Sir Thomas Rowe HIS SPEECH At the council-table touching brass-money, or against brass-money; with many notable observations thereupon, July, 1640  
Printed Anno 1641.   

Sir Thomas Rowe his Speech at the council Table, touching brass-money, or against brass-money, with many notable observations thereupon, July, 1640.  
MY Lords, since it hath pleased this honourable table, to command amongst others my poor opinion concerning this weighty proposition of money, I must humbly crave pardon, if with that freedom that becometh my duty to my good and gracious Master, and my obedience to your great commands, I deliver it so.  
I cannot my Lords, but assuredly conceive this intended project of infeobling the coin, will trench very far both into the honour of Justice, and profit of my royal Master.  
All estates do stand Magis fama quam vi as Tacitus saith of Rome; And wealth in every kingdom is one of the essential marks of their greatness, and is best expressed in the measures and purity of their moneys. Hence it was that so long as the Roman Empire, a pattern of the best Government held up their glory▪ or greatness, they ever maintained with little or no change the standard of their coin, but after the loose time of Commodus had led in need by excess, and so by that shift of changing the standard, the Majesty of that Empire fell by degrees. And as Vopiscus saith, the steps by which that State descended, were visible most by the general alteration of their coins; and there is no surer symptoms of consumption in State, than the corruption of the Money.  
What renown is left to the Posterity of Edw. 1. in amending the standard both in purity and weight, from that of elder and barbarous times; it must needs stick as a blemish upon Princes that do the contrary.  
Thus we see it was with Hen. 6. who after he had begun with a baiting the measures, he afterwards fell to abasing the matter; and granted Commission to Missend, and others to practise alchemy to serve his Mint.  
The extremity the State in general felt by this agrievance, besides the dishonour it laid upon the person of the King, was not the least disadvantage his disloyal kinsman took, to ingrace himself into the people's favours, to his sovereign's Reign.  
When Hen. the 8th. had gained as much of power and glory abroad, of love and obedience at home as ever any, he suffered a loss by this Rock.  
When his Daughter Queen Elizabeth came to the crown, she was happier in council to amend that error of her Father, for in a memorial of the Lord Treasurer Burleighs his hand, I find that he and Sir Thomas Smith, a grave and learned man, advised the Queen that it was the Crown, and the true wealth of herself and people, to reduce the standard to the ancient party, and purity of her great Grandfather Edward the 4th. and that it was not the short end of wits, nor starting holes of devices, that can sustain the expense of a Monarchy, but sound and solid courses, for so are the words; She followed their a device, and began to reduce the moneys to their elder goodness, styling this work in her first Proclamation Anno 30 a famous Act. The next year following, Anno 30 having perfected, as it after stood, She telleth her people by another Edict; That She had conquered now that monster that had so long devoured them, meaning the variation of the standard. And so long as that sad adviser lived, She never (though often by Projectors importuned) could be drawn to any shift or change in her Moneys.  
To avoid the trouble of permutation, coiners devised as a rule and measure of merchandise and Manufactaries, which if mutable, no man can tell either what he hath, or what he oweth, no contract can be certain, and so all commerce both public and private destroyed, and men again enforced to permutation with things not subject to will and fraud.  
The Regulating of coin hath been left to the care of Princes, who have ever been presumed to be the Fathers of the commonwealth, upon their honours they are debtors and warrants to the subjects in that behalf.  
They cannot saith Bodin, alter the price of moneys to the prejudice of the subject, without incurring the reproach of Faux moneyars. And therefore stories term Philip le Belle falsificator de monet. omnino monet. integritas debet quaeri ubi vultus noster Imprimatur, said Theodoret the Goeth to his mintmaster. Quidnam erit tutum si nostra peccetur effigy, Princes must not suffer their faces to warrant falsehood.  
Although I am not of opinion with the Minor des justices, the ancientest books of the Common-Law▪ That Le Roy ne poi●s money impair ne a mander saus Lassent des touts les Counties, which was the great counsel of the kingdom. Yet cannot I pass over the goodness and grace of many other our Kings, as Edw. 1. Edw 3. Hen. 4. and the the 5th. and others; who out of the rule of their Justice. Quod ad omnes spectat, ob omnibus debet approbari, have often advised with their people in Parliament, both for the alloy, weight, number of pieces, rate of coinage and exchange, and must with infinite goodness acknowledge the care and Justice now of my good Master, and your lordship's wisdoms, that would not upon the information of some few officers of the Mint, before a free and careful debate, put in execution this project. Yet I must under your lordship's favour suspect it would have taken away the tenth part of every man's due debt or rent already reserved throughout the Realm, not sparing the King, which could have been little less than a species of that which the Roman stories call Tabula nova, from whence every sedition hath sprang, as that of Marius Grantidianus in Livio, who pretending in his Consulship, that the currant money was wasted by us, called it in, and altered the Standard, which grew so heavy and grievous to the people, as the Author saith, because thereby no man knoweth certainly his wealth, that it caused a tumult.  
In this last part which is the disprofit that the enfeobling the coin, will bring both to his majesty, and to the commonwealth. I must distinguish the moneys of gold and silver as they are bullion and commodities, and as they are measures, the one of the extrinsic quality, which is at the King's pleasure, as all other measures to name, the other the intrinsic quality, of pure mettle, which is in the Merchant to value as their measure, shall be either to be lessened or enlarged, so is the quantity of the commodity that is to be exchanged, if then the King shall cut his shilling or pound in money less than it was before, a less portion of such commodities as shall be exchanged, for it, must be received, it must then of force follow, that all things of necessity, as victuals, apparel, and the rest as well as those of pleasure, must be enhanced. If then all men shall receive in their shillings and pounds a less proportion of silver and gold than they did before this projected alteration, and pay for what they buy at a rate enhanced, it must cast upon all a double loss, what the King will suffer by it in the Rents of his lands▪ is demonstrated enough by the alteration since the 18 of Ed 3. when all the Revenues of the Crown came unto the receipts pondere & numero, after 5 Groats the Ounce, which since that time by several changes of the Standard is come to 5s. whereby the King hath two third parts of his just Revenues.  
In his customs, the book of rates being regulated by pounds and shillings, his Majesty must lose alike, and so in all and whatsoever moneys, that after this he must receive the profits of his coinage, cannot be much more permanent in the loss lasting, and so long as it reacheth to little less than yearly, to accept part of his Revenue, for in every pound tale of gold is 7 Ounces, 1d▪ weight, and 19 grains loss, which 25l. in account, and in 700l. tail of silver, which is 14l. 17s. more. And his Majesty shall undergo all this loss hereafter, in all his receipts, so shall he no less in all his dibursments, the wages of his soldiers must be ratably advanced, as the money is decreased. This Edward the 3, as appeareth by the accounts of the Wardrobe and Exchequer, as all the Kings after him were enforced to do, as often as the lessened Standard of the moneys of what shall be bought for his majesty's service, must in like manner be enhanced on him. As his Majesty hath the greatest profits of receipts and issues, so must he of necessity taste of the most loss by this device.  
It will destroy or discourage a great proportion of the trade in England, Impair his majesty's customs for that part, being not the least that passeth upon trust and credit will be overthrown, for all men being doubtful of diminution hereby of there personal estates will call in their moneys, already out, and no man will part with that which is lying by himuppon apparent loss, as this must bring; what damage may befall the State by such a sudden stand of Trade I cannot guess.  
The moneys both of gold and silver formerly coined and abroad, richer than those intended, will be made of the most nereby Bulloin and so transported; which I conceive will be none of the least inducements that hath drawn so many goldsmiths to side this project, that they may be thereby Factors for the Strangers, who by the Law of Mintage bring but two shillings silver to the pound weight, and 4 shillings for gold; whereas with us the one is and the other 5 shillings, many make that profit beyond the Sea, they cannot here, and so his majesty's Mint unset of work.  
And as his majesty's loss appeareth in the alteration of many a 14th in the silver, and a 25th part in all the gold they after shall receive; so shall the nobility, Gentry, and all other landed men in all their former settled Rents, Annuities, Pensions, and sums of money, the like will fall upon the labourers and workmen in their statute wages. And as their receipts are lessened hereby, so are their issues increased either by improving all prices, or disfurnishing the Marker, which must necessarily follow; for in the 5th of Edw. 6. 3ᵒ Mary, 4to Eliz. as appeareth by their Proclamations. That a Rumour only of alteration caused such effects, punishing the author of such reports, with Imprisonment, and Pillory. It cannot be doubted, but the projecting of such a change, must be of far greater consequence and danger to the State, and would be wished that the Actors, and authors of such disturbances in the commonwealth at all times hereafter, might undergo a punishment proportionable.  
It cannot be held, I presume, an advice of best judgement that layeth the loss upon ourselves, and the gain upon our enemies, for who are like to be in this the greatest thrivers, is not visible that the strangers who support, or money for bullion, our own goldsmiths, who are their Brokers, and the Hedgminters of the Netherlands, who termed them well, will have a fresh and full trade by this abasements. And we do not the Spanish King, our greatest enemy, a greater favour than by his, who being Lord of these commodities by his West-Indies, we shall so advance them to our impoverishment, for it is not in the power of any State to raise of the price of their own, but the value that their neighbours, set upon them, experience hath taught us that the enfoebling of coin is but a shift for a while, as drink to one in a dropsy, to make him swell the more, but the state was never thoroughly cured, as we saw in Henry the Eighths time, and the late Queens, until the coin was made rich again.  
I cannot but then conclude my honourable Lords, that if the proportion of Gold and Silver to each other be wrought to that purity, by the advice of the Artists that neither may be too rich for the other, that the Mintage may be reduced to some proportion of neighbour parts, and that the issue of native commodities may be brought to overbalance the entrance of the foreign, we need not seek any shift, but shall again see our trade to flourish, the Mint as, the pulse of the commonwealth, again to beat, and our materials by Industry, to be mines of Gold and Silver, which we all wish and work for, supported unto us, and the honour of Justice, and Profit of his majesty.  

Certain general Rules collected concerning Money and Bullion, out of the late Consultation at Court.  
GOld and silver hath a two fold estimation in the extrinsic, as they are moneys, and Princes measures given to his people, and this is a Prerogative of Kings in the intrinsic, they are commodities valuing each other according to the plenty or scarcity; and so all other commodities by them, and that is the sole power of Trade.  
The measure in a kingdom ought to be constant, It is the Justice and honour of the King; for if they be altered, all men at that time are deceived in the precedent contracts, either for lands or moneys, and the King most of all; for no man knoweth either what he hath, or what he oweth.  
This made the Lord Treasurer Burleigh in Anno 1573. when some Projectors had set on foot a matter of that nature, to tell them that they were worthy to suffer death, for attempting to put so great a dishonour upon the Queen, and detriment and discontent on the people; for to alter this public measure is to leave all the Markets of the kingdom unfurnished: and what will be the mischief the Proclamation of 5. and 6. 3o. Mary, and 4th. of Eliz. will manifest, when but a rumor produced that effect so far, that besides the faith of the Princes to the contrary delivered in their Edicts, they were enforced to cause the Magistrates in every Shire respectively, to constrain the people to furnish the Market, to prevent a mutiny.  
To think then this measure at this time short, is to raise all prices, or to turn the measure or money now current into disuse and Bullion; for who will depart with any, when it is by seven more in the hundred in the mass, than the now moneys, and yet of no more value in the Market.  
Hence the necessity of it will follow, that there will not of a long time be Minted of the new to drive the exchange of the kingdom, and so all trade at one instance at a stand; and in mean time the Markets unfurnished, and thus far as money is a measure.  
Now as it is a commodity, it is respected and valued, by the intrinsic quality, and first the one mettle to the other.  
All commodities are priced by plenty or scarcity, by dearness or cheapness, the one to the other. If then we desire our silver to buy gold as it hath lately been, we must let it it be the cheaper and less in proportion valued, and so contrary for one equivalent proportion in both, will bring in neither; we see the profit there of the unusual quantity of gold brought lately to the Mint by reason of the price, we rate it at above all other Countries, and gold may be bought too dear; to furnish then this way the Mint with both, is impossible.  
And at this time it was apparently proved both by the best Artists, and merchants most acquainted with the Exchange, in both the examples of the Mint-masters, in the Rix-dolor, and royal of Eight, that silver here is of equal value, and gold above with foreign parts in the intrinsic, but that the fallacy presented to the Lords by the Mint-masters, is only in the nomination of extrinsic quality.  
But if we desire both, it is not the raising the value that doth it, but the balancing the Trade, for we buy more than we sell of all other commodities, be the money never so high priced, we must part with it to make the disproportion even, if we sell more than the contrary will follow.  
And this is plain in Spanish necessities, for should that King advance to a double his royal of Eight, yet needing it by reason of the barrenness of his Country, more of foreign wares, than can countervail by exchange with his wares, he must then part with his money, and gain the more by enhaunsing his coin, but he payeth a higher price for the commodities he buyeth, if this work of raising be his own.  
But if we shall make improvement of gold and silver being the Staple-commodities of this kingdom, we then advancing the the price of his abase to him our own commodities.  
To shape this kingdom to the fashion of the Netherlands, were to frame a royal monarchy by a society of merchants, their Country is a continual fair, and so price of moneys must rise and fall to fit their occasions; we see this by raising the Exchange of Frankford, and other places, of their usual time of the Marts.  
This frequent and daily change in the Low-Countries of their moneys is no such injustice to any there, as it would be here, for there they being all Merchants, or mechanics, they can rate accordingly their labour and their Ware, whether it be coin, or other merchandise, to the present condition of their own money in Exchange.  
And our English Merchants to whose profession it properly belongeth, do so according to their just intrinsic value of their foreign coin in all barter of commodities or Exchange, except usance which we that are rated and tied by the extrinsiques' measure of moneys in all our constant reckonigs, and annual bargains at home cannot do.  
And for us then to raise our coin at this time, to equal their proportions were but to render ourselves to a perpetual incertainty, for they will raise upon us daily them again, which we of course shall follow, else receive no profit by this present change; and so destroy the policy, Justice, honour, and tranquillity of our State for ever.   
FINIS.