Duty it is to be more on the watch and to look better out have receiv'd so many deep Wounds in that tender and mortal part of our Body that it seems a Miracle how we subsist and survive it while any one who should presume to probe and search this Sore to the quick by nakedly stating the Fact in our Maritime History and Conduct since the War and tho' it should be never so well meant and merely in order to the Cure of the Malady he would be thought I fear to give too much Anguish to be indur'd and such an Enterprize let the Purpose be never so honest and inoffensive would taste too bitter and look too like a Libel to be suffer'd to pass uncensur'd of Authority Thus it is with us by Sea By Land the War rages more universally and with greater Violence tho' not so sensible to our feeling here in England because our situation has hitherto secur'd us from Hostilities at our Doors and our Fields and Farms are not yet forag'd and plunder'd as our Neighbours are but what we pay as I may say to be exempted from such Violence is almost tantamount and at a long run will as certainly impoverish and undo us And we may collect from manifold Symptoms that our Destiny without some almost miraculous Means to save us is not far off Now to give you a Reason how War impoverishes the World because captious and sceptical Contenders in such Disputes will be apt to say What do you mean by broaching such Opinions and maintaining Paradoxes Does War annihilate your Money Is your Gold and Silver dissolv'd or gone into the Earth from whence 't was taken This is Malice and Trifling and nothing else To these Gentlemen then and out of respect to Truth and plain Dealing these few following Reasons of the chief Causes of Poverty and scarcity of Money by War are tender'd Let us compute by the gross we have shewn that Riches are the Product of Arts and Industry whence is inferr'd That the greater Numbers there are of Men of Business and Traffick Artizans labouring and industrious People which are the procuring Cause of Wealth the greater will be the Effect But War is a mortal Foe to Arts and Industry and consequently produces Effects directly contrary We behold Europe at this day ingag'd in a bloody and wastful War which for ought I know to the contrary imploys a Million in Arms besides Horses and Beasts of Burden destin'd by Nature's Law to the Uses of Peace and humane Ease besides some hundreds of thousands who are exercis'd about Military Matters as Arms Ammunition Stores and Utensils of War Fortifications and the like All which mighty Numbers of Men and Things are not only imploy'd in the profitable Professions of Peace but are and must be sustain'd by purchase and paid for out of the Sweat and Industry of those that are who by degrees do not only grow too few for the work but are over and above Sufferers and molested a thousand ways in their peaceful Methods of Life as namely by the Violence Rapine Insolence and Iniquity of those very People whom they are honestly with great hardship pain and parcimony labouring to maintain till at length they come to cut down the very Bough that bears them and kill the Tree by whose Harbour they were sheltred and by whose Fruit they were fed Thus the Land comes to mourn and lie waste and the Means necessary to the Support of great Armies becoming exhausted Oppression Poverty and Calamity inevitably succeed Furthermore scarcity of Money is begotten in times of Hostility from great Summs falling into Hands where it is under no regulation being prodigally and voluptuously imploy'd squander'd and scatter'd carelesly about by which means it does not circulate so currently and make such regular returns into the Publick Coffers as in times of Peace when Business and Traffick is contain'd within their proper Channels Add to these one very great further Cause of the decay and scarcity of Treasure and that is the Caution and Jealousie People are put under every one to save his own private Stake For when Demands of Publick Supplies wax pressing and Taxes begin to be felt 't is very natural for Men to begin to meditate on Self-preservation to foresee and provide for the Storm e'er it overtake them Whence those who best can whose Fortunes principally consist in Money and Moveables withdraw their Effects to Countries as far as they can from Danger others hide and conceal by a thousand Arts every thing that is Money or Moneys-worth and cover from the World's Eye every appearance of Wealth profess Poverty and practise all the methods of Parcimony imaginable to disguise and shelter themselves from the Jealousie and Tyranny of Tax-gatherers and will chuse to abide the worst Treatment those cruel Ministers can inflict rather than discover Money which they are sure will yield them Comfort in better Times And this I know to have been the Practice time out of mind in the Kingdoms of Barbary where Tyranny reigns with a high Hand where the least suspicion of Wealth suffices to expose a Man to the utmost Peril where People therefore live under a perpetual Mask and no Body enjoys the least good thing whatever he may possess but by stealth from which Cause as I have been often assur'd from the Natives themselves the better half of the Treasure of those Countries is hid in Holes and cover'd under Ground Insomuch that it is grown into a habit even among their Princes who take a Pride and Pleasure to bury their Gold This I say is another great Cause of the scarcity of Money in dangerous and hostile Times and if we may allow but a fifth or sixth part of the Treasure which would otherwise appear among us here on this side the World to have been so withdrawn and diverted there would be no doubt but such a diminution would work a good part of the Effect we are searching after To these common and evident Causes of the Evils incident to War in general we may here subjoyn why War is of late more Burthensome than heretofore and that is by the over-grown Greatness of the French Monarch that aspiring Prince who would put a Yoak on the neck of Europe conceiving that by the force of an immense Treasure whereby being inabled to bring greater Bodies of strength into the Field than was ever before practis'd in our Hostilities on this side the World he was given to hope perhaps thereby to overwhelm us which Design though we see hitherto to want the effect we are from thence nevertheless instructed in the Causes of this over-burthensome warfare whereby we are put under an invincible necessity of providing an equal Force which produces an equal Charge to withstand him which I thought necessary to Note Lastly and over and above the Impediments to our general Commerce and the Interruption thereby of our general Supplies of what we need whereby the price of Money
HISTORICAL and POLITICAL Essays or Discourses ON Several Subjects VIZ. Money Government Peace War Trade Arts Navigation Exchange Vsury Banks WITH Other PROJECTS for the Improvement and Raising the Credit of MONEY and TRADE in all Parts of the World but more particularly relating to England In a LETTER to a Noble PEER LONDON Printed for W. Chandeler in the Poultrey and T. Scott in Cranbone-street Leicester-fields 1698. 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
perhaps suggested to thirty two from thirty two to forty Pence from forty to forty five and thence to sixty Pence the Ounce and this last happen'd in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth from which time to this day there has not been I take for granted the least Reformation made in the Mint by any solemn Publick Act of State Q. I desire to be inform'd what the Motives might be for so many Alterations as you have enumerated for methinks wise Men should not alter and determine in a Case of this Magnitude without some very well-grounded Reasons Ans I confess I am to seek for a solid Reason for their so doing unless it were to propagate the Species and so spread it wider among the People by mincing it into so many lesser Parts to the end every Body how poor soever might share in the Pleasure of possessing it go to Market with more ease and manage their common Traffick with less difficulty for when a Pullet was sold for a Peny what Species of current Coin could be found to buy a thing that was not worth the twentieth part of a Pullet I cannot guess for it is plain we go to the Shops and the Market at this day to purchase sundry things for our Money that are not the twentieth or the fortieth part of the value of a Pullet and we have no Reason to conclude but our Fore-fathers did the same Wherefore I must give you this for my best Reason till I can be furnish'd with a better Q. Would there be any good or harm in changing on by enacting for Example that the Ounce of Standard Silver that now is establish'd at sixty Pence should be rated at seventy or eighty Pence and so forward as Reason may seem to suggest Ans If you only mean barely the subdividing your Ounce of Silver into lesser Particles and do not intend by this Question to put a value of your own making upon the Ounce of your Standard Silver for that will be the Subject of another great Question then I think it would only beget a good deal of Trouble and Intricacy in Business and Accounts now that the Nation is grown so deeply ingag'd in Foreign Trade and Commerce Other good or harm I see none in it for our Coin is now cast and establish'd into so low a Denomination that the poorest People have none of those Impediments in their Dealings which heretofore might be thought to vex and incumber them when their Peny was the twentieth part of an Ounce which is now grown to be the sixtieth and when that was the lowest current Silver Coin saving only that in those days People for their convenience divided that Peny either by breaking it or by Scissors dividing it into four parts which Species of Money tho' now almost quite worn out and extinct has yet within our Memory been pretty plenty and that was our old thin blind Groats which I believe and think I have some reason so to do were for the most part those original Pence or Denarius's that were coin'd while the Peny continu'd to be the twentieth part of an Ounce and obtain'd to be called Groats perhaps from the old Saxon or Danish word Grott which is great that is the great Peny to distinguish it from the latter Peny which was so much less Q. How long think you Silver-Money which is in continual use and circulation may last For it is plain it wears and grows lighter by motion and usage and at length without clipping or diminishing by Art will wear out of it self and become too light to pass Ans My Answer to the foregoing Question may be a sort of solution to this namely that if those Groats were the old Peny it is near Four hundred Years ago since that Species was last coin'd but this depends much upon the size of your Coin and the quantity of current Money in Stock and Use and other Circumstances of no great moment to mention here Q. I think however one good Use may be made of this Observation and that is to calculate from thence a little more or less by what Proportions current Money may waste and at length be worn out for 't is plain that by the bare usage telling and motion in its Circulation it will diminish and at a long run be consum'd Whence we gather that if there were no other way to destroy it there must be a supply from abroad to obviate that Evil how little soever it may seem Wherefore I pray give me your Opinion therein Ans If that be the use you would make of this Query and you but grant me leave to state the Question on the Proportion of our Moneys wearing out in the space of four hundred years then it is visible that your Stock of Money without a proportionable Recruit will without any other cause be totally extinct within that space of time and so by Calculation it will be found to waste after the Rate of a quarter per Cent. per Annum that is five Shillings in the hundred Pounds but then you must suppose it to be all small Money as there is reason to believe it was in those Days for I do not know whether Crowns Half-crowns Shillings and Six-pences are above two hundred Years old if so much by which Proportion at least it is found I say that your Money must be repair'd to keep the Balance even And by this reckoning too we may gather that our Money naturally and necessarily wastes one eighth part as much as some Nations take for the Interest of their Money Q. Have there not been other kinds of Regulations and Changes made in our Mint besides those you have mention'd Ans Yes several but let it suffice to mention only one in King Henry the Eighth's time which Prince by his Profusions in pompous Living Spectacles and vain Wars being driven to great Streights for want of Money which the Nation could by no means supply That Prince was made to believe that he might be a very great Gainer by embasing his Coin namely for Example-sake for I am not sure of the Proportion by the allowing but Nine Peny worth of fine Silver to the Shilling and supplying the rest with Allay and then telling the People by his Proclamation that the new Shilling which was intrinsically worth but Nine Pence should pass for as much as the other Shilling which was worth Twelve Pence by which means he would save or gain five and twenty per Cent in the payment of his Debts and in the pay of his Armies and the like his Fleets c. Q. What Objection does there lie against such a Project when the streights of a Prince or State are pressing Ans There are manifold Objections so manifest so just and of so great moment that it would be tedious to enumerate them which that Prince soon saw and endeavour'd to reform his Error First a Prince or State that yields to such Councils is a Bankrupt and like
such a Power as look'd a little Arqitrarily might in time degenerate into 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 fineness 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 falsify'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 Reason 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 of your Bullion Let it be granted then that your Silver is risen in Value from the causes which have been enumerated We will suppose here just fifteen per Cent. since your last Coinage of mill'd Money if this be true then I say your Coin at this day if your Money were truly minted at that time which you are likewise to consider ought to be just fifteen per Cent. lighter than that mill'd Money was for I wou'd by no means propose the least alteration in the purity of the Standard for the many reasons I have already deliver'd Wherefore let Authority be pleas'd by the help of Merchants Goldsmiths the Officers of the Mint and by all the cautious and judicious means possible compass a right knowledge of this Difference which we do not you see here determine and the Rule for their Guidance in assigning the just Proportion to your Coin must plainly result from thence as namely if the Difference of fifteen per Cent. here by me propounded were the exact truth then your new Shilling to be coined and to be of the same fineness with the old mill'd Shilling must weigh and be worth within a very small fraction Ten-pence farthing I go the plainest way to work I can to make my meaning intelligible to every capacity Q. But methinks by this Rule you are leading into the Error which you have been all along cautioning us to avoid for by thus taking from the Subject One Penny Three Farthings out of every Shilling seems to me to be very hard and will for certain be so reckon'd by every Body Ans With your pardon no Body by this Rule is or ever can be injur'd because if People wou'd but open their Eyes and look with attention they wou'd Discern that this Ten-pence farthing will buy as much of every thing in the Market now when your Coin shall be rectify'd as Twelve-pence wou'd have done at that time which I think may suffice to satisfie your scruple Q. What wou'd be the hurt then if you should make your Shilling yet lighter provided it keep the fineness Ans Every visible Departure from this Rule wou'd prove a proportional damage to the Subject and have the same Effect as in the case of clipt woney for your Coin wou'd abate in its Esteem with the People in proportion to the Dimunition of its due intrinsick Value whereby all the Species of things wou'd rise and grow dear accordingly as we find to have come to pass on the occasion of our Clipp'd Money and in such case I grant the Objection you have made wou'd amount to a Grievance Q. But have you not taught that we are not to make our Rule for Regulating the Mint from Observations and Reasons ariseing barely from among our selves here at home but with regard also and reference had to our Neighbours abroad with whom we have Commerce A. I have and can suppose the price I have already assign'd to Bullion at this Day to be the result of a Calculation founded on that regard but because it is necessary to explain it I will as well as I can why that Caution is necessary We here in England live in the Neighbourhood of divers great Nations who are our Rivals and Vye with us in the Arts of Trade the Dutch especially who perhaps are Our Superiours in every thing that belongs to that great and profitable Mystery They are every way under a better Oeconomy and observe every thing nearer than we do they live with greater Frugality which is their Wisdom as enjoying but few necessaries to their subsistance of their own growth which habituates them to a narrower Inspection and Observation of every the least thing that relates to their profit This penurious Method of Life which in them is a Virtue wou'd not with us it may be thought so who live in a wide rich and plentiful Country abounding in all things needful to humane life and ease But this greater Extent and Latitude of Life and Manners which we inherit naturally mollify's us towards Luxury Sloth and Improvidence and whatever Virtues our good Soil may produce and our better Stars may shed towards the exalting our Courage enlargeing our Generosity and forming our minds for Magnanimity and other noble and plausible Endowments which I think are more inherent in us than most other Nations these native benefits doe I say beget and infer an incapacity to deal with these our Neighbours in those contests where Diligence Penetration Vigilance and good Husbandry are to be the Weapons Now Trade which they prosecute more by much for necessity then we doe for they must Navigate or Starve is the Prize held up between us and I fear 't is found but too evident to our Cost that in this strife the Virtues and Manners which they profess are more appropriated to enable them for Victory than ours It wou'd be tedious and perhaps Invidious to enumerate by how many Arts they have won upon us of late but I leave that Speculation to wiser Heads and keep within my own Circle which is the subject of Money wherein how far and by how many sleights they have contributed toward the pressures we at this Day are sinking under on that Score Printed Papers do so plainly and honestly every day evince that I may spare here to explain It is very likely then not to say very true that all the Bullion wherewith we abounded before this War and all the Silver that has been clipt from our Money does this day in a manner Center in Holland and thereabouts this must in evitably infer a greater abundance of that Species among 'em and a proportionable scarcity with us that plenty with them must needs in some degree lower the value of the Species while this high Tide of Affluence lasts as it must by the same Rule inhaunce it here in our low ebb of Poverty I pray then consider and weigh with your utmost attention how to attain and arrive at such a Proportion in the renevving the Establishment of your Mint that it may not be said Your want of Wisdom and a thorough Insight into a Matter of so great Moment shall afford them a new handle whereby to hurt you with your new Money For Example if you Mint your new Coin with an over-great Extrinsical Price out of an over value and regard to the present appearing Rate of Bullion here which I note has acquir'd as I may say an undue and praeter-natural Ascent in our esteem You will thereby be in danger of your Neighbours improveing the advantage of their lower price of Bullion to your Detriment by Importing it to our Mint and purchaseing therewith even to the laying up in store for Years to come every Staple Commodity and Manufacture of the Kingdom by which means whatever present appearance there may be of quickness of Trade the consequence must be pernicious and I will adventure to