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
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 plam 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 is inhanc'd and every thing comes harder to us The Mines themselves of
any way by such an Establishment of our Mint whereby your Coin becmes so impoverish'd We need to go no furhter for a Proof than the Observation may be made of what has befallen us by Chance in our Clipt and bad Coin now grown and establish'd by Custom into use among us which happening to be diminished to almost half the Original Value We behold every thing risen in Price as it were by that Proportion and our Gold Coin which is not so lyable to Corruption and Dimunition risen from the same cause near a Third Part which may suffice to shew how the publick is affected when your Coin either by Law or Chance comes to be too Poor Your Coin is too Rich when a piece of Money for Example a Mild Crown shall go but for Five Shillings in Money to buy and go to Market with when if it were lawful to melt it down and sell it for its due worth wou'd yield you Six Shillings there being Six Shillings worth of Silver in that Piece I still use round Numbers the nicety of Calculation not being here necessary Now as on the one Hand when your Money is bad and poor and this becomes establish'd by Law or Custom into use every Nation abroad and every bad Man at home who has art enough will be Coining this Money for you and will impart and utter it for your use and their profit as some Nations which I need not name serve the Spaniards at this day by their base black Money which doth not contain a sixth part of the value for which it passeth with that blind Nation I say by this means as your Mint shall grow out of use by the plenty of such Coin as shall be Manufactur'd by others to your Hands so your Money shall grow worse and worse for there will be no end of debasing it till your whole Mass of Silver Coin shall be destroy'd and converted into Trash and Counters rather than Money On the other Hand when your Money happens to be too Rich as hath been our Case by the great rising of Bullion in value since the coining of our Mild Money 't is plain and there can be no room for doubt but that such Coin will be transported out of the Land and by those whose profession best enables them will be melted down into Bars and Bullion and from this Cause Namely it s over richness or goodness this Disease Springs and hence is Consum'd Vanish'd and Extinct all or the most part of the noble Mill'd Coin which was Minted in the two last Reigns there being no Action how vile soever that Gain with Impunity will not Sanctifie or hardly any Conscience so scrupulous that this Charm has not Power to Quiet and Absolve wherefore let those who by their Occupation have the means of touching most Money consider and be aware what fort of People this Crime is likely most to touch Q. If this Doctrine of yours be bottom'd on sound Reason as it has the appearance it is visible that we are led into an Error by those who would teach us that the Standard establish'd Rule of the Mint namely That your Money must for ever be just so fine and of such a weight is Sacred and cannot be alter'd without damage and danger to the State Ans 'T is seen by what has been said and is I think as demonstrable as anv Problem in Geometry That the Rules for Coinage and the Standard of the Mint must vary according to the general scarcity or abundance of the Species of Gold and Silver and that 't is consequently an Error in Fundamentals to hold the contrary as I have endeavour'd to shew and will need no further Explanation here Q. Why if what you say be true is there so much variety in the Coin of Countries how comes it to pass that there is such diversity of coarse and fine light and weighty Money in the World And that all Mankind who are link'd in one general League of Intercourse do not come to accord in one universal Standard for their Money which would save abundance of Trouble in the Course of general Trassick and set the Intercourse of the World on a much surer and easier foot Ans First Because Silver and Gold are more or less plenty in the diverse Countries of the World comparatively and so becomes more or less worth Secondly 'T is hard and hazardous to change any rooted Custom of a Country especially in a Case of this general Importance tho' in Speculation it should appear never so just Thirdly The Use of Money which was originally invented for the Ease and Benefit of Commerce is become corrupted and made an Instrument of Tyranny and Oppression The Passions of Princes and States where the Government is absolute making their Power in this Point of Money to become a Yoke and a Burthen which was meant for the Comfort and Ease of Mankind forging Racks and Shackles for the Subject out of that very Matter which by Nature the first Institution and the right Reason of the Thing was decreed and devis'd for their Benefit and Consolation Q. You were speaking of Monopolies of Money but now Do not Princes who enjoy absolute Power by this unlimited Authority make a kind of Monopoly of Money Ans Yes such Princes can do that by their Power which a great Bank may compass by Art or come to do by Accident and from the Nature of the Thing And we know the King of France himself with all his boasted Wealth often Practises such poor Shifts proclaiming one Value on his Money when he has a great Summ to pay and another when he has much to receive But the World abroad by whose Sentiments Trading-People must be govern'd will not heed it nor are influenc'd by it and no solid Fruit can ever be gather'd from such Devices which are ever signs of a sickly Constitution and the Prince or State that uses them are like Men whose Bodies are decay'd by much drinking of Spirits they are reliev'd indeed in the present Pangs they feel but by the very Draught which in that Moment yields them Comfort they are in the end destroy'd Q. Why is it call'd the Mystery of the Mint if our Princes here in England make none of those undue Vses of Coinage as are in Practice among absolute States Aus Perhaps 't is continu'd to be call'd a Mystery from the Power our Princes heretofore claim'd or had to make Coinage some way or other turn them to Account and the Profit arising thereby being kept secret was therefore call'd so Or it may be stil'd a Mystery from the difficulty most Men are under to conceive and see clearly in so cloudy and perplext a Subject Q. How long have our Princes been so Wise and so Good as to part with a Power which yielded them but a doubtful Profit at the purchase of great Jealousie of the People lest such a Power as look'd a little Arqitrarily might in time degenerate into
share of Blood and Treasure towards supporting the Burthen of the War so none I am sure even by this very means are likely to taste less consolation from a Peace whenever it shall happen Which must yield but Melancholly Reflections by every thoughtful English-man and therefore one wou'd think ought to awaken us lest we sleep the sleep of Death Q. What Method wou'd you advise to obviate this Evil for there is no doubt but our superiours wou'd be glad to turn every Stone to settle our Mint on a right bottom A. You ought I think to begin with this first necessary Reflection namely that this Exorbitant riseing of the price of your Bullion is in a good degree due to the present badness of your Currant Coin and the difference in price even betwixt us and Holland in like manner to be grown in some proportion from the same cause Now both these Reflections are to bear some weight in your Deliberations least by over-rateing the causes you bend your Argument which you wou'd streighten too far the other way To explain this point a little you are to reckon that whenever your Coin shall come to be better'd be it more or less the difference or height of Exchange or of the Price of Silver betwixt you and Holland which is all one will be less of course as from the same reckoning the value of your own Bullion at home will sink too Now I say that the Amount of those two which are but co-incident Effects is to be computed and by proper helps I mean such as may be had from Men who are most busied in Trade and Exchange and as shall be thought to have Integrity enough to be trusted an Estimate ought to be first made namely to state to what degree a little more or less the Exchange with Holland and the Price of our Bullion here at home may fall as a bare and simple effect of the regulating our Mint without heeding any other matter at all relateing to the subject When this Effect I say which is accidental shall be determin'd as if it shall be deem'd to amount to 3. 4. or five per Cent more or less then this sum or difference is to be deducted and left out of the Argument as namely if you conclude that this accidental Effect will be 5. per. Cent that your Bullion will fall of course on the Re-coining your Money in such case if your Bullion be risen 20 per Cent. in the whole you must deduct this 5 per Cent out of that difference because it ought to have no Existence among the solid Reasons for the change you are about to make Q. If I understand you right then I conceive if the appearing difference betwixt the price of Bullion now and heretofore be observ'd to amount to 20 per Cent. the real difference by your reckoning is but fifteen per Cent and upon that Calculation your Rule for a new Regulation of the Mint must be Built A. You understand my meaning The next step I wou'd propose is to consider what was the Original Motive of Assigning an Extrinsic or Political Value to Money I mean that little Value which was given to the publick Coin more then it was really worth without regard to the salse Reasons of State that afterwards prevail'd and is at this Day in Practice in Rigid and Violent Governments and this was plainly for no other End than to keep every one their own Coin within their own Territory For while it obtain'd or there was given 2 or 3 or more per Cent. Extrinsical worth by the Mintage it was so much more in esteem where it was a Native than elsewhere which was a very reasonable Device to prevent its wandring without the Circle of its Currant Virtue Wherefore let your Coin be Established with such a proportion of Political Value as may prevent its going abroad and yet may not be thought to affect you at home in the Prices of the Species of Things which wou'd amount to an injustice and a grievance in proportion to the Errour you shall commit as I have shewn On the other hand if you make your Money vvithout any Nominal or Extrinsic signification it vvill as I have often said and prov'd be the cause of your loosing it by melting down or going out of the Kingdom upon the least advance of the price of Bullion and there is no manner of question to be made but that Material vvill rise every day more and more as long as the War lasts from the general causes to vvhich I have already ascrib'd The grovving scarcity of Money in the World novv as it vvill be very hard to hit a just mean proportion betvvixt these tvvo so I think 't is the safest Errour to incline to the giving your nevv Money too much rather than too little Extrinsic Value because as an Excess on that side vvill as it vvere obviate the danger of the riseing Value of your Bullion so the Errour here vvill affect us less than the other way because money though a little too poor is yet better by far than none at all is much more easily melted down and transported than it is Coin'd and Counterfeited the one may be done easily by any body any where the other can be perform'd but by a few and requires great secrecy and many Tools the one is a fault Finable only the other Punish'd with Death and therefore likely to have fewer Offenders Q. I see but one very visible Objection to lie against this Opinion of yours of giving your Money rather an over than under Exstrinsic Value and that is the profit arising by the Mintage for if your new Money shall be made to go for something more than it is Intrinsically worth will there not arise a certain profit somewhere by the Mintage A. Yes plainly for if you allot but 5 per. Cent Extrinsic Value to your new Coin the charge of the Manufacturage which will not be above two per. Cent being deducted out of that 5 per. Cent. there will still remain 3 per. Cent profit which in the minting of five Millions of Money rises to 150000 pound Q. Whose will this Profit be for the King you say has quitted his right to it A. I am no Judge of that but if I had the honour of being a Member of Parliment I should willingly give my Vote to bestow it towards a Fund for the new Hospital at Greenwich For as no sort of Men have a greater right to our general Charity then Seamen so no Charity could rise so easily and from so publick a Fountain as this Q. You Determine then I presume that we ought to Re-coin the whole stock of National Money I do because I think there cannot possibly Occur any mischief by much so grievous and dangerous to the Nation through any difficulty that may be suggest'd to spring from the new Minting your Money as those which we suffer and threaten us by delaying it For the