We having had under Our Consideration the different Rates at which
the same Species of Foreign Coins do Pass in Our several Colonies
and Plantations in America,[1] and the Inconveniencies thereof, by
the indirect Practice of Drawing the Money from one Plantation to
another, to the great Prejudice of the Trade of Our Subjects; And
being Sensible, That the same cannot be otherwise Remedied, than by
Reducing of all Foreign Coins to the same Current Rate within all our
Dominions in America; And the Principal Officers of Our Mint having
laid before Us a Table of the Value of the several Foreign Coins which
usually Pass in Payments in Our said Plantations, according to their
Weight, and the Assays made of them in Our Mint, thereby shewing the
just Proportion which each Coin ought to have to the other, which
is as followeth, viz. Sevill Pieces of Eight, Old Plate, Seventeen
Peny-weight Twelve Grains, Four Shillings and Six Pence; Sevill Pieces
of Eight, New Plate, Fourteen Peny-weight, Three Shillings Seven
Pence One Farthing; Mexico Pieces of Eight, Seventeen Peny-weight
Twelve Grains, Four Shillings and Six Pence; Pillar Pieces of Eight,
Seventeen Peny-weight Twelve Grains, Four Shillings and Six Pence Three
Farthings; Peru Pieces of Eight, Old Plate, Seventeen Peny-weight
Twelve Grains, Four Shillings and Five Pence, or thereabouts; Cross
Dollars, Eighteen Peny-weight, Four Shillings and Four Pence Three
Farthings; Duccatoons of Flanders, Twenty Peny-weight and Twenty one
Grains, Five Shillings and Six Pence; Ecu's of France, or Silver
Lewis, Seventeen Peny-weight Twelve Grains, Four Shillings and Six
Pence, Crusadoes of Portugal, Eleven Peny-weight Four Grains, Two
Shillings and Ten Pence One Farthing; Three Gilder Pieces of Holland,
Twenty Peny-weight and Seven Grains, Five Shillings and Two Pence
One Farthing; Old Rix Dollars of the Empire, Eighteen Peny-weight
and Ten Grains, Four Shillings and Six Pence; The Half, Quarters and
other parts in Proportion to their Denominations, and Light Pieces in
Proportion to their Weight: We have therefore thought fit for Remedying
the said Inconveniencies, by the Advice of Our Council, to Publish and
Declare, That from and after the First Day of January next ensuing
the Date hereof, no Sevill, Pillar, or Mexico Pieces of Eight, though
of the full Weight of Seventeen Peny-weight and an half, shall be
Accounted, Received, Taken, or Paid within any of Our said Colonies or
Plantations, as well those under Proprietors and Charters, as under Our
immediate Commission and Government, at above the Rate of Six Shillings
per Piece Current Money, for the Discharge of any Contracts or Bargains
to be made after the said First Day of January next, the Halfs,
Quarters, and other lesser Pieces of the same Coins to be Accounted,
Received, Taken, or Paid in the same Proportion: And the Currency of
all Pieces of Eight of Peru, Dollars, and other Foreign Species of
Silver Coins, whether of the same or Baser Alloy, shall, after the
said First Day of January next, stand Regulated, according to their
Weight and Fineness, according and in Proportion to the Rate before
Limited and Set for the Pieces of Eight of Sevill, Pillar, and Mexico;
So that no Foreign Silver Coin of any sort be permitted to Exceed the
same Proportion upon any Account whatsoever. And We do hereby Require
and Command all Our Governours, Lieutenant-Governours, Magistrates,
Officers, and all other Our good Subjects, within Our said Colonies and
Plantations, to Observe and Obey our Directions herein, as they Tender
our Displeasure.
Given at Our Castle at Windsor, the Eighteenth Day of June, 1704. In
the Third Year of Our Reign.