Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	appear_v	great_a	king_n	3,411	5	3.5852	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35196	An essay on the coyn and credit of England as they stand with respect to its trade by John Cary.	Cary, John, d. 1720?	1696 (1696)	Wing C729; ESTC R24728	16,917	49

have been carryed out Here I must beg leave to dissent from their Opinion and on the contrary to offer it as mine that if our Money had been advanced less Silver had been brought into England and more according to that Proportion carryed out As to the first we must consider that Silver is not a Commodity of the growth of this Land nor of the Plantations belonging to it but of a Neighbouring Nation from whom we purchase it for our Product and Manufacturers and according to the price we make of them Abroad so much more Silver do we bring home for them now seeing Silver could not be advanced to Six Shillings per Ounce otherwise then by standing so in Competition with all Commodities both in Buying and Selling the Consequence of such an Advance had been this that our Manufactures would have been sold for so much less Silver in Forreign Markets as the Price of Silver was advanced at Home thus the piece of Bays which formerly yielded Twenty Ounces of Silver being Five Pounds whilst Silver stood at Five Shillings per Ounce would then have been Sold for Sixteen Ounces and two Thirds which at Six Shillings per Ounce is the same Sum and the Exporter would have gained as much by his Trade because that quantity of Silver would have stood in the same Competition with any Commodities he was to purchase here for a New Adventure as Twenty Ounces formerly did but on the other side not one Ounce less would have been carryed Abroad then now there is which must have been so much the greater Grievance to the Nation as our Imports thereof had been lessened here we are to Consider what it is that causes the exporting of our Silver and upon a due Consideration we shall find that as nothing but the Ballance of our Trade brings it in so nothing but the Ballance of our Trade with particular places carryes it out neither of them proceeding from the choice of the Merchant who desires rather to Trade in any other Merchandize Silver neither answering Freights nor Insurances and therefore it is that our Merchants bring home from Spain all the Wines Fruit Wooll Iron Cochineal they can get and whatever else is fit to Load their Ships before they meddle with Money But the Ballance of our Trade with Spain being so much in our Favour that all the Product thereof cannot make it good we are oblig'd to bring home the rest in Bullion on the other Side there are some places that necessarily require Silver to be exported but let no Man think that the Denomination of Money will give it the greater value in those Countreys the Silver we send thither being valuable only by its Weight and Fineness As for our Trade with Holland That often varies in its Ballance some Years it may be for us and other Years against us as Accidents happen though I am of Opinion it hath generally been in our Favour This is certain that if we run in Debt more then we can pay by our Product and Manufactures the rest must be paid in Silver and the Receiver will take it at his own Price whatever value we may put on it here 't is true Exchange is a Medium where the Ballance is variable and that likewise must rise upon us according to the Advance we make on our Money but where the Ballance is set against us there Exchange cannot keep our Silver at home because That also must be provided for by Shipping it out And as the Ballance of Trade between us and Spain is in our Favour and thereby furnishes us with Silver so I am of Opinion that the Ballance of the General Trade we drive in Europe is likewise in our Favour otherwise 't would be impossible to keep that Silver at home which we bring from Spain since we receive from abroad so great a supply of the Commodities we use which would necessarily draw it away were they not the purchase of our Product and Manufactures therefore it appears to me that seeing our Silver increases the Ballance of our General Trade increases likewise in our favour whoever will but consider the great Consumption of Plate in England by its being wrought up into Utenfils for private Families and the great quantities wherewith the Houses of our Nobility and Gentry do abound even in those common Masly things which our Fore-fathers made of Iron Tin Brass and Wood may rather wonder how our Trade supplies so much Silver then that it brings home no more hence comes our want of it for the Mint and till the People of England grow so wise as to set the same delight on seeing an Hundred Ounces of Silver in their Houses in the Coyn of the Nation as they now do in Plate wrought up we shall be ever complaining for want of Money though were this done and all the Plate of England Coyned up I am still of Opinion that there would not be sufficient to carry on our Trade without a Credit 'T is our Manufastures and Product which furnish this Kingdom with Silver and the more they yield Abroad the greater is our Supply whence 't is plain that the Trade we now drive by means of Jamaica to the Spanish West-Indies is more profitable to us in the Sales of our Manufactures then when we sent them formerly to Cadiz in the One they yielded Twenty per Cent advance in the other they sell for Cent per Cent all paid in the same Specie But let us duely consider what had been the Consequence of raising our Money at Home to Six Shilling the Crown as these Men desired it for either our Goods would have rose suitably with it or they would not if they had the raising of our Money would have done us no Service because it would have purchased no greater quantities of Commodities then before only it had been accompanyed with this ill Consequence that the Landlords of England the Poor the Vsurer and all who depend on standing Salaries would have had their Estates lessened a Sixth part at once because their House-keeping and other Necessaries would have cost them a Sixth part more then they did before But if Rents Wages Interest and Sallaries must rise suitable to the Money what fignifies its Advance On the other side if Goods do not rise as our Money is made less Forreign Nations will be supplyed with our Product and Manufactures for Five Sixths of their true value whilst we grow poor by our General Trade and yet the Expences of every Private Family be encreased so far as they make use of Forreign Commodities Money cannot be raised it may be reduced into less Pieces and this hath been a great Stumbling Block to many People who have not well considered the Difference they tell us that a Penny in former days was the same with Three Pence now this must be granted and yet it makes no difference Twenty of those Pence made a Crown then and so they do now only for the

so small parts as Silver might On the other Side Lead Iron Tin Copper c. being more common would have been too bulky to be made the Standards of Trade nor could Diamonds or other precious Stones answer the end for besides the abuse which might be put on the World by their Counterfeits their value arises only from Fancy and from such Rules that a common Eye cannot easily distinguish Silver being thus settled became by its Weight and Fineness a Standard to the value both of these and all other Commodities which were purchased by a quantity set out and measur'd by the Scale and this continued in the former Ages of the World till the vast increase of Commerce and Traffick made the several Princes who found their Advantages by Trade endeavour to render it more easie to their Subjects This was done by forming Silver into lesser parts and by their Stamp giving a Warrantie both to the Fineness and weight of each Piece which they guarded with Laws equally Sanguinary with those which secured their Crowns The first was called the Standard which is a mixture of some Allay with the finest Silver and though it might be wished that all Trading Nations had agreed upon the same yet since they have not the Coyn of each Nation stands in Competition according to the true Weight and Fineness of the Silver in their Money without any respect to the Denomination which were it not for other Accidents that attend it would be the Par and Measure of all Exchanges The Standard or Sterling Silver of this Kingdom is Eleven Ounces Two Penny Weight Troy of the Finest Silver mixt with Eighteen Penny weight of Fine Copper and according to this Proportion should all our Coyn and Standard Plate be mixt which Composition makes it more fit both for the Stamp and also for Utensils being else too soft to be wrought up of its self and if more allayed would become too Brittle and wear like Brass as our Workmen generally agree But whatever might be the cause that perswaded our Kings to settle this Allay it hath continued to be the Standard of England ever since the Reign of King Richard the First being first contrived and brought hither by the Easterlings a Trading People living in the Eastern Parts of Germany who dealt with us for our Product Many good Laws have been since made to keep it from being vitiated which were they as well put in Execution the deceits used by the Workers of that Commodity to the increase of their Private Estates by abusing the ignorant Buyers might soon be put to an end Next to the finess the weight of our Money was to be secured and that to be done in such Parts that one Piece should answer another Thus the English Crown as it comes out of the Mint weighs Nineteen Penny weight and Eight Grains the Half Crown is just one half of that Weight the Shilling one Fifth and the Six Pence one Tenth so that these pieces receive their values from their Weights not from their Names though some unthinking People have supposed otherwise which Error hath been the ground of many Disputes and given Opportunitys to cunning Knaves of abusing our Coyn both by adulterating the Standard and lessening its Weight and others finding Advantage by this Confusion have devised Arguments to maintain their false Propositions such as these that it hath made Trade to circulate That it past currantly from Man to Man That it hinder'd our Money from being carry'd abroad and such like never considering that the Kingdom of England may Trade till it becomes Bankrupt that it is not Buying and Selling amongst our Selves which makes this Nation Rich or able to support its Self but the Trade we drive with Forreign Nations particular Men may get whilst the Nation in general looses by the Trade it drives It is a certain and undeniable Maxim that what is the true Interest of England is the Interest of every particular English Man for though private Men may seem to get by the ruine of the Publick this lasts but for an Age and their Posteritys will have cause to lament the ill Consequences a Trade so driven will produce No doubt the badness of our Money was the cause of a great Circulation in our Home Trade but this arose from other Reasons then are commonly considered and the Consequence being the advance of Guinneys caused our Product and Manufactures to be sold to Foreigners at undervalues who would have been enabled thereby in a short time to have carryed on the Trade of Europe on better Terms then we could Which things being duly considered by our Legislative Power 't was thought fit the last Sessions to call in all the debased Money then Currant and to reduce our Coyn by Degrees to the old Standard and Weight this gave fresh occasions for Clamours and the People were again furnish'd by the Money Jobbers with new Arguments against the Government Trade 't is true was hereby put to a stop and this could not be helpt nothing else could be expected when ever our Money should have come to be mended the most clamorous thought it necessary to be done only desired that it might be deferred some time longer or at least to express it in their own Terms that the Money might be raised and that the Crown might pass for Six Shillings this they did suppose would cause more Silver to be brought into England and less to be carry'd out because it would be worth more in England then in any other part of Christendom they argued in all Companies that the Trade of England was apparently slackened since the Small Money was made unpassable and Guineys reduc'd from Thirty Shillings to Two and Twenty whereas they did not consider that this was Non causa Pro causa 't was the Fear and constant Expectation of the calling in and mending our Silver Money and as a Consequence thereof the falling of Guineys which made every Man willing to shift off the loss and to discharge himself of his Money as fast as he receiv'd it by turning it into some Commodities which he might part with at less loss to himself then he supposed the Money would be if he kept it by him so that had the Parliament gratified these Mens desires it would not have had the Consequence they expected because the Standard being once fixt that uncertainty had ceased I speak thus because I am obliged to Answer such Arguments in the Language of the Proposer For my own Part I am of Opinion and I believe most unbyassed Men will agree with me that Silver cannot be raised or fallen in the Sense these Men would have it the true value of Silver consisting in its Weight and Fineness cannot properly be said to rise or fall or to be worth more in one place then in another if Silver rises it must be either with respect to its Self or to something else the former is absurd an Ounce of fine Silver