Which is that when you raise the Value of Money, you Naturally raise the
Value of Silver, which is high enough already; and then indeed _England_
will become the Best Market for Silver, because all Countries will sell
it to us and get sufficiently by the Bargain: they’ll buy good
peny-worths of our Commodities, giving us high Valued Silver for it,
till we have a glut of Silver and the Price of Silver falls and then I
suppose the Intrinsic Value of the Money falls too. Tho’ I confess as
bad Consequences may follow too great an Intrinsic Value.
I speak nothing of the Confusions and Jealousie which will arise from
hence, but there’s a long Chain of ill Consequences, and therefore I
hope it will be allow’d as a Maxime.
_That if our Silver Coin hath less than a_ real Value, _it will not
answer the Intentions of the Government_.
CHAP. V.
_Of Exportation of Coin’d Silver._
’Tis too well known, that when the Balance of Trade comes to be
examined, we fall short of several of our Neighbours very considerably:
By this Means the Exchange doth not only fall very low, but will become
altogether insufficient for our present Occasions; so that as long as
the War continues, there is an absolute Necessity that we export so much
Silver and Gold _in Specie_ as the Balance wants on our Side.
But this Exportation would not be at all prejudicial to us, if the
Importation could be made equal to the Exportation, and a Balance in
this Particular only would do our Business.
In vain therefore we labour to find out a Way to force a National Trade
above what the State of _Europe_ in general, or our own Nation in
particular will allow; if that were not the Case, where would be the
Inconvenience of a War? This is an Evil never to be cured, but in Times
of Peace. But our Comfort is, that even in these Times of War War the
Nation notwithstanding the balance of Trade, appears as wealthy as ever,
excepting only in the Article of Coyn, so that it is not only fruitless
but very needless to speak now of the balance of Trade either in
general, or upon any Article but that of Money: Besides if we should
begin at that end it would be a round about way, and so long in
compassing, that we may be at the last gasp before we attain our end. He
would be accounted no good Physician who in the case of an _Hæmorrhage_
when the danger is very present should talk of Diet Drinks and
Alteratives, whereas an actual and immediate application to the part
affected, or a sudden revulsion is more to the purpose. But be the
balance of Trade in general how it will, ’tis impossible it should be
suddenly remedied, if at all during the War.
But if we can balance a little between that Article of Trade which
relates to the Importation of Bullion, it will be soon much better with
us than it is at present, ’tis something if we can give present ease,
and not increase the Danger; and more if we can lessen the Danger which
the want of ease seems to threaten.
Suppose for instance then the whole Trade of _England_ to all parts of
the World to be carried on by two Merchants, one at _London_, and the
other at _Amsterdam_, and the only Commodities to be Cloth and Silk.
Suppose he at _London_ Exports every year 1000 _l._ worth of Broad Cloth
and no more, and he at _Amsterdam_ Imports hither 1500 _l._ worth of
Silk, that here’s an inevitable necessity of the _Londiners_ Exporting
every Year 500 _l._ in Bullion can’t be denyed, and if this continue
year by year it, will be, you’ll say, of pernicious consequence to
_England_, and it will be a wonderful hard matter at this time to help
such a Case.
But if we can at present so order it, that instead of importing 1500
_l._ worth of Silk we shall import 1000 _l._ worth of Silk, and 500 _l._
worth of Silver we shall be no losers in the Article I am upon, and
which is the only thing I have undertaken to look after, _viz._ That the
Nation shall never want Money be the Trade what it will: for if 500 _l._
in Silver be Exported and as much Imported every Year, we can never have
a Peny worth of Bullion less than we have.
And if other Nations must get by us, they had better get any thing than
our Money; if what they get by us they must be forced to spend among us,
’twill lessen I hope the Calamity, as will appear more hereafter.
Now this is not to be done by giving our Coyn a _Nominal_, _fictitious_
or _extrinsick_ value only above its intrinsick: Foreigners are not such
Fools to be dealt with at that rate, as to pay you a Rex Dollar of 18
_d._ weight 18 grains in _Amsterdam_ or _Brussels_, for a piece of Money
of 15 penny weight in _London_.
[Sidenote: Sir _Robert Cotton_’s answer of the Committee. _September
1626._ Pag. 306.]
Turn the Tables, _and suppose the King of_ Spain _should advance his
Real of Eight_ weighing but 17 Penny Weight 12 Grains _to double the
value it now bears, and yet needing by reason of the barrenness of his
Country more of Foreign Wares than he can Countervail by Barter with his
own; he must part with his Money and not gain by enhauncing his Coyn_.
One Real of Eight would not then buy of us as good a Yard of broad Cloth
as two doth now, and why should we think to over reach them more than
they us.
But then again, suppose the Money to be Coyned shall be (as our Mill’d
Money and diminished hammer’d Money is) pretty near the Intrinsick value
of the Silver in each piece, and this will doubtless facilitate
Exportation. If a Foreigner for instance bring to _London_ and sells 40
Bales of raw Silk, or 40 Tun of Wine, and meets not here with such a
Market for the buying of other Commodities to be Transported as he
expected, perhaps those he wants are not of our Growth or Manufacture,
or it may be he is in hast, or the Season calls him home; how easie is
it for him to sheer away, and go to another Market, having Money in his
Pocket passable every where, at the rate he took it, that inconsiderable
allowance for Coynage only excepted!
This I think is plain, but as yet there is more in it than so; and
suppose it, any other Nations turn to want Silver as much as we now do,
and Silver should be there at an higher price than with us, then our
Money becomes good Merchandice, and he gets most who carries most over:
And the lower the value of our Coyn is the less Foreign Commodities we
shall have for it.
You’ll Prohibit you’ll say the exporting of it, and so you have upon
pain of Death prohibited the Exportation of our Wooll, yet to the
comfort of our Grasiers ’tis still Exported, though it’s very bulky
Ware. But Money lies in a small Compass, a Sea Captain knows very little
of his chief business if he knows not where to stow a 1000 _l._
undiscovered.
And if after all we should be very severe in the execution of such
prohibitory Laws, it would put such a damp to Foreign Trade as every
body is not aware of.
And indeed if Money were not allowed to be a commodity, yet ’tis a
Pledge and Surety of every Traders Property, and I am not reconciled to
the Justice of that Law which forbids a man to take his Pledge along
with him.
Such a Law makes money nothing but a Commodity, and then we must pay
dear for what we buy of Foreigners, for most men will sell Cheaper than
they will Barter.
This Article needs I think no more illustration, if it doth the
Merchants can tell more of it than I, and I hope they will grant me this
Conclusion.
_That if our_ English _Money will pass in any other Country for as much
as it doth here, ’tis impracticable to hinder the Exportation of it_.
CHAP. VI.
_Of melting down the current Coyn of_ England _by our Goldsmiths and
other Artificers_.
Another great grievance of the Nation in the matters of Coyn may be
thought the melting of it down.
This hath been a vile and great practice for many Years.
The Criminals have been under two temptations:
1. The inequality of the Mint in all the hammered money; some milled
Pieces were of more Intrinsick than Extrinsick Value, and some of less,
so that in culling out of the bigest, they made an evident advantage.
But that sort of money being almost all gone and never like to be coyned
again, I shall altogether wave the consideration of it.
2. The other Temptation is the great Intrinsick Value of our mill’d
money, most of which was coyn’d when Silver was 5 _s._ 2 _d._ 5 _s._ 4
_d._ or 5 _s._ 6 _d._ per ounce, and the price of Silver rising, a Crown
piece has now the intrinsick value of 6 _s._ or thereabouts, this is a
mighty temptation to melt it down.
_Titius_ owes _Sempronius_ 10 _l._ and pays him in mill’d money,
_Sempronius_ owes a third man as much, but first melts it down and sells
it to a Goldsmith for 12 _l._ and so puts 40 _s._ in his Pocket. This
might have been prevented you’ll say before all the mill’d money was
gone; by crying down all other money, for if the Goldsmiths had given 12
_l._ in mill’d money for an Ingot melted out of ten Pounds, they must at
length have been ruined; and therefore the Crying down all other money
must have brought down the price of Silver necessarily, or none could
have been sold.
If 5 _s._ melted down would not have yielded a Crown Piece, who would
have melted ’em; and if they would have yielded more, the money of the
Nation how much soever must soon have vanished, for more could not have
been coyn’d, till the price of Silver should fall: But how could the
price of Silver have fallen so low in _England_, as not to be worth any
mans while to melt down the milled money, if Silver should at the same
time of its melting bear an higher price in other Countries than it did
here at the time of its Coyning: So that the Coyning down of base money
would at any time have been so far from helping us, that it would have
immediately ruined us, it being impossible to Coyn more upon the old
Standard, if the price of Silver is higher beyond Sea than it was when
that old Standard was Coyned: And ’twill be impossible for us to Coyn
new money after the old Standard (till we can bring down the Foreign
Price of Silver) so fast as it will be melted down.
To make this plain upon which so much depends, put the Case thus.
Suppose you called in by compulsion and Coyned all the Plate of
_England_, and suppose it never so many Millions, and all after the old
Standard, when the Plate is all gone people will have more Plate, and
Silversmiths must still have work, and Goldsmiths their Trade, unless by
prohibiting the use of silver Plate we proclaim an hypocritical Beggary
to all the world, and ruin many thousand Families of Artisans. The
Silver then of which you coyn your new Plate must come from abroad, or
be procured out of your money.
The Goldsmith will go the cheaper way to work, and rather than he’ll
give 5 _s._ 10 _d._ to a Merchant for an ounce of Plate, he’ll fling in
a Crown and 6 _d._ into the melting Pot, and though the Laws against
melting down Coyn be never so severe yet people will venture any thing
for gain, as you may see Clippers do daily; especially if their
Consciences don’t check ’em, and few mens Consciences will scruple
making the most of their own.
And as the accurate Mr. _Lowndes_ observes, notwithstanding ever since
_Ed. 3d_’s. time prohibitory Laws have been against melting down Coyn,
_pag._ 68. and the profit of melting it sometimes very inconsiderable,
_pag._ 69. the practice hitherto was never prevented. But it may be said
money shall be coyned of an intrinsick value or near thereabouts
(Coynage only allowed) in proportion to the present value of Silver, be
it more or less as it shall alter from time to time, and so the
abatement for Coynage shall always keep the Estimate of the Coyn above
the Intrinsick value of the Silver, but instead of bringing remedy this
will make the Case tentimes worse, for then upon every rise of Silver
the Goldsmiths and others will melt down all that was Coyn’d at a lower
Price, and if the form of the Coyn don’t direct ’em to be dextrous, the
Prentices shall follow the old Trade of weighing money Night and Day
too.
So that without going farther upon this Topick, I may lay it down as a
Conclusion or Maxim.
_That if the Intrinsick Value of Coyn be subject to alteration the Coyn
is always in danger of being melted down._
CHAP. VII.
_Of Hoarding up of the Silver Coyn._
People who have several uneasinesses upon ’em at one and the same time,
are very apt to attribute ’em all to one, which is the most hated, the
most invidious, or at least the most visible cause, though in reality
every one may have sprung from a several and very different root.
Thus our present War with _France_ is to some few people odious, to many
invidious, and to all visible, and this therefore must be the cause of
all National Calamities.
Whereas many things are better with us now than if we had no War; a
frequency of Parliaments, an universal vigilance, a care of Shiping; a
choice of able Ministers, (and not unskilful Favorites in most places of
greatest Trust;) an intire Allyance with the most useful Neighbours; an
honest imployment for all dissolute Men; an honourable provision for
younger Sons of Gentlemen; a perfect understanding between the King and
his People; an almost total desistance from an unreasonable and
disadvantageous Commerce with _France_; a more brotherly Correspondence
with the Dissenters (being all equally engaged in the Publick danger).
We have great Honour by the Bravery of our Arms, and the most important
assistance we give to all _Christendom_ against _French_ and _Turk_. Our
King is become the _Generalissimo_ of _Europe_, and his Fleet give Laws
in all Seas.
These and many more to the better part of the Nation are the advantages
of this necessary tho’ expensive War.
But there are some that look upon it with an evil eye, and then the
badness of money, and the scarcity of it, and the Exporting and melting
down, and hoarding it, and the rise of Gold, and the dearness of
Commodities, and the badness of Trade are all as evident effects of the
War as the Taxes are.
Though in truth this is all Humour and Caprice, and none of it more
ridiculous than when the hoarding up of Money is imputed to the War,
which is the meer effect of the dearness of Silver, as the dearness of
Silver in _England_ is the natural effect of its dearness abroad, and
its dearness abroad to the obstructions of Trade, which would be if only
_France_ and _Spain_ were at War, since _Spain_ is the Silver Market of
the whole World.
Ever since the extraordinary abasement of Coyn by an unparalleled
Counterfeit and Clipping, people have hoarded up Money apace, not
knowing how far the debasement would run; and fearing if they put their
good Money out they should at the long run be forced to be paid back in
they know not what themselves.
Nor hath the beauty and rarity of uncorrupted and undiminished Coyn,
added a little to the humour of hoarding it up.
Undefaced and weighty pieces are now as so many Medals, people think it
a great happiness to have a store of ’em. And as the Coyn degenerates
these are more charily preserved, and will be so till the intrinsick
value of ’em diminishes. I could give a shrewd guess where this weighty
Money is to be found in great quantities, but be it where it will as I
said before, I think every man hath a right do what he will with his
own, so far as it is his own.
All that I at present aim at is to show.
_That Coyn which hath an Intrinsick value above the Extrinsick, and is
withall rare or uncommon will inevitably be hoarded up, and continue so
to be._
CHAP. VIII.
_Of Regulating our Silver Coyn._
To give an exact Estimate of what Silver Coyn is necessary for the
carrying on our Trade in its full Vigor, is a task I am not at present
willing to undertake, but the least I can guess at is 5000000 _l._
considering that great Sums will always remain in the Exchequer, and
Banks; for I look upon the Banks not as Chanels only, but as great
Receptacles likewise, wherein money must rest and wait for opportunities
of disposing it.
None of Hypotheses depend upon definite or determinate Sums, and I shall
beg nothing essentially necessary to the carrying on of my design, but I
desire for the present working only of my _Proposition_, that a few
_Postulata_ be a while granted me.
It matters not much whether any of ’em be true for they may easily be
varied _Mutatis Mutandis_.