AN ESSAY ON THE Coin and Commerce OF THE KINGDOM Trade and Treasure Which are Twins Being the only SUPPORTERS thereof NEXT TO Religion and Justice For the Merchandize of it is better than the Merchandize of Silver and the Gain thereof than fine Gold LONDON Printed and Published for the Consideration of the Present and Future Sessions of Parliament 1695. To the High Court of Parliament and particularly to the Grand Committee of Trade appointed Mart. 19 Feb. 94. to sit every Tuesday Thursday and Saturday in the Afternoon and to the Honourable Committee appointed to receive Proposals for prevention of Clipping and Coining SIRS SInce I expose the following Particulars for the Publick Good and do most humbly submit them to your Honourable Protection I hope no particular Person will be displeased with me for relating only what some others think fit to say c. PART I. I. SOmetimes before the late Revolution I have heard the S AVH of some other Countries compare the English in many parallel respects to the Jews and Greeks Two Nations very honourable and brave in their Ancestry but Ignoble and Base in the Degeneracy of their Descendants for which they now both suffer both under a Heathen and a Christian Yoke from which Good Lord deliver us And it should be the oftner in our Litany because the Wise Venetians more worthily than the others do value themselves on a prospect of futurity at a very great distance and will never in their Senate enact any thing as to day until they consider and see what will come of it to morrow c. II. The Form and State of the Jewish Government was often chang'd its Lustre obscured and its Puissance and Grandeur lessen'd and impair'd according to the Degrees of the People's Transgressions Who drew Iniquity with Cords of Vanity and sinned as it were with a Cart-rope For which their Silver was turned into Dross and their Justice into Wormwood their Cities were burned with Fire their Lands Strangers devoured it in their presence the People were oppressed every one by another and the rewards of their own hands were given them And at last they were entirely left without a Sceptre and brought under the Roman Yoke as our Religion had lately been had not the Providence of God protected it by means of his Heroick and most Excellent Majesty and his late most religious and Royal Consort of Famous and Everlasting Memory III. And as the Jews were so were the Greeks who became first so careless of their Honour and afterwards of their Countrey 's minding at last only their private Interest that when they lost Coiro Docastron they laugh'd at it and slightingly said by way of Preface and Introduction to their future Misfortune and Distress That it signify'd but as the words do a Pig-stye But soon after the Turks taught them by woful Experience to understand what it is not to understand and redress Grievances in their prime before they come to an irreparable pass IV. The great Grievances which now we all complain of and not a little but much too late are our Clipp'd Silver and Dross-money and our decay of Treasure and Trade together And since four such sad Calamities have befallen this Kingdom in such a time of War let us first enquire into the Causes of them the knowledge of the Cause being the first step to the Care Now the general Cause of so general a Calamity not altogether unlike that of the Jews and Greeks both in Cause and Effect must needs be first our general Degeneracy and our little regard to Religion Grievances Trade and Justice for which there are appointed four principal Committees at the opening of every Sessions of Parliament V. * And here it may be noted that the Dutch c. have of late Years exhausted both Money and Goods from us and have paid us for both but in our own Coin I mean 〈◊〉 Money as they Coined and Clipped for such kind of Commerce A particular and a very considerable Cause of the decay of our Treasure in general I mean of our Money and Manufacture is the Over balance of Trade which the greatest part of the Wiser World have long since gained from us and whereby they have exhausted our Treasure either in Bills Money Bullyon or Goods which as some of them especially have managed the Matter hath been almost equal gain to them and the like loss to us For if for instance we import one Year with another Goods to the value of Three Millions Sterling and do export Goods but to the value of Two Millions the Nation must yearly lose a Million one way or another and will be in the same State and Condition of a Gentlemen that spends Fifteen hundred Pounds a Year out of a Thousand Pounds per Annum if Matters be not remedied In Edward the Third's time the English had the Over-balance of Trade in their favour and that King having prohibited the Exportation of our Wool ordained new Coin for Conveniency c. having the Advantage of War by that Advantage of Trade and having many Voluntiers for Men's Courage sympathize with their Coin as it is base or noble invaded France with a Valiant and Victorious Army and was the first King that Quarter'd the Arms of France with those of England England under Queen Elizabeth had likewise great Advantages in War with Spain c. by means of the Advantage it then also had in Trade as well as it hath by Nature and Situation But in the four latter Reigns which succeeded hers and preceeded his present Majesty's in a slothful and drowsie Peace as my Lord Bacon calls it in his Advancement of Learning the Princes and their People like one another neglecting first the Reformed Religion next the Justice then the Trade and at last the Treasure of the Nation as well as the State of War which Queen Elizabeth left it in did lose in general not only their Courage but so much of their Coin and other Treasure as would non-plus the Arithmetick of Archimedes who undertook to write the number of the Sands to cast up an Account thereof For the most modest Computations do reckon from Matters of the most Infallible Fact that from the First of King James the First to the last of King James the Second this Nation lost one Year with another above Two Millions Sterling by Trading only with two or three other Nations on unequal and disadvantageous Terms And King Charles the Second was made so sensible by Mr. Fortrey and others of the vast Advantage which the French then had of us by our so disadvantageous Trading with them in particular that he promised the Nation a Council of Trade consisting of some of the Principal Merchants of each Company of some of the best qualified Gentlemen in the Kingdom and for the greater Honour thereof some of His Majesties own Privy Council but he promised like a Merchant c. And if One hundred Pounds As Sir
great and yet not so apt to enlarge their Bounds or Command and some on the other hand that have but a small Dimension of Stem and yet are apt to be the Foundation of great Monarchies And in his Considerations touching a War with Spain He saith to King Charles the First then Prince Your Highness hath an imperial Name it was a Charles that brought the Empire first into France a Charles that brought it first into Spain and why should not Great Britain have it's Turn England being by Nature the Emporium of the World is certainly the fittest Seat for the Empire of the Vniverse as well as that of the Ocean which as my Lord Bacon saith Is the principal Dowry of the Kingdom of Great Britain and is of great Import to us because most of the Kingdoms of Europe are not merely in Land but girt with the Sea most part of their Compass and because the Treasures and Wealth of both Indies seems in a great part but an Accessary to the Command of the Sea and what the Command of the Sea is we may see by the Success of the Battle of Lepanto which put a Ring into the Nose of the Turk by that of the Battel of Actium That decided the Empire of the World and by that of our last Sea Fight with the French VII And as we have a Country so fit for the Seat of the Empire so have we a King as fit to be Supream Head and Governour thereof A Man of War from his Touch up and one that is Master of the Four Mistriss and Moral Vertues Prudence Justice Fortitude and Temperance such a one as Solomon seems to have Prophesied of when he told the World That the Power of the Earth was in the hands of the Lord and he would in due time set over it one that is profitable And since we have such a King and such a Goliah to fight our Battels for us in Person a Man after such a Countries own Heart we cannot but sollicite Heaven and all the Host thereof to send him the Success of David and the Hearts of his Friends as well as the Necks of the Enemies For God hath been pleased in great Pity His Grace the late Archbishop of Canterbury 4 Vol. of Serm. p. 78 79. to this sinful and unworthy Nation to raise him on purpose for it and to that End did in his All-wise Providence lay the Foundation of our Deliverance in that Auspicious Match which was concluded here in England This is that most Illustrious House of Nassaw and Orange which God hath so highly honoured above all the Families of the Earth to give a Check to the two great Aspiring Monarchs of the West and bold Attempters upon the Liberty of Europe To the one in the last Age and to the other in the present As if the Princes of this Valiant and Victorious Line had been of the Race of Hercules born to rescue mankind from Oppression and to quel Monsters The House of Nassaw is without Contradiction Lives of the Princes of Orange p. 9. one of the greatest and ancientest in all Germany For besides its high Alliances the number of its Branches and the Honour of giving an Emperor near Four hundred Years since it has this particular Advantage to have continued ten entire Ages and to boast with the State of Venice as a Learned man saith that it's Government is founded upon a Basis of a Thousand years standing No Age of all Antiquity has produced a more extraordinary Man than William of Nassaw Prince of Orange Speaking of the Life of William of Nassaw Prince of Orange Founder of the Common-Wealth of the united Provinces in the Neitherlands p. 1. Examine all the Heroes of Plutarch and all those great Men who lived since that admirable Historian and it 't will be Difficult to find any upon Record who possessed more eminently all those Vertues and good Qualities that enter into the Composition of a brave Man The Victories and Conquest of Allexander and Caesar do not so much deserve our Admiration the first was Master of all Greece and at the Head of a Warlike and well disciplin'd Army the other absolutely Commanded half the Roman Legions who governed all the World With these great Forces and Advantages they enter'd upon the Stage made their first Victories the Forerunners to the next pursued their Blow and the one overthrew the Empire of the Persians and the other the Roman Commonwealth But Prince William had equall'd the Glory of these great Conquerors by Attacking the formidable Power of King Philip of Spain without any Army or Forces and by maintaining himself many Years against him His Courage was always greater than his Misfortunes and when all the World thought him ruin'd and he was driven out of the Netherlands he entred them again immediately at the Head of a new Army and by his great Conduct laid the Foundation of their Common Wealth A Prince the best qualified for a Throne New State of England p. 122 c. Speaking of his present Majesty being great without Pride true to his Word wise in his Deliberations secret in his Councils generous in his Attempts undaunted in Danger Valiant without Cruelty who loves Justice with Moderation Government without Tyranny Religion without Persecution and Devotion without Hypocrisie or Superstition A Prince undaunted under all Events never puffed up with Success or disheartned with Hardships and Misfortunes always the same tho' under various Circumstances which is the true Symptom of a Great Soul This generous Temper of the King is suitable to his Extraction being descended from an ancient and illustrious Family which seems to have been appointed by Providence ever since the Reformation for the Preservation of God's Church and a Check to Tyranny VIII And this Great King and that Country which is so honoured and happy with him calls to my mind Mr. Quarles's Colloquy with his Soul So now Boanerges and St. Barnabas p. 109. my Soul thy Happiness is entail'd and thy Illustrious Name shall live in thy succeeding Generations Thy Dwelling is establish'd in the Fat of all the Land The best of all the Land is thine and thou art planted in the best of Lands A Land whose Constitutions make the best of Government which Government is strengthened with the best of Laws Good Laws but ill executed A Land of Strength and of Plenty A Land whose Beauty hath surprized the ambitious Hearts of Foreign Princes A Land whose native Plenty makes her the World's Exchange supplying others and able to subsist without supply from them That hath no misery but what is propagated from that blindness which cannot see her own Felicity A Land that flows with Milk and Honey and in brief wants nothing to deserve the Title of a Paradise The Curb of Spain the Pride of Germany the Aid of Belgia the Scourge of France the Queen of Nations and the Empetess of the World And being as he
England will not cause a Transportation of most of that that is now Currant to be Minted in the Netherlands and from them brought back again whereby his Majesties Mint will fail by the Exported benefit 4. Whether the advancing the Silver Coin if it produce the former Effects will not cause the Markets to be unfurnished of present Coin to drive the Exchange when most of the Old will be used in Bullion 5. Whether the higher we raise the Coin at home we make not thereby our Commodities beyond Sea the cheaper 6. Whether the greatest profit by this Enhaunsing will not grow to the ill Members of the State that have formerly culled the weightiest Pieces and sold them to the Stranger-Merchants to be Transported V. And at the same time these general Rules were Collected out of the Consultations at Court concerning Money and Bullion 1. Gold and Silver have a two-fold Estimation in the Intrinsick as they are Monies they are the Princes Measures given to his People and this is a Prerogative of Kings In the Intrinsick they are Commodities valuing each other according to the plenty or scarcity and so all other Commodities by them and that is the sole Power of Trade 2. The Measures in a Kingdom ought to be constant It is the Justice and Honour of the King for if they be altered all Men 'T is just now so with our Guineas c. at that Instant are deceived in their precedent Contracts either for Lands or Money and the King most of all for no Man knoweth then either what he hath or what he oweth 3. This made the Lord Treasurer Burleigh in 1573. when some Projectors had set on foot a matter of this nature to tell them that they were worthy to suffer death for attempting to put so great a dishonour on the Queen and detriment and discontent upon the People for to alter this publick Measure is to leave all the Markets of the Kingdom unfurnished And what will be the Mischief the Proclamations of 5 Ed. VI. 3 Mariae 5 Edw. VI. 3 Mariaet 4 Eliz. and 4 Eliz. will manifest when but a rumour of the like produced that Effect so far that besides the Faith of the Princes to the contrary delivered in their Edicts they were enforced to cause the Magistrates in every Shire respectively to Constrain the People to furnish the Markets to prevent a Mutiny 4. To make this Measure then at this time short is to raise all Prizes or to turn the Money or Measure into Disise or Bullion when it is richer by seven in the hundred in the Mass than the new Monies and yet of no more value in the Market 5. Hence of necessity it must follow that there will not in a long time be sufficient Minted of the New to drive the Exchange of the Kingdom and so all Trade at one Instant at a stand and in the mean time the Markets unfurnish'd which how it may concern the quiet of the State is worthy care 6. And thus far as Money is a Measure 7. Now as it is a Commodity it is respected and valued by the Intrinsick quality And first the one Metal to the other 8. All Commodities are prized by plenty or scarcity by dearness or cheapness the one by the other If therefore we desire our Silver to buy Gold as it of late hath done we must let it be the Cheaper and less in Proportion valued and so contrary for one equivalent Proportion in both will bring in neither We see the proof thereof by the unusual quantity of Gold brought lately to the Mint by reason of the price for we rate it above all other Countries and Gold may be bought too dear To furnish then this way the Mint with both is altogether impossible 9. And at this time it was apparently proved both by the best Artists and Merchants most acquainted with the Exchange in both the Examples of the Mint-Masters in the Rix Dollar and Real of Eight that Silver here is of equal value and Gold above with the Foreign parts in the Intrinsick and that the fallacy presented to the Lords by the Mint-Masters is only in the Nomination or Intrinsick quality 10. But if we desire both it is not raising of the value that doth it but the balancing of Trade for buy we in more then we sell of other Commodities be the Money never so high prized we must part with it to make the disproportion even If we sell more than we buy the contrary will follow 11. And this is plain in Spain's necessities for should that King advance to a double rate his Real of Eight yet needing by reason of the barrenness of his Country more of Foreign Wares than he can counter vail by Enchange with his own he must part with his Money and gaineth no more by Exhauncing his Coin but that he payeth a higher price for the Commodities he buyeth if his work of raising be his own But if we shall make Improvement of Gold and Silver being the Staple Commodity of his State we then advancing the price of his abase to him our own Commodities 12. To shape this Kingdom to the fashion of the Netherlands were to frame a Royal Monarch by a Society of Merchants Their Country is a continual Fair and so the price of Money must rise and fall to fit their occasions We see this by raising the Exchange at Frankford and other Places at the usual time of their Marts 13. The frequent and daily Change in the low Countries of their Monies is no such injustice to any there as it would be here For being all either Mechanicks or Merchants they can Rate accordingly their Labour or their Wares whether it be Coin or other Merchandise to the present condition of their Money in Exchange 14. And our English Merchants to whose profession it properly belongs do so according to the just Intrinsick value of their Foreign Coin in all Barter of Commodities or Exchange except at usance which we that are ruled and ty'd by the Intrinsick Measure of Money in all our constant Reckonings and Annual Bargains at home cannot do 15. And for us then to raise our Coin at this time to equal their Proportions were but to render our selves to a perpetual incertainty for they will raise upon us daily then again which if we of Course should follow else receive no Profit by this present Change we then destroy the Policy Justice Honour and Tranquility of our State at home for ever If we go on debasing our Money Manufacture and Navigation to make even with the Dutch we may now in a very short time undo the Nation and there is nothing that can recover us at present but the Balance Regulation and Advancement of Trade which the King 's most Excellent Majesty hath so often recommended to his Parliament and by which means Edward III. got that Advantage of invading France and dealing with it as he did to the great Honour and
Interest of England VI. Edward III. having that Game to play with France either he must win or lose it his Spirit was too big to sit still and yet Historical Discourse of the Vniformity of the Government of England from the first times to the Reign of Edward III. Printed 1647. Part 2. p. 64. pre-advising himself about the Poverty of the People and that their Patience would be spent soon after their Supplies if they continually saw much going out and nothing coming in he laid a Plat-form for the augmenting of the Treasure of the Kingdom as well for the benefit of the People as of the Crown By Taxes * P. 65. 1. And altho' it be true that Edward III. was a King of many Taxes above all his Predecessors yet cannot this be imputed as a blot to his Honour or Liberty of the People For the King was not so unwise as either to desire it without evident cause or to spend it in secret or upon his own private Interest nor so weak and irresolv'd as not to employ himself and his Soldiers to the utmost to bring to pass his Intentions nor so unhappy as to fail of the desirable Issue of what he took in hand So as tho' the People parted with much Money yet the Kingdom gained much Honour and Renown and becoming a Terror to their Neighbours enjoy'd what they had in fuller security and so were no Losers by the Bargain in the Conclusion For the People had quid pro quo by the Advance of Trade P. 66. 2. ☜ wherein the King shewed himself the Cape Merchant of the World Certainly Men's Parts in those Times were of vast reach that could manage such Wars settle such a Government and lay such a Foundation of a Treasury by Trade a thing necessary to this Island next unto its own being as may appear not only in regard of the Riches of this Nation but in regard of the Strength thereof and in regard of the maintenance of the Crown The two latter of which being no other than a natural effluence of the former it will be sufficient to touch the same in order to the thing in hand Now as touching that ☞ it is evident that the Riches of any Nation are supported by the Conjuncture of three regards I. That the natural Commodities of the Nation may be improv'd II. That the poorer sort of People be set on work III. P. 67. 3. That the Value of Money be rightly balanc'd 1. For as on the one part tho' the People be never so laborious if the natural Commodities of the Island be not improved by their Labour the People can never grow much richer than barely for Subsistence during their Labour And here let me humbly presume to say ☞ that so long as this Nation is over balanc'd by others in Trade we can get nothing but by one anothers Loss 2. The Endeavour were to advance Manufacture and principally such of them as are made of the staple Commodities amongst all which Wool had the Precedency as being the most principal and ancient Commodity of the KINGDOM and the Manufacture of Wool of long use but had received little Encouragement before these Times For that it formerly had been the principal Flower in the Flemish Garden P. 68. and nourished from this Nation by the continual supply of Wool that it received from hence Which was the principal Cause of the Ancient League between the House of Burgundy and this Crown But Edward III. was too well acquainted with the Flemings Affairs P. Ditto by a joint Engagement with them in the Wars with France ☞ and therein had gained so good an Opinion amongst them that he might have adventured to have chang'd a Complement for a Courtesie The Staples beyond the Sea were now taken away He now inhibiteth the Importation of Foreign Cloths and having gained these two steps onward of his way he represents to the Flemings their unsettled Condition 11. Edw. 3. Cap. 2 3 5. by these bordering Wars with France the peaceable Condition of England and Freedom of the People Then propounds to them an Invitation to come over into England P. Ditto ☜ promiseth them share and share-like with his own People with such other Immunities as they took his offer came over and brought their Manufacture with them which could never after be recall'd So as now the Wool and the Manufacture live together P. Ditto and like to Man and Wife so long as they care for one another both will thrive but if they come to play their Games apart both will be Losers in the Conclusion Another means to advance Trade was the settling of a Rule upon Exportation and Importation P. 70. 3. ☜ which wrought a double Effect I. That Importation brought in more Profit than Exportation disbursed II. That both Exportation and Importation were made by Shipping belonging to this Nation so far as it did consist with the benefit of this Nation III. That the Exportation was regulated to the Over-plus saving the main Stock at home 1. The truth of the first will be evident from this ground P. Ditto ☜ That no Nation can be rich that receives more dead Commodities from abroad than it can spend at home or vend into foreign Parts especially if it be vended in its proper kind and not in Money And therefore the Laws provided 27 Edw. III. ☜ That no Merchant should export more Money than he imported and what he imported must have been of the New Stamp which it seems was inferiour in value to the Old 2. The Second is no less beneficial for as it is in War P. 71. so in all Trades the greater the number is that is employ'd the more effectual the issue will be 3. The Third and Last Consideration is as necessary as any of the former for if Trade be maintained out of the main Stock ☜ the Kingdom in time must be brought to Penury The last means that was set on foot in the Reign of Edward III. for the Advance of Trade was the regulating the Mint P. 74. ☜ and the Currant of Money This is the Life and Soul of Trade for tho' Exchange of Commodities may do much yet it cannot be for all because it is not the Lot of all to have Exchangeable Commodities nor to work for Apparel and Victual Now in the managing of this Trick of Money ☞ Two things are principally looked unto P. Ditto 1. That the Money be good and currant 2. That it should be plentiful As touching the Excellency of the Money several Rules were made 25 Edw. 3. Stat. 5. cap 13. 6 Edw. 3. cap. 2 and 3. as against embasing of Money against Foreign Money not made Currant and against Counterfeit and False Money For according to the Goodness of the Money ☞ so will the Trade be more or less For the Merchant will rather lose in the Price of his