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A48211
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A Letter to an eminent member of Parliament about the present rate of guineas and the influence they will have on our expected new money.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing L1698; ESTC R36364
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7,959
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4
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A LETTER to an eminent Member of PARLIAMENT about the present Rate of Guineas and the Influence they will have on our expected New Money SIR THO I must confess we are under very great Difficulties in respect of our Coin yet they are still increas'd and I fear will be made insuperable by the Ignorance of some and Knavery of others and the Fool and the Knave having gotten such an Ascendant over us unless this present Parliament be inspired with Wisdom and Vertue enough to see and correct the Vice and Fraud which is openly practised it 's impossible but that the Nation must sink into Destruction Tho I have the greatest Veneration for an English Parliament yet since you have allow'd me the liberty of writing my Mind freely I must say It has been a Fatality almost always upon them that they never took care to prevent Misfortunes How good soever they have been afterwards at applying a Cure yet their Skill has seldom been eminent in foreseeing a Disease Had the Parliament six Years ago when the Mischiess of carrying away our Treasure were laid before them but pass'd an effectual Bill of Prevention then and had taken care of our Trade we had been some Millions richer than now we are and the War had not been afflictive to us Had you the last Parliament when so many Complaints were laid before the House taken care of the Coin and made a LAW instead of a to prevent effectually the ebbing away of our Treasure Silver had never come to 6 s. 2 d. per Ounce nor Guineas risen to 30 s. apiece But since'tis in vain to look back to those days that cannot be recall'd it remains that you Now provide against the time to come In order to which During this present Session there has a Law been enacted for calling in all the Clipp'd Money and recoining it at a National Charge according to the antient Weight and Standard It 's a good Omen of future Success that this so just and wise a Provision is pass'd into a Law and that you were not imposed upon by the specious but silly Projects of some who were for lowering our Standard or lessening our Weight And I hope the Almighty will bless our Nation in receiving other good Laws from this present Parliament that will effectually cure the Wounds of the Land in respect of our Money which as it 's the Life of Trade and the Sinews of War so it ought to be regarded with the most provident Care But that we may not be defeated of our Hopes of having better Money than what at present passes amongst us it 's absolutely necessary that these two things be done otherwise your Laws will be made in vain and our Mints will labour to no more purpose in respect of our Silver than they have done for this 30 Years past in which there have been coin'd above SIX MILLIONS of MILL'D MONEY which is more Silver Money by a modest Computation than is left in the Nation by Tale as well as Weight and yet there 's hardly a Piece of it now passing amongst us yea which is worse the Mint will be set on work to ruine the Nation by putting all our Money into a fit Condition for Exportation which is the Misery which at present we groan under The two things are 1st To stop the Coinage of Guineas or lower their Value to a Parity with Silver 2dly To take care of Trade and to provide that the Ballance of it may be in favour of our selves The BALLANCE of Trade is a Phrase that is in every Bodies Mouth and the thing it self pretended to be understood by very many and therefore I will not doubt but that cur Parliament who are the Eyes of the Nation will see how much this concerns us all and will accordingly provide prudently for it But let them do what they will in that Matter considering the Condition into which we are brought unless there be some care taken to suppress the Price of Guineas I can positively foretel you without the Spirit of Prophecy that in a very little time THERE WILL BE NO SILVER MONEY LEFT IN THE NATION And that I may prove this Assertion and make you sensible that 't is a Consequence that cannot fail of our present Premises I shall request you to consider these things Since we and almost all the World besides do make our Money of two sorts of Metals viz. of Gold and Silver therefore there must be observ'd by us a just Proportion of the Value that the one Metal bears to the other in respect of Weight or Quantity supposing them to be alike fine according to the Proportion observ'd by all other Nations otherwise if we neglect this we must lose all the Money made either of the one or the other Metal I shall therefore set down briefly the modern Proportions between Gold and Silver both in our own and our Neighbour-Nations according to their common Standard In doing which I hope you 'l excuse me if I do not exactly set down Pennyweights and Grains or Pence and Shillings but leave that as a Curiosity too nice and too long for a Letter The Par or Proportion between Gold and Silver is very much alter'd within this last two hundred Years almost in all Parts of the World but most especially in Europe and the West-Indies which has been occasioned by the vast Quantities of Silver more than Gold brought into those Parts from Mexico and Peru c. For whereas the old Proportion in the Roman Republick was ten to one and in the time of our King Edward III. here in England 't was eleven to one now the Proportion is much chang'd For the Spaniards bringing yearly from their American Conquests since the Discovery of that vast Continent and the Riches of it great Quantities of Silver far in proportion more than Gold they have raised their Par between Gold and Silver almost above all other Nations so that when we did formerly manage our Spanish Trade to make Returns in Money our Merchants always chose to send home Silver rather than Gold But yet this Proportion in Spain has also influenced the greatest Part if not all Europe so that the Proportion is now near about the following Account In Spain 't is near 16 Ounces of Silver to one Ounce of Gold In France 't is now almost if not exactly the same In England according to the late Indentures of the Mint by which the Pieces call'd Guineas were coin'd for 20 s. the Proportion is above 14 Ounces of Silver to one Ounce of Gold But since those Pieces did rarely ever pass at less than one and twenty Shillings and six-Pence each which for many Years was their current Price allowing them coin'd therefore at that Value the Proportion then between Gold and Silver in England is about 15 Ounces and an half of Silver to one Ounce of Gold according to the Standard of one Metal and the other In Holland it has