A DISCOURSE OF MONEY Being an ESSAY on that Subject Historically and Politically handled WITH Reflections on the present evil state of the Coin of this Kingdom AND Proposals of a Method for the Remedy In a Letter to a Nobleman c. LONDON Printed for Sam. Briscoe at the Corner of Charles-Street in Russel-Street Covent-Garden 1696. THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER THE Author of this Treatise whom I have not the honour to know whether through Infirmity or by Ingaging late in the Argument seems to stand in need of an Apologie with the Publick for not appearing earlier abroad before the Subject had been so far canvas'd Wherefore the Reader may please to take Notice That if he has not present leisure amidst the warmth of Debates now on foot upon this Theme to read and weigh the whole Discourse in the Method wherein it is written he may turn to Page 79 where the Dialogue begins which discourses and applies the whole Argument to the immediate great Question namely The Causes and Remedies of the Disease of our Coin A DISCOURSE OF Money c. My Lord YOU command me to give you my judgment on this difficult Subject of Money without Reflecting I fear that as the Task is too great for my Forces so the time you have alotted me is too little for the work tho my capacity and talents were never so promising I am under a further difficulty by coming thus late into the Dispute when others who besides their being better able and having better means to acquit themselves have exhausted the Argument so that the most I shall be able to do will be but a Gleaning after their Harvest Under these disadvantages then of being constrain'd to take another method than I wou'd chuse were I left to my liberty of avoiding to speak to many Points as having been very pertinently spoken to already and of going out of the beaten Road to find out something that may be thought new entertaining or instructing If I say under these difficulties I shall chance to succeed in my attempt and afford your Lordship the least addition of Light to the Knowledge you possess in most Subjects I shall be very well pleas'd whatever pains it may cost me to obey you Leaving it entirely to your Election whether a Child of so weak a Father may be of strength to be adventur'd abroad and see the World or no. With this short Preface and under the shelter of this just Apology I proceed purposing to observe a little more or less the following Method I shall first Discourse generally and go a little into the History and Antiquity of Money Then I shall endeavour to shew the the Reasonableness and Utility of the Institution and Invention of Money I should have look'd a little into the History of the Coin and Mint of England which wou'd have been necessary but I perceive that is already well and painfully perform'd to my hand by one who is both better able and can have recourse to better means to do it and therefore I shall therein be silent I shall Essay to shew in the expounding my Subject how and when Money may be Useful and Currant and answer all the Ends of that Invention without containing any real or intrinsic Value I shall endeavour to explain the meaning of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Value and shew their Use and how it came to pass that from making Money of worthless things and baser metals Men came to Coin Gold and Silver and on that Article shall endeavour to explain and assign the Proportion of the Intrinsic Value of Money and determine the precise difference there ought to be between the Intrinsic and Extrinsic or Political Value I shall proceed to enquire into the Evils and Maladies incident to Money and the mistaken Politicks of some Nations especially the Spaniards therein to the great Grievance of the People the Dishonor Damage and Danger of the State I shall discourse of Dearness and Cheapness of Money and Things which cannot be understood without reference to Money and a comparison rightly stated between them I shall mingle my Speculations on this Subject with Historical and Political Remarks and frame perhaps or suggest Schemes of antient Government to illustrate and explain difficult Questions as they may occur about Money I shall necessarily Treat of Government Peace War Trade Arts Navigation Exchange Vsury Banks and Money Projects c. as they tend to the Explication and right Knowledge of my Subject In short I shall travel necessarily over a great deal of ground and endeavor to remove many rubs in my Passage before I can fairly come to my Journeys end which is to Establish a right Notion at least my conceptions of Money and to propose a Remedy of the Evil under which the Nation at this day Languishes on the occasion of the present Corruption and lamentable State of the Coin of this Kingdom I may perhaps go into sundry other particulars which I have not here recited and it may be those I have may not fall out in the order herein above specified but I trust I shall no where be understood to go industriously out of my way to meet any foreign or offensive Matter in the course of my Design which is to treat my Subject intelligibly pertinently and as becomes an English man uninfluenc'd by any consideration that might be thought to byass my Love and Veneration to my Country The Use of Money is of very great Antiquity as antient as History at least whence may be gather'd that mankind had very early Notions of the blessing of Society and therein of improving their common ease and intercourse by inventing and subsistuting something that shou'd render their Commerce one with another more practicable and beneficial than by Barter or Exchange of one Commodity for another Perhaps too it was consistent enough with the Virtue and Simplicity of the first Ages of the World to Coin their Money of Iron Brass or other inferiour matter or metals which had very little or no Intrinsic Value but was made Currant and receiv'd an Extrinsic or Political Value from the Stamp and Authority of the Prince or State within whose Territory it pass'd and was receiv'd but cou'd be of no use without the Bounds of that Power by Virtue whereof it reciv'd that currant Value because the profit accruing by the coinage of base Metals being taken and assumed by the Prince it became a Prerogative and Mark of Sovereignty and as all Foreign Coin was therefore forbidden to be receiv'd so it became Penal by that means to the Subject to imitate or falsifie it as being from thence I suppose justly call'd the Kings Coin But as the Ambition of Princes Luxury and Avarice grew in the World the love of Money and the desire to accumulate Wealth to compass the means and gratifie the ends of our deprav'd Appetites increas'd But because Ambition which aims at Extent of Power and Dominion cou'd not be further'd but by
Licence and so come to be call'd a Grievance and the cause of Discontents and Murmures in so free and noble a Constitution as ours is Ans I think King Charles the Second quitted his Right to the Profits accruing by the Mint for some valuable Consideration which at that time by reason of great Coinage amounted to thirty or forty thousand Pounds per Annum Since when we are I presume at liberty to consult and determine by the best Rules that Wisdom and Science can suggest about such Laws and Regulations for the Mint as may be found most easie and beneficial for the State Q How did that Profit arise to King Charles the Second c. by the Mint A. I suppose diverse ways but principally this namely that Bullion in those days being much lower in Value than now because more plentiful and the Standard Establish'd to such a weight and sineness which was not to be alter'd a proportional Profit came by that means of course to the King through the cheapness of the Material out of which the Coin was Manufactur'd in so much that the Merchant or Goldsmith had a Merchantable Profit to incourage them to send their Bullion to the Mint and the King a competent share of Gain in the overplus But pray note upon this Question which helps to unsold the Mystery that since those days through the causes we have endeavour'd to explain the Material of your Money is risen in Value it may be a fifth part at least and that Batgain which was thought and it may be really was so profitable to the King then shou'd his Majesty have enter'd into Covenants with his People to Coin a certain Sum of Money yearly of the Establish'd Standard weight and fineness which he cou'd not alter He might have liv'd to see himself a great deal more a looser by such a Contract then he had been a Gainer and behold all his Money to vanish as fast as it was Minted as we have plainly enough shewn Question I am now at length every way convinc'd that our Money ought to be all new Coin'd And that by reason of the new and exorbitant price of your Bullion you must have a new Standard and Proportion for your Mint But how that can be found and setled is a new Question to which I stand in need of your Answer Ans We have travel'd a great way to arrive fairly at this single Question and if we have gone somewhat about and made our Journey seem longer then might be thought necessary to some I Answer That it was for the sake of the Majority that this Voyage was taken and therefore but just to go their pace Our Subject lies in the dark to the Multitude and therefore we cannot open too many Windows to let in the Light to the end the weakest Sihht may be enabled to discern and make some Judgment whereby to determine in a matter that so nearly touches every Body Question Your Apology is reasonable and I believe will be thought so by most Men but let us come now to an Issue and decide this arduous Question How and by what Methods and Rules of Proportion our Mint may be Reform'd Answer I will not trouble you with References to what has been said that we may not multiply Words and will take for granted you bear in Mind that our Hypothesis is fram'd upon Reasons drawn from abroad as well as at home wherefore we must take Foreign as well as Domestick Considerations to our Ayd Your Money I have shewn is subject to these two chief Diseases of being too Rich which is containing more worth than it goes for in Coin which begets a Consumption and wasting by re-converting it into Bullion exporting and the like too Poor when it is either Coined by Authority through mistaken measures of State with too great an extrinsick allowance or corrupted clipt and salsify'd by others so as to become notoriously diminish'd in the intrinsick Value Which raiseth the Price of all things by the like proportion begets doubts Difficulties and Vexation in your common Traffick and enhaunses the rates of Exchange with your Neighbours which hath a mighty Influence on your Trade abroad encourages bad People at home to diminish and falsifie it every day more and more because there is no rule left to compare and know your Money by And invites the Nations round about you who may do it with more safety to import and utter it in such quantities and still worse and worse till in the end all your Silver Coin the unclipp'd and the clipp'd shall be gone out of the Kingdom and what a calamitous State such a People must be in needs no Exaggeration here Q. I am glad you have repeated and renewed in my Memory these two chief Diseases of Money and given so reasonable a Prognostick of the Effects because I reckon you will now come to propose the remedy for Restoring and Establishing the Health of our Coin by such Rules as may seem as just as your Argument hitherto has appear'd to me reasonable Ans To arrive then at that right Rule of proportion you require and which we have been thus long in quest of I first propose that we should look a little back here at home and inquire and be at a certainty what Price Bullion bore when our last mill'd Money was coined And we will suppose it here about the round summ of Five Shillings the Ounce then let us grant it to be risen and advanced in Price from Five to Six Shillings or thereabouts the Ounce which shall be the Value we will give it at this day Both which Prizes may be more or less without damage to our reasoning about the Rule which I wou'd propose for our Government in this great Question Now pray note that while the King had his Profit by the Mint which was indefinite and Silver was at an Under-rate no great difficulty cou'd occur in the Coinage for as long as that gain lasted be it little or much the King had it who was enabled over and above still to allow the Merchant or Goldsmith One or more per Cent profit to invite them to bring their Bullion to the Mint that is their Silver became so much more worth to them when manufactur'd into Money which they cou'd presently utter and employ than when inthe Masse in their Ware-house Upon which Motive namely their Gain they carried it to the Mint But that incitement ceasing from the reasons I have given there is not only no more Money now coin'd but even the Mill'd Money which in those days was minted from the same Motive Gain is melted down again and reconverted into Bulloin as we have noted and cannot too often repeat If this be true who can with any shadow of Rcason gainsay the necessity we are under of changing the proportions of our Mint which must inevitably and for ever change rise and fall by a Scale of proportion rectify'd to the rising and falling Value
Country to be inform'd what Price Bays bear there He tells him so many Rials a Piece the Merchant knows the Intrinsic Value of those Rials and presently reckons whether it will be worth his while to buy Bays here in England as the Price goes to send to Spain to be paid for them as his Factor has inform'd him they will yield And by this Rule only he is or can be govern'd Q. But do not the Spaniards now and then transgress this Rule by altering the Price and Value of their Money and thereby violate this Law of Commerce Ans Yes I grant they do to the very great damage of the Trade of that Country the distraction and confusion of Accompts and impoverishment of the Subject who by that means whilst they furnish Gold and Silver to all the World have very little or none Current among themselves and as I have observ'd elsewhere do manifestly owe much of the Misery they are in to their want of a right understanding of this Mystery and were it not for their Mines and other Profits that arise by that Trade which make ample amends for this unjust as well as unwise Practice the Trading World would have no Dealings with them Q. But methinks after all that you have said it might be compass'd by the Wisdom of a thinking well-govern'd People to make their Money current on what Tearms they please to decree which may be done by Enacting good Laws of Assize thereby establishing a determin'd Rate or Price on every thing In which Case let your Money be little or great base or fine it may be made to suffice for all your Vses Ans I grant you would have Reason and might make Nuts and Shells pass for Money as they do at this day in some Countries if you were to be secluded from the rest of the World and would hold no Intercourse without your own Frontiers but since by the corruption of our Manners Mankind has stamp'd this value on Gold and Silver their Use is become necessary to our Ease and Safety and we can neither gratifie our Passions and Appetites nor defend and secure our Peace Liberty and Possessions without it insomuch that Treasure of Gold and Silver is become Essential to our subsisting and well-being in the World and in regard the only means of acquiring it is by our Industry and the Arts of a wide and universal Commerce we can have recourse to no other Rule than by going with the majority in the trodden Track of Business and bustle in the World abroad in order to the acquiring those Things which Custom through Vice and humane Frailty has made necessary to our temporal Felicity wherefore your Law of Assize would here avail little or nothing while I grant that in Domestick Matters it may be of great Use for the case of the Poor and better Being of labouring and industrious People who must labour daily to eat their daily Bread Here I own indeed that a judicious Regulation of the Prizes of all Things we consume within our selves of our own growth would be a means to incourage Industry and tend even to the Advantage of our Commerce abroad Q. I think you have made it pretty plain now that if we would be Rich Safe and Happy we must swim with the Tide of the World and steer the general Course to arrive at the general Haven and that pursuant to this End in the Calculations of our Measures about Money we cannot wisely determine therein but by borrowing many Arguments from abroad where our chief Intercourse lies and from whence we derive those means for they are not I perceive of our own growth which humanly speaking can insure our Prosperity Ans You conceive me right wherefore I think there will need no more Words on this Point of our Debate Q. You told me but now that Money was the Rule of Commerce which you explain'd well enough I would now willingly be inform'd by what Rules I may be able to make a judgment of Money it self or of the value of Gold and Silver whereof Money is made For can Money buy it self or Gold and Silver be purchas'd with Gold and Silver This is a little dark to me and puts me in need of your help to explain Ans My Answer to your Question is shortly this That Gold and Silver which are a Merchandize the same with Silk Spice or any other Commodity which we purchase by Traffick are of late Years grown more scarce either by being apply'd to more Uses or that the Circle of their Use is become wider by which means it spreads thinner and the quantity of the Species by that means appears to be less and indeed is so comparing the Use that is now made of them with what was practis'd twenty or thirty Years ago Whence the World wanting Gold and Silver more they come to be more sought after and so better worth which is no more than to say That less of either of them will suffice now than in those Days to purchase Labour Bread or any other Thing we need and would buy with Gold or Silver Wherefore there is no Impropriety at all in saying That Silver is become dear namely That an Ounce of that Species which twenty or thirty Years ago was not worth five Shillings is now risen to be valued at above six Shillings because as much Silver as would make five current legal Shillings according to the Standard of the Mint then ought to produce by that Proportion six such Shillings now I still use whole Numbers it not being our business here to insist on rigid Truth of Calculation but to shew barely how every thing is reducible to it Q. Since you have led me thus far in search of this necessary Truth I would willingly be further instructed by your Reasons how and in what manner by descending to some particular Causes this scarcity or dearness of Gold and Silver is come to pass in the World for the true Reason being known and consented to good use I do not doubt may be made to the Publick of such Knowledge Ans The Reasons and Causes of this Scarcity I take to be manifold I will name but a few and shall begin with a main Cause and that is The long and obstinate War in Europe whereby through the Passion and Ambition of Princes and States the regular establish'd Methods of Business and Intercourse of the World is broken By Sea there is nothing but Violence Pyracy and Depradation whereby the Hands of Industry are weakned and that great Channel and Roads of the World's Comerce is possess'd and beset by Enemies and Robbers and we here in England chiefly who pretend to be in our proper Element who boast of Conquest and Dominion there whether by the Violence and good Management of our Enemies or the Drowsiness or Incapacity or both of our own Pylots and Friends at home whose Duty it is to be more on the watch and to look better out
Gold and Silver I am well assur'd are exhausted and yield not the Species in so great Plenty as heretofore to which adding the wide use Silver and Gold every day obtains by spreading further into the North and the Inland Countries The great Exportations to the Indies Turkey c. from whence none returns must to any judicious thinking Man be concluded to be among the Causes of that general scarcity of Gold and Silver here in Europe in comparison of what was observ'd to circulate amongst us in Twenty or Thirty Years ago which has rais'd the value of the Species and begotten that difference in price you enquire after Q. You have sufficiently explain'd the general Causes of the decay of Gold and Silver in the World abroad and in gross would it be amiss to bring the Question home by asking you how we here in England seem at least to share a greater degree of the Smart of this Evil than most other Nations Wherefore if it would not take up too much room for I observe our Subject begins to run into a longer Argument than I expected I should be glad you would instruct me a little Ans Your Question is reasonable and I am ready to gratifie you by recounting a few of the many causes of this evil felt by us here at home in a greater Degree of late than ordinary I shall begin with Trade which is a rich cunning and coy Mistress must have much Art and Address to acquire and great Attention and Assiduity to retain when gotten This Lady seems to have been neglected and ill treated by us of late We do not I fear reflect enough that her Favors once lost are hardly recovered because we have many Rivals who are jealous wise and wary and will be sure to stop the least gap we leave and hit every blot we make in our Conduct There are loud Lamentations in our Streets on this single Article of Trade Let Authority be pleas'd at whose Door it lyes to lend some Attention to these Cries and sift and search the Causes to the Bottom and they will find Sluts Corners enough Let them in their Debates and Deliberations take knowing Men to their Assistance using such caution in their Choice as that when they wou'd penetrate and cure the Evils and Errors of one Branch of Commerce to hear their Reasons with a more willing Ear who are sufferers by such Faults than those of others who are gainers by them be their Parts and Talents otherwise never so Superior For Interest is a Passion and Passion is both Deaf and Blind The Turky-Merchant exclaims against the East-India Company and these against them while perhaps both Trades may need Reformation with respect to the Publick The Art is well to distinguish for Trade though it be the publick Mistress is courted by particulars for private gain which may and do often interfere with the general good so that there is a less Mystery and a greater to be discover'd for private Men go as much in the dark and in cuvert to their profit as they can and to find out and detect these bad intricate and bye ways seems to be the behoof of those who would go in earnest upon this work which requires more Judgment and Pains to execute well then perhaps is practis'd by our Physicians In short 't is from this great Fountain Trade that all our Wealth flows If that be troubled and infected the Streams cannot be pure every Branch and Channel will gather filth run thicker and slower and in the end the Stream will stand still and the Circulation cease But the most visible and grievous Disease of which our Commerce languishes seems to me to be the heavy Burthens of all Kinds laid on Navigation which is the very bottom on which all our Prosperity is built Surely we should be more cautious if we consider'd that we are running a Race with our Rivals in Trade and a Prize of unspeakable Value is set before us where he who carries least weight is surest to win the Course Our New-Market Gentlemen tell us That barely an Ounce or two in the weight of a Sett of Horse-shooes suffices to lose the four Mile Course Shall we want the Discretion of a Jocky in our Deliberations about the most solemn Thing that belongs to the Government I could wish this Point were better weigh'd that we might discern better and lay it more to Heart and that our Friends and Neighbours the Dutch might be our Teachers and Examples in the Arts and Wisdom they Practice to further Foreign Trade in the Ease and Incouragement they give to Navigation which being the great Wheel that regulates all the lesser Movements of the Machine of Business and Profit should be watch'd with a wakeful Eye that nothing might clog or disturb its Motion Q. While we are on this Article of Trade I pray instruct me a little in the Mystery of Exchange which seems to me to have a great in fluence on Money-Matters which is the principal Subject of our Enquiries Ans Your Questions grow harder and harder and I honestly here own my Ignorance of abundance of Arts or rather Tricks that are introduc'd and practis'd by crafty Traders in this dark way of Dealing But thus far I may observe That Exchange is a kind of Usury or lending and borrowing Money at Interest wherein Usance as they call it governs and the Premium is proportion'd to the hazard and time of Payment And forasmuch as Credit on which this Intercourse is founded is a less solid Security than Land the Profit thereby does therefore excel that of ordinary Usury In a word Exchange is lending and borrowing in one Place to pay and receive in another and was invented to facilitate the Motion of Commerce but is grown to an Art of setting the Dice on Necessity and making every Man fine for his Wants which is as much as to say That the more these Money-Dealers are let into the Secrets of your Streights the higher they will raise the Price of your Redemption Time was when Exchange was regulated here by Publick Authority and establish'd on an exact and solemn Scrutiny into the Nature and Value of all Foreign Coin wheresoever we had any Dealings to the end in exchanging Money for Money the Par as they call it being known and adjusted which was the Proportion between the Value of Sterling and Foreign Money they knew to a trifle the comparative Intrinsic Difference of their respective Coins and so rated and govern'd their Exchange by that Rule out of a jealousie lest we might part with more of our Bullion for less of theirs in this kind of Intercourse which at a long run might prejudice and exhaust the capital Stock of Treasure But these wise Cautions are long since ceas'd Q. But have not you bin silent in one very essential Point in the Vse of this Mystery of Exchange as namely that of being apply'd to even the Scales and Balance the Inequality