tho' in truth , they were not above half pence , or s. . d. of that money the value was paid in england . ) now suppose the government had changed after my correspondent had receiv'd these copper pieces , and before he had put them off again ; and that this new government had put a stop to the currency of the copper money , and made half a crown currant for half a penny ( as was reasonable enough ) i should here have lost l. s. d. by the bargain ; and such loss is every merchant liable to , that regards not whether the mony his correspondent is to receive beyond-sea , be something near the par of the money paid by himself here , by having so many more pieces allowed in exchange , by how much those pieces are deficient in weight and fineness of those paid first : for otherwise i would fain know , to what end all the mints of europe keep so precise accompts of the fineness of their coins , for they might know without that , what value ( by denomination ) other governments put upon their coin. or to what end was there such care taken by edw. iii. and other kings of england , to fix tables of the par of exchange in publick places , setting forth the true weight and fineness of foreign coins , to prevent our english merchants being imposed on in their exchanges ? and the truth is , the matter is not so difficult as the doctor would make it , by his singular way of expressing it : for the very word implies the meaning , par pro pari , i. e. value for value , not as the government puts upon it ( with respect to foreign exchange , ) but as it is in weight and fineness . for as silver is the measure of all kind of commodities , so is it of exchange too ; for as in commutation or barter of goods , the several sorts must first be valued by the standing measure of silver before it can be known how much of one must be given for another kind : so is it in exchanges , where the true value of each coin being compared with silver , it is easily known how many pieces of one coin must be given for so many of another . and lastly , i offer this as a proof , that the quantity of silver in exchange , is considered , and not the nominal value the government gives to money ; because for these two years past , since our money has been so very much clipt and debased , and our guinea's so high , exchanges have run very low against us ; the dutch ( and other places proportionable ) allowing us but s. and s. flem. for a pound sterling ; whereas within these or years , they allowed s. per pound sterling ; and since our coin has been amending , and guinea's lowered , the dutch allow and s. for s. sterling . sir richard's third remark , is , bullion is a commodity , and has no certain universal stated price or value . and says the doctor in the first of his contrary propositions : that there is no intrinsick value in silver , or any fixt or certain estimate that common consent has plac't on it , but that it is a commodity , and riseth and falleth as other commodities do . i must confess i have this advantage in answering this : that no body is of the doctors mind , and therefore a little may serve to say against him in this case , for 't is a hard matter to introduce a new opinion at best ; but more especially when that opinion is contrary to all men's reason . that there is a natural or intrinsick goodness in silver above all other metals ( except gold ) such as solidness , & not porous , cleanness & not apt to rust , fineness and beautiful to the eye , i think no body can gainsay . and that upon and for the sake of these natural perfections and qualities , silver has obtain'd an universal esteem and value above all other mettals ( except gold ) in all the most civiliz'd nations and earliest of times , is as undoubted a truth . for as to its universal value , it is much the same at the east and west indies , in turkey and eastland , in russia , poland , and all over the commercial world , as it is here in england . and as to the early esteem it had in the world , we find it the common measure of commerce in sacred history , about years after the flood which was in abraham's time ; and no doubt but it was so long before : and tho' silver is a commodity because it is bought and sold , yet i deny that it rises and falls so as other commodities do , nor is there any commodity that keeps such a certainty as to price , as silver does ; it being in no part of the world worth less than s. an ounce , and in few places worth much more ; and the reason of this will appear , by comparing it with other commodities , most of which are the product of more countries than one or two , and the same sort of commodities are made better and worse , which with many other circumstances , as fashion , plenty , scarcity , &c. much alters the price of commodities that are for wear , ( as the most staple ones are . ) but silver coming chiefly from the mines of peru and mexico in america , and not subject to any of the abovesaid causes of rising and falling , the price thereof is much at one ; so that the intrinsick value of silver , may properly enough be said to be s. per ounce , because it will fetch so much in any part of europe , if not of the world , and consequently the fittest measure of commerce ; and this is no more than sir richard grants at the latter end of his third remark . tho' the doctor is much more positive in denying the whole , to make good the credit of his copper money extrinsick value , &c. sir richard's fourth remark . that advancing the denomination , or lessening the weight and fineness of coin , will be no loss to the landed-men in their rents , &c. and that such a change can have no such effect . and says the doctor in the tenth of his contrary propositions . that if the money be raised ⅕ , the landlord will not lose any part of his rent , or the creditor any part of his debt . the truth of these assertions depend on this : that raising the value of coin by denomination , will not inhance the price of any commodity . i shall therefore first prove , that the raising the denomination of the coin , and making the s. piece to pass for any sum more , will analogically ( at least ) advance the price of all things . . shew how the landlords and other persons , having annuities or stypends , will become losers by such advance of coin and commodities . we have sufficient matter of fact , to prove , that the raising the denomination of coin , does also advance every commodity proportionable ; for that which was worth but pence , in edward the first 's time , is now worth s. and that all commodities did rise near ⅓ from july , . ( when guinea's began to rise ) to the time they were at s. is also matter of fact ; and that since guinea's have been setled at s. all commodities have fallen is also true , wool and woolen cloth ( the chief of our commodities , ) is a proof thereof , and is that i choose for instance ; the first being fallen s. per tod , the second or s. per yard . which advance of commodities according to the advance of coin , made the wise and good q. eliz. in the declaration , anno . concerning the amending the coin , debased by h. viii . express these words : [ also by continuance of this sort of base moneys , altho' almighty god hath given now of late years , plentiful increase by the earth , yet the prices of all things growing or coming from the earth , hath daily risen , as grain , fruit , cattel , victuals , wool , leather , and such-like , and no remedy could be devised to amend the same , but to cause that the same base monies should be currant for no more than they were in just value . ] and the reason of the rise or fall of commodities as money does , is plain , because money is that which measures every thing ; and therefore if money rise , commodities must rise ; if it falls , they must fall . and the chief reason of this , is our being so deeply engaged in commerce with foreigners , who will never take our money for what we are pleas'd to call it , but what it is really worth with them , and will be taken from them for , in other places . thus , if an ironmonger buyeth of a dutch-man chimney-backs , to the value of pounds flemish , he might have paid for them before the advance or debasing of our coin ( the exchange being at least s. flem. per pound sterl . ) with l. sterling ; but our pound being advanced to s. the dutch-man lowers his exchange proportionable ( as they always do ; witness the extream low exchange just before the regulation of our coin , and the advance of it since , ) which is to s. d flem. for l. sterling ; at which rate l. will but pay the pounds flem. . so that here is evidently ⅕ lost to the english-man , who must fetch it up by selling his goods ⅕ dearer than formerly . or if he barters for goods of our own product or manufacture , as suppose iron in the bar , the seller of this iron will advance it proportionable to what the chimney backs are advanced , which ⅕ . and thus 't is plain , the raising our coin advances forreign exchange ; that raiseth foreign commodities , and foreign commodities rising , does many ways advance the product of our own country ; for if chimney backs , sword blades , &c. coming from holland , should by raising our coin grow dear , our english would generally content themselves with english blades , and grates , and chimneys of our own make , which would much advance the price . and tho' i have only instanced in one or two commodities from holland , yet the same consequence would happen by the raising our coin to all other goods or merchandize , not only of that country , but all others with whom we have any commerce . and thus i have proved , that raising our coin would necessarily advance the price of all things , and shall therefore proceed to shew : . that by this advance of coin and commodities , all such as have made contracts before this advance , must necessarily be losers , till such time as they can advance the terms of their contracts proportionable to the advance of things . thus , . all landlords whose estates are let out by lease . . all persons having certain yearly stipends or sallaries . . all creditors whose debts were contracted before the advance of our coin , and not paid till afterwards ; must all unavoidably be at a loss by the advance of coin. . as to landlords , whose estates are lett out by lease for , , , or years , ( the usual terms leases are granted for , ) will be so much the greater losers , by how much the longer the leases they have granted are : because here is an advance of coin that has advanced the price of things , and still the landlord has but the same rent . for instance , if i have l. per ann. let out by lease for years , to be paid in currant english money ; after this , the coin of the nation is advanced ⅕ , and other things proportionable , yet i received but l. per ann. of this new money ; so that if i expended yearly before the advance of coin l. and laid up l. now the coin is advanced , that which cost me l. will cost me l. so that i can lay by me but l. per ann. the interest of which at l. per cent , is but l. s. whereas it is plain , the interest of my l. which i laid up before the advance of coin , is l. so that here is evidently a loss of l. s. in l. which is above ¼ loss to the money'd man. but it may be said , that this landlord or money'd man , must be suppos'd to have money by him when this change of coin happens , which will be ⅕ more , as if he had l. of the old money , it would be l. of the new , which is l. gain to him . to this it may be answered , that this gain will be more than lost in a short time after , when much money by the dearness of things is drawn out of the landed or monyed man's , into the trades-man's hands . and the money of the nation being thus encreased ⅕ , does naturally encrease the number of userers and purchasers , and the number of userers and purchasers encreaseth the value of land , and lowers the rate of interest . so , if with this money he would purchase , land is advanced ; or if he would lend it on usury , interest is lowered ; so that he must necessarily iose by this means notwithstanding . . as the landlord , whose estate is lett out by lease , must lose until his leases are expir'd , and he can advance his rents proportionable to the price of all other things : so likewise it will go with such as have employments , whose sallaries are certain , and cannot be suddennly ( if ever ) advanced in proportion to victuals , cloaths , &c. on which they live , so that they must also be great losers by this advance of things , which is occasioned by the rise of our coin. . all creditors whose debts were contracted before the rise of coin , and not paid till afterward , must lose , because the debt was contracted before the rise of things , and according to the value of money then ; but now money is raised and commodities likewise , this ( when paid the creditor in the new money ) will not purchase so much by ⅕ as if it had been paid him before this revolution of coin ; besides , had the debt been in the creditors hands before the alteration of coin , it would of it self encreased ⅕ , which he also loseth . but on the other hand , . all day-labourers . and , . all landed-men having tenants at will , need not lose by this alteration of coin , because they may advance the prices of their work , and income proportionable , to the advance of money and commodities , which loss must therefore fall , . on such as have occasion to employ these labourers , as builders , &c. . on these tenants at will , who must advance the rent of the houses or lands they hold ; so that i think nothing can be made more apparent , than that advancing the currant value of money , will be a loss not only to landed-men , but to most others . what is material in sir richard's fifth remark , is already answered : i shall therefore say no more to it , but consider ▪ sir richard's sixth remark . to keep up an old standard under an old denomination below the value of bullion , is the greatest folly imaginable , and for which we have paid dear ; for it first carryed away all our gold and broad money , and lastly all our mill'd money , &c. and the doctor says in the eighth of his contrary propositions , that it is the practice of all the governments in europe , to raise their money as the price of silver rises . to sir r. i answer , that nothing can be greater folly than to alter the standard of our coin , as the price of any commodity is altered ; for money being the measure of commerce ( as both sir r. and the doctor say it is , ) to alter money , is to alter the measure of all things ; and that i am sure , unless there is absolute necessity , is both folly and injustice , and is as tho' the buyer of timber or deal boards , should have his two foot rule made longer in proportion to what the seller advanceth the price of his wood. 't is great folly to advance the value of our coin in proportion to bullion , or any other commodity , because it will never answer the end for which it is raised . i have sufficiently proved , that raising the coin will inhance the price of all commodities ; and therefore to advance the value of money , to bring it to the same price with bullion , instead of that , it would advance the value of bullion , that being a commodity as well as other things , and is indeed beginning at the wrong end , as if we should bring the cart to the horses ; not that i can see that bullion before the regulation of our coin was advanced ( properly speaking ) to s. d. per ounce , as some fancy ; altho' it was frequently sold for that price , yet if we consider that that s. d. of clipt mony , was bona fide , worth but s. of our true mill'd coin ; it then follows , that bullion was not advanced so much as other commodities , but was all along at the old price of s. per ounce , if you would pay for it with money of full weight and fineness . and to confirm this truth , i have discoursed with several eminent goldsmiths , who have great dealing in plate , and they tell me , that what i have here asserted is true ; and i am sure , it is reasonable . for ( as the ingenious mr. lock observes ) it is impossible there should ever be d. difference between an ounce of sterling silver coined and an ounce uncoined , tho' there may be d. d. or d. per ounce difference , because bullion may be exported and coined silver may not . and because a crown piece wants d. of being ℥ . of silver . and as the ill policy of coining our money lighter , or making it go for ¼ or 〈◊〉 more than it is worth in other nations , would appear ; so would it be great injustice , because it would injure several sorts of people . the king for example , must lose ⅕ of what he takes over to bear his expences in holland , and so must the officers and every private souldier , which would fall especially very heavy on the latter : who out of their s. a week allowance , must but have ½ a crowns worth ( at most ) of the dutch victuals , drink , &c. and so would it likewise be a manifest injury to all persons concerned in foreign affairs , as i have sufficiently proved before ; so that instead of being the greatest folly imaginable to keep our coin to the old standard for weight and fineness , i think if rightly consider'd , it will appear to be the most prudent and advantagious thing the government can do , to keep it where it is ; and that more especially , considering we are so deeply engag'd in foreign concerns : and as to out domestick affairs , many ( i have shewed ) will be losers by this advance of coin , but none can be gainers ; the truth is , our inland trader's ( purely living upon that ) will lose the least , tho' they 'l gain nothing ; for what they will gain by the advance of their stock and cash just upon the revolution thereof , they will in short time lose , by paying dearer for manufacturing their goods , and all necessaries . but on the contrary , tho' we can gain nothing but loss by advance of coin , yet we shall be great gainers by continuing the present standard , because foreigners will take out money ( upon occasion ) at the same price we take it at , and it will keep all commodities both foreign and inland , at a reasonable price . besides , the honour and esteem the nation would justly gain thereby in the eyes of foreigners ▪ for , as the ingenious sir william betty says of raising the denomination of coin , that it 's like compounding to pay a debt , and is an infallible sign of a bankrupt , and poor nation ; so on the other hand , the keeping the coin to its primitive weight and purity , is an indication of its wealth and riches . as to the continuing our coin on the present foot , being the cause of carrying away all our broad and mill'd money . i answer , that of the three parts , viz. what is exported , hoarded , and melted down , i really believe the part carryed away to be the least , and the part hoarded the greatest . and this will appear by considering , in whose hands the greatest part of this cash lyeth : it cannot be deny'd , but that the nobility , gentry , and inland traders together , are richer , and have more money than either the merchants actually trading beyond the sea , on the manufacturers of plate , called goldsmiths ; and therefore 't is most certain , the greatest part of our milled and broad money , is hoarded , for the nobility and gentry have no other use to make of the surplus of their expences , unless to purchase with , or put out to interest , or into the bankers hands ; and so long as the major part of the cash currant is clipt , they 'l dispose of that these ways , and keep the mill'd and broad money in their own hands ; so that i may safely affirm , that in some measure to my own knowledge , besides what reason suggests , that there is not a gentleman in england , that lives not up to the heighth of his estate , but who has considerable sums of milled , and broad money by him ; and tho' the bankers and goldsmiths are reputed to have melted down much , yet they are not all so ill principl'd , to act against the laws , constitution and interest of the nation ; for i know a banker who upon this revolution of coin , had by him to answer payments in old mill'd money , to the value of l. and 't is but reasonable to conclude , that the bankers have much more money in their hands than the merchants ; for they have generally the possession of the merchants money . and if a merchant has a great sum to receive , he orders his goldsmith to do it , who has therefore the priviledge of picking and culling out the mill'd or broad , to hoard or melt down , and satisfieth the merchant with ordinary clipt money ; so that it 's plain almost to a demonstration , that the greatest part of our mill'd and broad money is hoarded , the next to that is melted down , and the least part of all is exported . and as to what the doctor says , that it is the practice of all the governments in europe , to raise their money as the price of silver rises : and at the latter end of his book , pretends to give several examples of it , and what was the consequence thereof . i do not see that thing he says makes for him , but rather against the raising of our coin , whose circumstances do by no means run parallel with theirs . for pag. , , and . he tells us , the romans and french did use to raise their coin ; but what is that to us ; they were lead by their ambition to be engag'd in long and chargeable wars ; the former , with most part of the world ; the latter , with most of europe . and therefore , let the consequence be never so fatal to their foreign commerce ▪ ( of which the romans had little , and the french of late have as little or less , ) yet they must have money to supply their present exigencies , which they could not possibly acquire any other way , but by multiplying their species of coin. but for us to follow their example , since we can easily raise our money without that beggarly way of compounding ; and since we have so vast a foreign trade , which is the riches and glory of our nation , and which must be much abated , if not ruined by such advance of coin , as i have sufficiently proved above : i say , these and many other miserable consequences unavoidably attending , for us to follow their example , would be the worst piece of policy imaginable : for indeed , the consequence of this advance of coin was no more than ( as the doctor confesses , pag. and , ) they themselves grew weary of ; for ( says he ) it created a disturbance . and pag. . they called in such money as had been greatly raised , and reduced the value of it to its usual bounds ; which i think they would never have done , had they not found this raising of their coin very prejudicial to them ; for people are not willing to let go what they find by experience will be their interest to retain . and pag. . the doctor confesses , that the nation was never at peace in their commerce and traffique , till the value of the money was reduced within their bounds . so that the doctors example of raising coin , is neither a reason why we should do the like , nor any encouragement , but quite contrary ; from the ill effects , he tells us , the raising their coin had as i have shewed above ; and yet notwithstanding these miserable effects , the doctor wishes heartily , pag. . that we had a power to raise our coin or per cent. which power no doubt but we have , so that he needs not wish forit ; but blessed be god , they that have this power , have more reason and ingenuity , than to make use of it in a case that would be of so miserable and destructive consequence . the truth is , could the doctor prove , that bullion were s. or upward per ounce in foreign parts , with whom we have great commerce , and that this price were so constant and ordinary , that there were no hopes of its fall , then it would be time to advance the price of bullion likewise in england , otherwise we should have none imported , but what we have would be exported ; and if we should by that means , be forc'd to advance the price of bullion from ●… s. d. per ounce ( which it is at now , ) to six shillings , we must necessarily advance the price of coined silver as well as bullion , otherwise the price of bullion being so much above that of coined silver , we could neither make up the difference by imposition , as i have hinted afterwards ; nor could we possibly prevent the melting down and transporting it , the encouragement being so great ; but since that high price of silver cannot for a constancy happen in foreign parts , since the discovery of those rich mines in the west indies , and since the price of bullion is now much the same with us as in other trading countrys ; and since the value of bullion and coined silver is at this time much the same here , there not being a penny per ounce difference , i see not the least reason why we should advance the value of our money . as to what the doctor says , pag. . that trade makes people rich , and gold and silver are the badges of riches ; and therefore , as the people grow rich , gold & silver must rise . i answer , that his premises do by no means require such consequences ; for by this he would suppose , that we have only a certain quantity of gold and silver here in europe , which can no ways encrease but by the advance of the specie , not considering that many years some millions of pounds are brought over into europe from the west indies , which greatly encreases our stock , keeps the price pretty certain , and prevents us having any occasion for the doctors multiplying our cash by inhancing its nominal value . sir richard under his last remark ▪ has chiefly this , worth answering , viz. that the fall of guinea's was not only unnecessary , but highly prejudicial to the nation . this is easily proved a mistake , by proving that the lowering of them conduced extreamly much to our advantage , especially in our foreign trade . for if in the greatness of our foreign trade consists the riches and glory of the nation , as all hands do agree it chiefly does , and if the highness of guinea's so perplex'd our merchants that they could not possibly carry on their foreign commerce without great difficulty and loss , and if all this put the merchants upon petitioning the parliament for bringing guinea's lower , which was done at their request ; then i think it 's plain , that the lowering them was not disadvantagious to us , but absolutely , necessary for the carrying on of foreign commerce , and maintaining the riches and grandure of this nation : for the high price of guinea's first advanced the course of exchange against us , and all foreign commodities ; and secondly , the price of inland goods , which nothing can be more plain , than that lowering of them has brought down ; and i could give instances almost in all commodities that have fallen since guinea's were brought low : so that the gain thereby extends to all that have occasion either for apparel or victuals , whereas the loss by lowering them chiefly fell on such as had great sums in their hands , and who probably got as much or more by the rise of guineas as they lost by their fall. and thus i have done with my arguments against raising our coin , of which tho' i might have said much more , if my business other ways would have permitted ; yet i think the foregoing lines are sufficient to prove , that the raising our coin will infallibly bring great loss to the whole body of this nation , by raising foreign goods , and the course of exchange , and likewise all inland commodities : whereas the loss to us by continuing the coin at the present standard , is meerly accidental , and can only prove so by our coins being either melted down , counterfeited or hoarded ; all which , it would be no less subject to , were it coined lighter , or the value raised , as they would have it , should the price of bullion rise proportionably to what we advance our coin , which 't is more than probable it would . and therefore , since our coin ( tho' it were advanced ) would still be lyable to the aforesaid mischiefs ; the way to prevent and salve them , will not be to coin our money lighter or baser , or raise its value , but it will be to endeavour by all means possible to prevent these mischiefs , in order whereunto i have made the following essay . since many have taken upon them to prescribe rules for the prevention of these great prejudices to the nation , of hoarding , melting down , &c. i shall take the liberty to throw in my mite , for the preservation of the publick treasure . for the truth is , tho' the currency of such money as is of full weight and fineness , would conduce much to the facilitating all receipts and payments , and tend extreamly to the honour and advantage of the nation in several respects . yet if we cannot find means to prevent the great mischiefs of hoarding , melting down , exporting , &c. it is to be fear'd , we shall have a greater diminution of our coin by these irregular and ill practices , than we can possibly make up by our mint : and therefore i humbly propose , first , to prevent hoarding our coin. this is certainly the least blameable of any of the ill practices , because the money remains in specie in the nation , which on emergent occasions would probably be brought to light , as we see great sums are of broad money at this time ; it is therefore the excessive hoarding that is mischievous to the nation , when men have such a love to money , either for its beauty , or intrinsick worth , that rather than part with it , they will let their just debts remain unpaid after due , in hopes , or upon the expectation that a sum will shortly come into their hands that is less valuable , tho' in the mean time perhaps the labourer , and other artificers , who have but just from hand to mouth want bread for themselves and families . this is the case of such nations as have two sorts of coin currant , a better and a worse of the same denomination , and this has long been our own case . we have had the crown , ½ crown , shilling and six pence , new and old , unclipt and clipt ; and the consequence of that has been , that our mill'd and broad money has been hoarded , and the clipt only currant . therefore , if ever we would prevent the excessive hoarding of our coin , we must have it coined all of full weight , by calling all our money in that admits but of suspition of being clipt , and when that is new coined , and all our coin is milled , or broad unclipt , we shall find not a penny hoarded that will any ways be a detriment to the nation : and for any gentleman , &c. to hoard so much money as is over and above what will defray all their expences and pay their debts , can never hurt us . but then , this calling in our old coin will best be done gradually , as the wisdom of the parliament hath begun , to their exceeding great commendation . and in my poor opinion , if the government in the space of six months ( by which time we shall have a million and a half of new money , besides the great quantity of old mill'd coin and guinea's , ) should call in all our present clipt money , it would i presume , effectually prevent excessive hoarding , and we should have much more plenty of money currant , and ease in telling it , than we have now ; which we can never expect , so long as any of these clipt sixpences , &c. are permitted to go , for the reasons aforesaid . . to prevent the melting down our new coin. i humbly propose , that the price of bullion may be settled by act of parliament at s. per ounce , to all people that have dealings in it within this kingdom , except the merchant that imports it , who may have s. d. or s. d. per ounce , as an incouragement for bringing it into the nation . that all bullion imported be bought of the merchant by the lords of the treasury or their agents , for the king , of whom alone , all such as have occasion shall buy their bullion at s. per ounce : that to make good this d. or d. per ounce , and charges , &c. to the king , a duty be laid on some commodity imported , as wine or the like , to be paid by the retailers or importer , as the parliament shall think proper . that an enact account be kept of what bullion is imported , and to whom it is disposed , that so an estimate may be made what the king is out of purse , and a duty laid accordingly : and if this accompt is audited once a month by the kings auditors , it will prevent his majesty being defrauded . that the officers concerned in receiving and disposing of this bullion , shall be sworn to deal justly and fairly , and likewise give good security for the same . that all persons selling bullion to the king as imported , shall make oath , that it was first landed in england , since a certain time that may be mentioned in the act ; and that such silver was never bought or sold before in this kingdom , which will prevent the selling of any bullion to the king ( to gain d. or d. per ounce ) that was formerly bought of him . that all bullion thus bought of the king , shall ( after it is manufactured ) be carry'd to goldsmiths-hall , and vouched by the mark ( as it is now ) to be sterling silver , to prevent putting a greater quantity of alloy therein by the owner . that the gain of workers or sellers of silver utensils , shall be charged to the buyer in the fashion ; and if any goldsmith shall take or require above s. per ounce for plate of ℥ . pw . fine , and pw . of alloy , he shall forfeit the same ● to the king , and ½ to the informer , or such other penalties as the wisdom of parliament shall think fit . that no bullion be exported before the exporter make oath , that not any of the current money of england is contained in it , as is by law provided to that purpose . and if any one shall discover any persons offending in any of these cases , their estate shall be confiscated , ½ to the king , and ½ to the informer . these and such like rules and methods , tho' here laid down rough and imperfect , may i doubt not , if polished and improved by a prudent government , wholly cure us of that mischievous practice of melting down our coin. and tho' many objections may by prejudiced or self-interested people , be brought against them , yet if they prove only motives to induce this sort of men , or any others , to rectify what i have said amiss , or compleat what i have essayed , i have my desire . but i am fully perswaded , that if ever our coin be reduced to a state in which it may continue , to be for the interest of the english nation , it must be effected , first , by having it coined according to the present standard , and secondly , by taking such measures as will certainly secure it to us in that state , by making it mens interest neither to hoard , export , or melt down . . to prevent exporting or carrying our coin out of england . the occasion of carrying away our coin , is taken to be , . to pay the ballance of our trade . . to supply our army in flanders . . to buy foreign commodities , where we have no exchange . . to maintain gentlemen in their travels abroad , till they can receive money in exchange . the first and third of these are reckoned the most material , the other two more inconsiderable ; the second being only while the war lasteth , and may wholly , or for the most part , be avoided by our agreeing with the dutch , to take so much of our english commodities , as shall be equivalent to the expence of our army in flanders , and the english merchant to be paid out of the exchequer for such commodities ; and the fourth , which is very inconsiderable , may be salved by the same method the first and third are . as to the first , the paying the ballance of our trade . the reader is to know , that if england export not as many goods as it imports from all places in the world , ( reckoning the prime cost of the foreign goods imported , and charges , and the selling price of those exported , with charges ) it must be in debt ; and in this case , the ballance of trade is said to run against us . that this ballance of trade , if it continue to run against us , runs us still farther into debt ; and if the course of trade does not alter , that we pay this debt or ballance with commodities , we must pay it with gold or silver ; for we cannot pay it with bills of exchange , because that implies a debt both ways ; as if i owe a dutch merchant l. and another dutch man oweth me l. i can draw a bill on the dutch man that oweth me l. to pay it to the dutch merchant , to whom i am indebted . but if i have no l. owing me in holland , nor any other place to which they exchange , then i must pay this l. in specie , because i cannot draw a bill . this is the common notion of the ballance of trade , and of carrying our money over to pay it ; but i must confess , that unless the several countries we trade with , kept an account of the trade in the gross bulk thereof , by all the merchants comparing accompts of their imports and exports , i cannot see how this ballance should upon any certain grounds be known . so that tho' we may pay dear for the ballance of trade running against us , by its being and cause of exchange running against us , which is caused by our having occasion to pay more sums in foreign parts , than they have to pay here , yet the sums carryed over to ballance trade withal , are very inconsiderable if any at all . the chief occasion then of carrying away our coin , is to buy foreign commodities with ( not to pay debts , ) in places where we have no exchange , as chiefly in the east indies : and this is done , either because the goods we carry thither are more bulky in proportion to their price ; so that the value of the ships cargoe outward , will not lade her home in goods , whose value lye in a little room , unless silver be taken to make it up ; for in such long voyages , the merchant is very unwilling to come home without a full cargo ; or else it is done because the merchant can go out ( supposing the goods of like value bulk for bulk , ) without a full cargo , and make up what is wanting by taking bullion or coin privately , which saves a great deal both in custom outward , and in freight . but however , let the design of taking away our coin be what it will , it is agreed on all hands , that much of it is taken from us , and especially to carry to the east indies , which is one great reason why i believe that trade does us more damage than it does us good . and tho' i am a great admirer of every thing the ingenious and accomplished merchant sir josiah child says , in his discourse concerning trade , yet i must except this of the great advantage that occurs to the english nation , by the east india trade ; and my chief reason for not fully conforming to his opinion in this matter , is , first , because the trade to the east indies robs us of our coin , without which 't is impossible the nation should subsist , as we have too great proof of at this time , when no man can get per cent. of bankers , tho' his necessities are never so pressing : and secondly , because the commodities we import from india , are fully manufactured , as silks , muslins , and callico's , whereby our own artificers have no advantage , as they have by the turky , hamburgh , and most other trades . but this being partly a digression from my subject , i shall return to shew , that this exportation of our coin will be prevented , by the aforesaid reducing the value of bullion below that of our coin. for , as when our coin is richer than bullion , i. e. a shill . piece is worth as much bullion as s. d. or upward , and then our coin is more likely to be carryed away than bullion ; so on the other hand , when bullion is reduced as aforesaid to s per ounce , it will be richer than our coin ( as i have shewed before , ) and consequently be more advantagious to carry away than coin. but because , after the price of silver is thus setled as aforesaid , it may sometimes happen , that bullion may not be easily got to carry away , and that rather than go without , the traders to the east indies will carry away our coin. therefore , secondly , i humbly propose , that before any ship be permitted to sail that is bound to the east indies , the governour and committy-men of the east-india company ( if the ship is on their account ) shall make affidavit , as shall also the master of such ship , with his mates and pursur . that none of the currant coin of england , or bullion made thereof in all or in part , is laden or designed to be laden on board such ship , or otherwise to be conveyed to the said indies , by any means directly or indirectly , to their or any of their knowledge or privity , other than permitted by act of parliament . and if the ship is an interloper , such-like oath may be taken by the owners , supercargo , captain , &c. thirdly , and if any one shall discover any sum so to be carryed away of english coin , one moiety shall be the kings , the other the informers . fourthly , and if it can be proved , that any of the company or owners were privy to the taking away such sums of english coin , then the whole ships cargo shall be forfeited ; and if the captain be proved privy to it ▪ ( unless he makes such discovery , ) he shall be utterly uncapable of commanding as captain , any english vessel whatsoever , and his whole estate confiscated . but there is a fifth occasion of carrying away our coin , and which , next to the east india trade , robs us of the most ; and that is , what is taken from us by the sweeds , danes , and portuguese , who when they bring us of their commodities , do not take enough of ours to ballance the trade with them , but take very considerable sums of our coin , to our great detriment , and which i think deserves to be prevented , either by altering the act of navigation , that we have none of their commodities , but what our merchants fetch from them , or by laying severe penalties on all such as buy their pitch , hemp , tarr , &c. unless they pay with goods of our own manufacture . these or such-like penalties and encouragements will certainly prove effectual , to prevent our coin from being exported , or carryed out of england ; the preservation of which is of the greatest consequence to us , and deserves certainly some speedy methods to be taken in order thereto ; for otherwise all our coining at the mint is in vain . . to prevent counterfeiting our new coin. i had not thought to say any thing on this head , because i judged it needless , by reason of the difficulty of counterfeiting our mill'd coin. but being since inform'd , that several considerable sums thereof have been counterfeited , i think it proper to say something that may ( if carefully put in practice ) be a means to prevent it . and indeed nature it self does much favour the detections of this villanous practice : since it is not possible for those counterfeiters of our coin to make their pieces weigh as pond'rous as the true ones , because silver is heavier than any other metal of less value , except lead , with which silver will not incorporate or mix . for the weight of the several metals quantities being alike , are less according as they are here placed , from the heaviest downward , viz. gold , lead , silver , copper , brass , iron , common pewter , fine pewter , &c. the weight of sterl . silver to the like quantity of copper is as is to . brass is as is to . iron is as is to . com. pewt . is as is to . fine pewt . is as is to . at which rate the quantity of a crown piece of copper will weigh but pw. grs. brass will weigh but pw. grs. iron will weigh but pw. grs. com . pw. will weigh but pw. grs. fine pw. will weigh but pw. grs. now , that which i would infer from these analogies of silver to other mettals , is to shew , how we may compute when a piece of money is too light by counterfeiting , and when too light by wear . as in this table of proportions , a false crown piece made of copper , and only washed over , ( if it does not much exceed a true crown in bulk ) it will want pw . grs. the difference between pw . grs. and pw . grs. which it is impossible it should be worn lighter in years . and to prove this , i have weigh'd some of k. charles the d's crown pieces , and find of those coined years ago , to be worn about two grains ; now if i strike off the two years last past , wherein this coin could not wear much , because hoarded ; then the proportion will be , that a crown piece will wear grains in years . by which it may be easily gathered , what any other piece will wear in any other number of years , which cannot be worth taking notice of in any piece under or years ; in which last time a crown piece will want but a penny of full weight , if the lightness proceed only from the wear . to instance in other pieces , suppose i would know what a shilling should wear that has been coined years : by this proportion it will appear , it will but wear / grains , which is not quite two grains . for grains . years . grs. grs. years .   / grs. so that it can never countervail the trouble of rogues and villains , to counterfeit any pieces of coin , but it will be easily discovered by weight , making a sufficient allowance both for wear and difference in weight of the same pieces , occasioned by the negligence of the weigher at the mint . a crown piece , if they should take but d. in silver out , and put the like quantity of copper therein , this would make grains difference in the weight , between that crown piece and a true one , which a true crown would not wear in less than years . and if this extraordinary alloy were brass , or any other metals , the want of weight would be much greater . and , if every banker and cashier were obliged to keep in their publick shops or offices , a good pair of scales and weights for silver , to be for the common use of those with whom they deal , it would be very easie to discover this cheat , either in single pieces or in great sums together , allowing however a small matter for wear . and for the assistance of those concerned , i have here inserted a table what any sum of our new coin should weigh precisely , from d. to l. and may serve for much greater sums ; which table is calculated at the rate of the s. piece weighing pw . , , , grains , or pw . grains ▪ and something more than ½ a grain .   lb . ℥ pw . gr . d. ¼ s. ¼ d. ¼ s. ½ s. l. ¼ ¼ ¼ ¼ ½ ½ ¾ ¼ ½ ½ ¾ ¼ so that if a person have any of these sums to receive , it is but telling it over , and afterward put it in a bag , and weigh it ; as if be l. it must weigh l. ℥ . pw . gr . to which add the weight of a canvas l. bag , which is commonly ℥ . and so to ℥ . pw . and you have the true weight of l. of our milled money and bag ; but if any of it were counterfeit , it would want weight . and if to this be added severe penalties on all such as offer any counterfeit money in payment , especially on the goldsmiths and bankers , who are supposed to know money well , and are less lyable to be deceived than others : i hope it would be effectual to hinder the currency of counterfeit money . for indeed , 't is too miserable and unhappy a truth , that notwithstanding the parliament have taken such measures in the last sessions , as would have been abundantly sufficient to cure us of the great difficulties we laboured under , by reason of the ill state of our coin ; yet we have a sort of men among us , i mean bankers , who ( because these good laws have run counter to their self ish ends ) have endeavoured to make all those prudent methods taken for the regulation and restoring our money , of no effect , by combining together to ruine the bank of eugland , by getting what bank notes they could into their hands ; which upon the stop of the currency of our clipt money , they power'd on the bank so fast , as it was impossible they should answer . and tho' they were disappointed in their design of quite ruining the bank thus , yet they have made the short payments of the bank a sufficient reason for making their little or none ; tho' at the same time ▪ they have very considerable sums in guinea's , which they either transport to holland or scotland , to gain s. or d. a piece , or else hoard them up , in hopes to break thro' the late act of parliament , for keeping the value of guinea's at s. or under . besides , the non-payment of of their own notes is most apparently very advantageous unto them ; and which for that reason they will never be brought to pay , till they are forc't to it by law , or the bank paying in full , or the plenty of silver mony or guinea's , which they will therefore endeavour to stifle and retard as much as in them lyes ; since by that , they have a colour for not paying their notes ; and by not paying their notes , they have the more cash out at interest , or invested in jewels , &c. or perhaps in monopolizing of goods to their exceeding great advantage . all which rogueries some ill disposed people are forward to say , the parliament might have prevented : first , by giving longer time for bringing the clipt money into the exchequer : and secondly , by not lowering the price of guinea's ; not considering at the same time , that we had little or no silver coin currant from about last midsummer till after christmass last , the guinea's all that time being a sufficient running cash , which they would have been , till we had a sufficient quantity of our new silver coin , had we not had some monsters of men among us . and as for the lowering of guinea's s. too low , which say they , is the occasion of their being carryed to holland , scotland , and ireland , because they go there for s. s. and s. each . i say in answer , that it was but reasonable to conclude , that as the high price of guinea's in england , was the occasion of their rise in these three places ; so the lowering of our own coin should have caused these nations to do the like , which it has done in part : and no doubt , but so long as we can have gold as now , at near l. per ℥ . if the parliament should think fit to permit the coining of more guinea's , we might afford to let the dutch or others take them from us at s. till they are weary ; for we shall gain considerably by them at this rate , as we do also in the way of trade ; which the dutch are not so blind ( whatever the irish are ) but they will soon perceive , and value our guinea's no higher , if so high as we do . but , if every body were on my mind , unless these bankers could make it appear by their books , and their own oaths , that they cannot make their payments , i would quickly make them tir'd with the trade of cheating ; for if a man has receiv d a sum of money of another , for which he has given his note to repay at demand , i think 't is but reasonable , that if this demand is made , and the money is not paid , the lender should have the improvement of that money from the time such demand is made ▪ and i doubt not but a court of equity wou'd give it , and which if duly prosecuted , would soon make these sparks weary of their trade of cheating , in hindering what they can the current money 〈◊〉 to the destruction of commerce , and ruine of this rich and flourishing island . so that upon the whole , i humbly conceive , that the readiest way to have plenty of good money current , is either totally to put down the bankers trade , or to abridge them of that power which they knavishly make use of , to the great detriment of the nation ; but on the other hand ▪ if rounds were set to the practice of bankers , and 〈◊〉 made more effectually , to prevent melting down , exporting and counterfeiting our coin , we should in a short time , notwithstanding the war , and malice of our enemies , be one of the happiest nations the sun sees . finis . a proclamation for raising the rate of money. scotland. privy council. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). b wing s estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. b ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a proclamation for raising the rate of money. scotland. privy council. scotland. sovereign ( - : william ii) sheet ([ ] p.) printed by the heirs and successors of andrew anderson, printer to his most excellent majesty, edinburgh : anno dom. . caption title. royal arms at head of text; initial letter. dated: given under our signet, at edinburgh, the twelfth day of july, and of our reign the seventh year . signed: gilb. eliot, cls. sti. concilii. reproduction of the original in the national library of scotland. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng money -- law and legislation -- scotland -- early works to . currency question -- scotland -- early works to . broadsides -- scotland -- th century. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion wr diev et mon droit honi soit qui mal y pense royal blazon or coat of arms a proclamation for raising the rate of money . william by the grace of god , king of great-britain , france and ireland , defender of the faith , to macers of our privy council , messengers at arms , our sheriffs in that part , conjunctly and severally , specially constitute , greeting ; forasmuch as , by reason of the raising of the rates of the current coyns in the neighbouring kingdoms , and countries with whom this our ancient kingdom hath trade and traffique ; it is found , that there is much money , both gold and silver exported forth of the same , so that a proportional raising of the rate of of the coynspresenly current in this kingdom , is necessary to restrain the said export , and prevent the prejudice thereof ; therefore we with advice of the lords of our privy council have thought fit to raise and hereby do raise the rates of the species after-mentioned , to be from the day and date hereof as follows , viz , the rate of tbe silver crown-piece coyned in scotland , or of the silver milned crown of england , to three pounds six shilling : of the silver scots fourty shilling piece , to fourty four shilling : of the silver milned half-crown of england , to thirty three shilling : of the silver scots twenty shilling piece , to twenty two shilling : of the silver scots ten shilling piece , to eleven shilling : of the ducatdoun , to three pounds fourteen shilling : of the four rex dollars , called the bank-sword-dollar , wild-man and wild-borse dollars , and caste-dollar , to three pounds , all the rest of the rix dollars continuing as they were at the rate of fifty eight shilling : of the scots four merk piece , the leg dollar , french silver crown piece , cross-dollar and milnryne , each of them to fifty eight shilling , and all their halfs and quarters proportionally . and these rates above-set-down , are hereby declared and ordained to be the current rates of the foresaid species and coyns , at which all persons in contracts and bargains , and in all payments whatsomever , shall be obliged to receive the same , as the current coyn of this our antient kingdom . and farder , we do hereby strictly order and command , that the laws and acts of parliament against the transporting of gold and silver out of this kingdom , be punctually observed and put to execution by all concerned . our will is herefore , and we charge you strictly , and command , that incontinent thir our letters seen , ye pass to the mercat-cross of edinburgh , and whole other marcat-crosses of the head-burghs of the several shires within this kingdom , and there in our name and authority , make publication hereof , that none may pretend ignorance : and ordains these presents to be printed . given under our signet , at edinburgh , the twelfth day of july , and of our reign the seventh year , . per actum dominorum secreti concilii . gilb . eliot , cls. sti. concilii . god save the king. edinburgh , printed by the heirs and successors of andrew anderson , printer to his most excellent majesty , anno dom. . a letter from an english merchant at amsterdam, to his friend at london, concerning the trade and coin of england p. d. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing d estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a letter from an english merchant at amsterdam, to his friend at london, concerning the trade and coin of england p. d. d'aranda, paul, ?- . [ ], p. [s.n.], london : printed in the year . signed: p.d. attributed doubtfully to paul daranda. reproduction of original in library of congress. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng currency question -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - celeste ng sampled and proofread - celeste ng text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a letter from an english merchant at amsterdam , to his friend at london , concerning the trade and coin of england . london : printed in the year . a letter from an english merchant at amsterdam , to his friend at london . sir , i writ you sometime since my opinion concerning the rise of gold and guinea's in england , the occasions of it , the consequences attending it , and the means whereby it might be remedied ; which if not done , i told you my fears what it would in time produce , and which you have since seen actually come to pass . and truly , though in a manner a stranger to my native country , yet cannot but have an affection for it , and be much concerned at the difficulty it labours under in a great measure from the ill conduct of its policy in respect to your coin , and the little skill your people have , in respect to gold or silver , and the balance of trade . whereon i willingly give you my further thoughts , as far as my time will allow me for your own information : and if you agree with me , and can make use of them for the benefit of the publick , i shall be hearty glad ; and though i have been a sharer in the spoil , yet not a little affected with the calamity . the occasion of the advance of gold and guinea's , i observed to you , was from the badness of your silver coin , that is currant amongst you , and from whence that mischief had its rise , that as i hear , a hundred pounds in silver weighs now generally but l . to l . instead of l . which it ought to weigh ; and this you have suffered insensibly to steal upon you , growing every day , and from one year to another , clipping it by degrees three or four times over , till at last it 's come to this , that it can hardly be clipt any longer ; and this evil was carried on in city and country by ill men , and encouraged by some goldsmiths , refiners , and others ; as in a like case your stock-jobbers did , by deceiving the people with tricks and artifices in your several imaginary stocks so called , of paper , linnen , copper , diving , dipping , salt-petre , &c. which , according to a common notion amongst you , every thing is as much worth as it will sell for ; and so those things were bought and sold some ten times ( some more , some less ) as much as they were worth ; some were perfect air and fancy , and many families ruined by these projects : and so a clipt shilling or half crown , where is the hurt , it will go ? this brought upon you the rise of gold and guinea's , and occasioned our sending you such great quantities . but could your people be guilty of a greater weakness , than to take them from us ? hamburgh , spain , scotland , ireland , and all other neighbouring parts of europe , at an advanced price , to cheat your selves by an imaginary value that you set upon them , whereby you brought your selves into debt to us ; for it 's the same thing i think , whether you buy gold of us , or any other commodity , it brings you into debt to us , and your other neighbours , which , supposing you wise men , you must think to pay us again . no man can complain of gold or silver being brought into a country , if it be the returns of your commodities , and that it comes to you at no more than it's worth , it 's a sign of riches and increase , and of an over-balance of trade in favour of that kingdom or country . but did you enquire how you came by our gold , that it was not we , or your other neighbours owed it you ; no , you bought it at too dear a rate , making good the old proverb , a man may buy gold too dear : not considering how you should pay for it , which must be either in silver commodities , or by sending our gold back at l . an ounce , which you took from us at l . to l . s . for we shall not take it at more , and so you will lose backward and forward ; and pray consider if you had not better been without it . to pay us again silver you have none , for you have carried on that cheat too far to make or l . pass for l . we have had the clippings off of it ; but how did we take them ? not as you did our gold , did silver advance with us , as gold has with you ; nor did your commodities immediately advance in any proportion to the rise of gold. commodities , i think , we have pretty well drained you of ; and i have heard that some of your unthinking , ignorant people have thought it a great advantage , and talk big of the rise of your wool , minerals , manufactures , skins , &c. i must confess it 's a good effect of a bad cause ; but it has no foundation if you examine it , nor have your people any reason to rejoyce at it , without it be in making them dear to your selves , and cheap to your neighbours . matter of fact will prove this : you have no more money from us for your perpetuanoes , cloaths , lead , &c. than you use to have , but less ; i appeal to your own accounts , are they not sold cheaper here , and in spain , italy , germany , flanders , &c. than they use to be ? we can buy more , and cloath our selves cheaper with your cloath than you can do . but above all , and which is worst of all , we can send them to the east-indies , turkey , italy , spain , and all the world over , cheaper than you can ; whereby you must lose your trade and navigation , and become a poor people , if you think no better of it . as for example , if our east-india company want cloaths to send to india , or our turkey merchants to turkey ; they buy , and you buy , at suppose l . a cloth , ours cost us but about to guilders , yours l . for so i must call it , though i must confess it 's not above l . of good money ; the question is , which of us can sell cheapest abroad , and upon the returns , will be the best gainers , he that has laid out guilders , or he that has laid out l . and whether we cannot afford to sell our returns cheaper , either from india or turkey , and work up our silk into manufactures , and send them out again to any part of the world , cheaper by almost per cent. than you can ? if this be true , you must lose all your trade . the same reason holds in your silver sent to the east-indies , we can send an ounce , which stands us in s . d . for silver is not more worth here , and you must go with pieces of eight at s . or bars at s . d . which goes cheapest to market ? and which can sell cheapest at their return ? the same thing is true in your east-country trade , for your stores , in your trade with us and all the world besides . ask any of your people that have been lately here , if they can buy any more for a guinea now you call it s . than you could when you called it s . d . the dutch are wiser , and it will , it must be so with you in a little time . besides , as to your manufactures , you ought to consider and take heed that you be not exhausted of all you have , and want wool to set your people at work , and employ your poor . i think it 's evident you have almost cut the english merchant , and english shipping out of all trade ; for a dutchman , a spaniard , portuguez , or italian , makes his advantage at first : lays out less money , runs the risque of less ; as thus , if they remit their money , suppose the italian dollars from livorn , he has l . at s . per dollar ; his exchange is made , and he has l . for what he would have had formerly but l . he runs the risque of no more than he did before . you have your exchange to make , more money to lay out , a greater sum to run the risque of , or to ensure upon . so the spaniard gets s . d . for his piece of eight , the portuguez s . d . for his milrea , and we give you but s . for your pound , and have all of us these advantages upon you , and you must wait the uncertainty of the exchange for your returns , and of markets , either at home or abroad , for your sales ; but to place it where there is no exchange , we have all certainly to per cent. advantage upon you . all which considered , if you will continue your trade , employ your people and shipping , and subsist under an expensive ( though necessary ) war , you must call in your money , new coin it of its ancient weight and allay ; abate , as much as in you lyes , the consumption of foreign commodities , especially those of luxury and prodigality ; be thrifty in all your expences , and above all , greater care must be taken of your trade , to prevent those losses which you have sustained , and is in a great measure the cause of all your miseries . i am informed that the main objections against the calling in , and new coining your money , are reduced to these four . ( . ) how you shall make good the loss to the people . that they will lose s . d . by a guiney , and perhaps to l. or l. in a hundred . ( . ) that during the war it 's not convenient to be done , it must be in a time of peace . ( . ) that if it be brought to its due weight and fineness , it will be all carried out , and you will want the species of money . ( . ) that it passes , and serves all necessary occasions of life , buys bread , drink , meat , pays house-rent , &c. for the first , it would not become me to advise the making or not making good the loss to the people , nor the method of doing it , that will be duly considered by your parliament , who now suddenly are to meet ; and god almighty prosper their consultations . for the second , it s not being to be done during the war : i think the war is an argument for doing it . i do not see how you can carry on the war unless it be done ; i could be glad to have the reasons sent me that those men give , who make this difficulty , the delay of it , to any considering man , must make the sore worse , and the contagion spread : i would hope that it 's not so bad as we fancy , and that great quantities of large money are hoarded up by those that can keep it , which is laid by now upon the fear of an alteration ; and if nothing be done in it , necessity may force that abroad , and so come to be clipt , and thereby make the loss greater . you have seen , and are convinced , that had it been done in . your money was not then so bad as it is now , and it 's dangerous to let a thing run too long without repair . perhaps , and so much the better , that it 's only the very worst of your money that passes now one to another : but i hear that it 's with difficulty that that is paid , and that one third of it is iron , or counterfeited . can you think that by that time the war is at an end , which god knows when it will , but that much more of your silver money will be clipt , and perhaps , your quantity of iron and counterfeit money doubled upon you , so that what would make good the loss now , may be double or treble then . besides , if it be not done now , your guineys must rise , if you will keep them ; so that the loss may come to be s. d. on a guiney , instead of s. d. a man need be no prophet to tell this , they are better worth s. than l. in common tale . then you will repent , as surely you now do , that it was not done last year , or seven years ago : and consider how much better it had been for you , that your bank , companies , goldsmiths , refiners , and jews , had exported your coin instead of those millions of ounces of clipt silver , for that was robbed from the publick , which now cry to have it made good to them ; and if still delayed , your growth and manufactures must daily rise , to the prejudice of the english , and benefit of foreigners : and your exchanges by consequence must render not only your own goods and product , but all foreign that you import , excessively dear to you . to the third , that if it be brought to its due weight and fineness , it will be all carried out . it 's a certain truth , so it will , so it must ; if you owe , you must pay , there is no remedy : but you would not part with your money . the trade of a nation is the same as between single persons , and holds equally true . two merchants agree for commodities , or two farmers agree , one sows wheat , the other barley ; and they are to truck , so many bushels of barley against so many of wheat ; the barley is cut and delivered , the crop of wheat fails ; now , must not the want be made good in money , if he has it , or be trusted , or the man must break ? this is the nature of trade in and with all nations , and of england at this time , who is in the condition of the man with his crop of wheat . you abate nothing of your expence , you have an army and fleet abroad to maintain ; your losses by sea , especially from the east and west indies , the most profitable of your trades , have been great . your crop has failed , but still you would keep your money , but you cannot ; you owe , and you must pay . we take your woollen , goods , and minerals , &c. and we must have the remaining balance in money , and if you have no silver , our gold must come back , though you should carry on the cheat further upon your selves , and raise your guinea to , nay , s. you must by care of trade get us into your debt , and then you will have our money . you have an instance with ireland very plain , l. in england used to be worth l. to l. in ireland ; now they write me thence , that they give but to in ireland for l. in england . they sent you all their guineys , and though they raised them upon themselves from s. to s. which they needed not have done , they must and will have their gold again , and they are now going back . you may send them guineys at s. which they taking at s. is better than to lose per cent. by the exchange . the other objection , of your clipt money serving and buying all the necessary occasions of life , as bread , beer , meat , &c. has little in it , ( for that is not altogether true , your corn is the dearer ) unless the expence was all that you had need of ; you see that all things else , both exported and imported , are regulated in some measure by the value of your money , and it has its influence , and will daily have more and more upon your provisions . it 's reported here , that you are upon a project of lessening the weight of your money , by making it per cent. or any thing , what you will , less in weight , than you formerly coined it , and to stamp s. and call it , and make it pass for s. surely this fallacy can never pass upon english-men , that have seen and known the folly of such devices in spain and portugal : and some say , it will bring you in silver ; it may do so , and abundance more , if you will call s. d. s. and make it pass so ; and you shall have silver as you have had gold , but remember who will get by it . you must pay us for it , not in name , we shall not take s. d. for s . but it will please us to see you bubled , and that you will sell us any thing upon that foot . we shall buy all you have with your imaginary s . and furnish the rest of the world with them ; for if your goods , growth , product and manufactures , and lands do not immediately advance in proportion , we shall have a fine time to buy goods and land in england ; and we shall buy your shipping too , for i cannot see any further occasion you can have of it . is your landed-man asleep , and thinks nothing is the matter that lands in england could not be purchased , l. a year , at years purchase , under guilders , and that now we can buy l. a year for guilders ; that is , some few years since l. in england would have cost us guilders , and now we have it for . so that your lands are not risen , but fallen five years purchase , and you seem not aware of it . and does not the country gentleman find that he has not so much for his l. as he used to have , of sugar , linnen , wine , apparel , &c. nor can he spend so much as he used to do . on which i could say much more ; but i doubt i have been too prolix . you will pardon my indigested thoughts in love and zeal to my native country , and in answer to your desires , who am , sir , your most humble servant , p. d. amsterdam , nov. . n. s. . p. s. the consequences of lessening the weight of your coin , with respect to your selves , or amongst one another , must stare every man in the face ; that you must lose so much of your rents , debts , value of your lands , unless your tenants take new leases , and the landlord advance his rent so much , and all contracts be made void , and debts be paid in old money . but i have rather confined my thoughts to what relates to you and us , and your other neighbours , that what is owing to you abroad , must be remitted to you , payable in old money , as you have it now from spain , or i fancy you will come by the loss . finis . some few considerations, supposed useful, concerning the vote of the house of commons, friday the , february, upon the bill for the hindring the exportation of gold and silver, and the melting down of the coin of this realm humbly proposed by dr. hugh chamberlain, to the wisdom of the honourable house of commons. chamberlen, hugh. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) some few considerations, supposed useful, concerning the vote of the house of commons, friday the , february, upon the bill for the hindring the exportation of gold and silver, and the melting down of the coin of this realm humbly proposed by dr. hugh chamberlain, to the wisdom of the honourable house of commons. chamberlen, hugh. england and wales. parliament. house of commons. sheet ([ ] p.) 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ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng gold. silver. currency question -- great britain. broadsides -- england -- th century. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - john pas sampled and proofread - john pas text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion some few considerations , supposed vseful ; concerning the vote of the house of commons , friday the . february upon the bill , for the hindring the exportation of gold and silver , and the melting down of the coin of this realm , humbly proposed by dr. hugh chamberlain , to the wisdom of the honourable house of commons . . gold and silver , as all other commodities , whether foreign or domestick , must be consider'd with respect to their real natural value , and the market-price , which are both very variable , and not to be governed by laws . . the real natural value of all commodities , is the expence of labour , charge and hazard , in raising and bringing the same to a market , and this varies it accordingly , for gold doth not cost so much in peru and guiny , as it doth in london , paris , or amsterdam . the market-price varies according to the multitude or paucity of chapmen , and the plenty or scarcity of the commodities . first , the multitude or paucity of chapmen , are commonly governed by their several necessities and pleasures in the use of the commodities : thus we see , where gold is not the measure of trade , as in some parts of the east and west - indies , and in africk , iron is much more valuable , because they have much occasion for the one , and little or no use for the other ; neither for vessels , ornaments , or mony. so likewise tho gold should cost you l. per ounce , if you can find but few chapmen , you must sell it for s. if you can get no more , and your necessities compel you to sell : and if it should cost you but s. per ounce , if you have multitude of merchants , you may sell it for l. s. more or less , for 't is not what charge it stands you in , but the greater or lesser number that hath occasion for it . secondly , the plenty and scarcity of commodity varies the price , tho much above the natural value , or below it . thus a piece of bread in a siege of a penny natural value is oft sold for s. and on the contrary , a diamond formerly sold for l. when scarce , hath by clogging the market yielded but l. tho possibly less than the charge expended , which is the natural value . . nothing can possibly bring gold or silver , being of foreign growth into england , but the exportation of commodities of our own growth or manufacture ; or what our natives can return from foreign service for their labour , or what foreign travellers spend here to see the country . . nothing can possibly carry our gold and silver out of england , but the consuming more for●●gn commodities at prime cost , then we get in value for the sale of our exported merchandize , or what foreign merchants , and mechanicks by their labour and thrist can save he●● to return to their own country ; or what our nobility and gentry spend abroad in thei● travels , or what our ambassadors , foreign ministers , or our armies in foreign countries or mercinary allies draw out of the nation . so that 't is neither changing the denomination of our coin higher or lower , above or under ●he ●●●ural value and market-price of the material , which quantity and use will regulate , can ●ither gain , keep , or drive away our gold and silver , but only the abovementioned balanc● of trade , over or under which like necessity will over-rule all laws . . that which makes the variety of value here at home , betwixt gold , silver and bullion , is the disproportion among themselves , according as , they exceed the settled proportion by the standard , in use or quantity . for example , when there is more use for gold , or less ●uantity in proportion than for silver , gold shall be dear , and exceed the standard in the market-price , tho the natural value continues the same . and when there is more use for silver , or less quantity in proportion than for gold , silver shall be dear , and exceed the standard in the market-price , tho the natural value were the same . and when there is more use for plate than for mony , plate shall be dearest and exceed the standard in value , and coining shall not only stand still , but very oft the coin shall be melted down : for , if the qantity of gold exceeds in proportion the silver , gold shall be cheap : if silver exceeds gold , silver shall be cheap : if mony exceeds plate , mony shall be cheap , if plate exceeds mony , plate shall be cheap . and tho mony still retains the same denomination , it doth not always the same value , being also over-ruled by the plenty or scarcity of other commodities , for a crown is not of the same value when it will purchase but half a bushel of wheat , as when it can a whole one , there being then either less corn , or more need of it , or more chapmen that come with more mony ; but this variety is no prejudice to the nation , in respect of the quantity of gold and silver , that being always the same ; for when we have more mony , we have so much the less in plate , and if more in plate , we have the less in mony : but notwithstanding , it is a very great damage to trade , because mony is living riches , plate but dead ; the one being capable of turning and improving trade , but plate is not . the nobility's hoarding and carrying of gold in their pockets and the great gaming with gold , will raise the price above silver , tho the proportion remains the same . from the premisses may be concluded , that raising the value of our mony , cannot keep it , but will give our merchants some trouble to adjust the parr in their exchange and trade abroad : nor lowering it cannot drive it away , without bringing as much or more in the room ; but if we take no care to exceed in exportations , all we can do , will never keep our mony ; and if we do exceed in exportations , all foreigners can do , can never draw is away . exportations must be sufficient to answer the charges that foreign payments , of allies , armies , ambassadors , english travellers , and returning strange dealers , requires as well as importing foreign commodities , or we must still decline . which regulation of trade 't is humbly conceived , may well deserve the serious care of this honourable house . this duty i thought i ow'd my country , and hope 't will give no offence if i have been mistaken , i 'le thank any that will rectifie me . london , printed in the year .