What I intend now to say to you, is, next to your duty to God, and the
care of your salvation, of the greatest concern to yourselves and your
children; your bread and clothing, and every common necessary of life,
depend entirely upon it. Therefore I do most earnestly exhort you as men,
as Christians, as parents, and as lovers of your country, to read this
paper with the utmost attention, or get it read to you by others; which,
that you may do at the less expense, I have ordered the printer to sell it
at the lowest rate.
It is a great fault among you, that when a person writes with no other
intention than to do you good, you will not be at the pains to read his
advices. One copy of this paper may serve a dozen of you, which will be
less than a farthing apiece. It is your folly, that you have no common or
general interest in your view, not even the wisest among you; neither do
you know, or inquire, or care, who are your friends, or who are your
enemies.
About four years ago, a little book was written to advise all people to
wear the manufactures of this our own dear country.[1] It had no other
design, said nothing against the King or Parliament, or any persons
whatever; yet the poor printer was prosecuted two years with the utmost
violence, and even some weavers themselves (for whose sake it was
written), being upon the JURY, found him guilty. This would be enough to
discourage any man from endeavouring to do you good, when you will either
neglect him, or fly in his face for his pains, and when he must expect
only danger to himself, and to be fined and imprisoned, perhaps to his
ruin.
However, I cannot but warn you once more of the manifest destruction
before your eyes, if you do not behave yourself, as you ought.
I will therefore first tell you the plain story of the fact, and then I
will lay before you how you ought to act, in common prudence according to
the laws of your country.
The fact is this: It having been many years since COPPER HALFPENCE OR
FARTHINGS were last coined in this kingdom, they have been for some time
very scarce, and many counterfeits passed about under the name of _raps_,
several applications were made to England that we might have liberty to
coin new ones, as in former times we did; but they did not succeed. At
last, one Mr. Wood, a mean ordinary man, a hardware dealer, procured a
patent under his Majesty's broad seal to coin 108,000_l._[2] in copper for
this kingdom; which patent, however, did not oblige any one here to take
them, unless they pleased. Now you must know, that the halfpence and
farthings in England pass for very little more than they are worth; and if
you should beat them to pieces, and sell them to the brazier, you would
not lose much above a penny in a shilling. But Mr. Wood made his halfpence
of such base metal, and so much smaller than the English ones, that the
brazier would not give you above a penny of good money for a shilling of
his; so that this sum of 108,000_l._ in good gold and silver, must be
given for trash, that will not be worth eight or nine thousand pounds real
value. But this is not the worst; for Mr. Wood, when he pleases, may, by
stealth, send over another 108,000_l._, and buy all our goods for eleven
parts in twelve under the value. For example, if a hatter sells a dozen of
hats for five shillings apiece, which amounts to three pounds, and
receives the payment in Wood's coin, he really receives only the value of
five shillings.
Perhaps you will wonder how such an ordinary fellow as this Mr. Wood could
have so much interest as to get his Majesty's broad seal for so great a
sum of bad money to be sent to this poor country; and that all the
nobility and gentry here could not obtain the same favour, and let us make
our own halfpence, as we used to do. Now I will make that matter very
plain: We are at a great distance from the King's court, and have nobody
there to solicit for us, although a great number of lords and 'squires,
whose estates are here, and are our countrymen, spend all their lives and
fortunes there; but this same Mr. Wood was able to attend constantly for
his own interest; he is an Englishman, and had great friends; and, it
seems, knew very well where to give money to those that would speak to
others, that could speak to the King, and would tell a fair story. And his
Majesty, and perhaps the great lord or lords who advise him, might think
it was for our country's good; and so, as the lawyers express it, "The
King was deceived in his grant," which often happens in all reigns. And I
am sure if his Majesty knew that such a patent, if it should take effect
according to the desire of Mr. Wood, would utterly ruin this kingdom,
which has given such great proofs of its loyalty, he would immediately
recall it, and perhaps show his displeasure to somebody or other; but a
word to the wise is enough. Most of you must have heard with what anger
our honourable House of Commons received an account of this Wood's patent.
There were several fine speeches made upon it, and plain proofs that it
was all a wicked cheat from the bottom to the top; and several smart votes
were printed, which that same Wood had the assurance to answer likewise in
print; and in so confident a way, as if he were a better man than our
whole Parliament put together.
This Wood, as soon as his patent was passed, or soon after, sends over a
great many barrels of those halfpence to Cork, and other seaport towns;
and to get them off, offered a hundred pounds in his coin, for seventy or
eighty in silver; but the collectors of the King's customs very honestly
refused to take them, and so did almost everybody else. And since the
Parliament has condemned them, and desired the King that they might be
stopped, all the kingdom do abominate them.
But Wood is still working underhand to force his halfpence upon us; and if
he can, by the help of his friends in England, prevail so far as to get an
order, that the commissioners and collectors of the King's money shall
receive them, and that the army is to be paid with them, then he thinks
his work shall be done. And this is the difficulty you will be under in
such a case: for the common soldier, when he goes to the market, or
alehouse, will offer this money; and if it be refused, perhaps he will
swagger and hector, and threaten to beat the butcher or ale-wife, or take
the goods by force, and throw them the bad halfpence. In this and the like
cases, the shopkeeper or victualler, or any other tradesman, has no more
to do, than to demand ten times the price of his goods, if it is to be
paid in Wood's money; for example, twenty pence of that money for a quart
of ale and so in all things else, and not part with his goods till he gets
the money.
For, suppose you go to an ale-house with that base money, and the landlord
gives you a quart for four of those halfpence, what must the victualler
do? his brewer will not be paid in that coin; or, if the brewer should be
such a fool, the farmers will not take it from them for their bere,[3]
because they are bound, by their leases, to pay their rent in good and
lawful money of England; which this is not, nor of Ireland neither; and
the 'squire, their landlord, will never be so bewitched to take such trash
for his land; so that it must certainly stop somewhere or other; and
wherever it stops, it is the same thing, and we are all undone.
The common weight of these halfpence is between four and five to an
ounce--suppose five, then three shillings and four pence will weigh a
pound, and consequently twenty shillings will weigh six pounds butter
weight. Now there are many hundred farmers, who pay two hundred pounds a
year rent; therefore, when one of these farmers comes with his half-year's
rent, which is one hundred pounds, it will be at least six hundred
pounds' weight, which is three horses' load.
If a 'squire has a mind to come to town to buy clothes and wine, and
spices for himself and family, or perhaps to pass the winter here, he must
bring with him five or six horses well loaden with sacks, as the farmers
bring their corn; and when his lady comes in her coach to our shops, it
must be followed by a car loaded with Mr. Wood's money. And I hope we
shall have the grace to take it for no more than it is worth.
They say 'Squire Conolly[4] has sixteen thousand pounds a-year; now, if he
sends for his rent to town, as it is likely he does, he must have two
hundred and fifty horses to bring up his half-year's rent, and two or
three great cellars in his house for stowage. But what the bankers will do
I cannot tell; for I am assured, that some great bankers keep by them
forty thousand pounds in ready cash, to answer all payments; which sum, in
Mr. Wood's money, would require twelve hundred horses to carry it.
For my own part, I am already resolved what to do; I have a pretty good
shop of Irish stuffs and silks; and instead of taking Mr. Wood's bad
copper, I intend to truck with my neighbours, the butchers, and bakers,
and brewers, and the rest, goods for goods; and the little gold and
silver I have, I will keep by me, like my heart's blood, till better
times, or until I am just ready to starve; and then I will buy Mr. Wood's
money, as my father did the brass money in King James's time,[5] who could
buy ten pounds of it with a guinea; and I hope to get as much for a
pistole, and so purchase bread from those who will be such fools as to
sell it me. These halfpence, if they once pass, will soon be
counterfeited, because it may be cheaply done, the stuff is so base. The
Dutch, likewise, will probably do the same thing, and send them over to us
to pay for our goods; and Mr. Wood will never be at rest, but coin on: so
that in some years we shall have at least five times 108,000_l._ of this
lumber. Now the current money of this kingdom is not reckoned to be above
four hundred thousand pounds in all; and while there is a silver sixpence
left, these bloodsuckers will never be quiet. When once the kingdom is
reduced to such a condition, I will tell you what must be the end: the
gentlemen of estates will all turn off their tenants for want of payments,
because, as I told you before, the tenants are obliged by their leases to
pay sterling, which is lawful current money of England; then they will
turn their own farmers, as too many of them do already, run all into
sheep, where they can, keeping only such other cattle as are necessary;
then they will be their own merchants, and send their wool, and butter,
and hides, and linen beyond sea, for ready money, and wine, and spices,
and silks. They will keep only a few miserable cottagers; the farmers must
rob, or beg, or leave their country; the shopkeepers in this, and every
other town, must break and starve; for it is the landed man that maintains
the merchant, and shopkeeper, and handicraftsman.
But when the 'squire turns farmer and merchant himself, all the good money
he gets from abroad he will hoard up to send for England, and keep some
poor tailor or weaver and the like in his own house, who will be glad to
get bread at any rate.
I should never have done, if I were to tell you all the miseries that we
shall undergo, if we be so foolish and wicked as to take this cursed coin.
It would be very hard if all Ireland should be put into one scale, and
this sorry fellow, Wood, into the other; that Mr. Wood should weigh down
this whole kingdom, by which England gets above a million of good money
every year clear into their pockets; and that is more than the English do
by all the world besides.
But your great comfort is, that as his Majesty's patent does not oblige
you to take this money, so the laws have not given the crown a power of
forcing the subject to take what money the King pleases; for then, by the
same reason, we might be bound to take pebble-stones, or cockle-shells, or
stamped leather, for current coin, if ever we should happen to live under
an ill prince; who might likewise, by the same power, make a guinea pass
for ten pounds, a shilling for twenty shillings, and so on; by which he
would, in a short time, get all the silver and gold of the kingdom into
his own hands, and leave us nothing but brass or leather, or what he
pleased. Neither is anything reckoned more cruel and oppressive in the
French government than their common practice of calling in all their
money, after they have sunk it very low, and then coining it anew at a
much higher value; which, however, is not the thousandth part so wicked as
this abominable project of Mr. Wood. For the French give their subjects
silver for silver, and gold for gold; but this fellow will not so much as
give us good brass or copper for our gold and silver, nor even a twelfth
part of their worth. Having said thus much, I will now go on to tell you
the judgment of some great lawyers in this matter, whom I fee'd on purpose
for your sakes, and got their opinions under their hands, that I might be
sure I went upon good grounds.... I will now, my dear friends, to save you
the trouble, set before you, in short, what the law obliges you to do, and
what it does not oblige you to.
First, you are obliged to take all money in payments which is coined by
the King, and is of the English standard or weight, provided it be of gold
or silver.
Secondly, you are not obliged to take any money which is not of gold or
silver; not only the halfpence or farthings of England, but of any other
country. And it is merely for convenience or ease, that you are content to
take them; because the custom of coining silver halfpence and farthings
has long been left off; I suppose on account of their being subject to be
lost.
Thirdly, much less are you obliged to take those vile halfpence of the
same Wood, by which you must lose almost eleven pence in every shilling.
Therefore, my friends, stand to it one and all; refuse this filthy trash.
It is no treason to rebel against Mr. Wood. His Majesty in his patent,
obliges nobody to take these halfpence, our gracious prince has no such
ill-advisers about him; or, if he had, yet you see the laws have not left
it in the King's power to force us to take any coin but what is lawful, of
right standard, gold and silver. Therefore you have nothing to fear.
And let me in the next place apply myself particularly to you who are the
poorer sort of tradesmen. Perhaps you may think you will not be so great
losers as the rich, if these halfpence should pass; because you seldom see
any silver, and your customers come to your shops or stalls with nothing
but brass, which you likewise find hard to be got. But you may take my
word, whenever this money gains footing among you, you will be utterly
undone. If you carry these halfpence to a shop for tobacco or brandy, or
any other thing that you want, the shopkeeper will advance his goods
accordingly, or else he must break, and leave the key under the door. "Do
you think I will sell you a yard of tenpenny stuff for twenty of Mr.
Wood's halfpence? No, not under two hundred at least; neither will I be at
the trouble of counting, but weigh them in a lump." I will tell you one
thing farther, that if Mr. Wood's project should take, it would ruin even
our beggars; for when I give a beggar a halfpenny, it will quench his
thirst, or go a good way to fill his belly; but the twelfth part of a
halfpenny will do him no more service than if I should give him three pins
out of my sleeve.
In short, these halfpence are like "the accursed thing, which," as the
Scripture tells us, "the children of Israel were forbidden to touch." They
will run about like the plague, and destroy every one who lays his hand
upon them. I have heard scholars talk of a man who told the King, that he
had invented a way to torment people, by putting them into a bull of brass
with fire under it; but the prince put the projector first into it, to
make the experiment. This very much resembles the project of Mr. Wood; and
the like of this may probably be Mr. Wood's fate; that the brass he
contrived to torment this kingdom with, may prove his own torment, and his
destruction at last.
N.B. The author of this paper is informed by persons, who have made it
their business to be exact in their observations on the true value of
these halfpence, that any person may expect to get a quart of twopenny ale
for thirty-six of them.
I desire that all families may keep this paper carefully by them, to
refresh their memories whenever they shall have farther notice of Mr.
Wood's halfpence, or any other the like imposture.