his Hands that it was the first he had parted with to any Body I then went it over a second time and having more leisure to consider it I found there were a great many Particulars in it drawn out of Ancient Records not commonly known wherewith he had obliged the World These which very pleasingly entertained me though they prevail'd not on me to be of his Opinion every where yet joyn'd with the great Civilities he had shewn me left me in a disposition so little inclined to oppose any thing in it that I should rather have chosen to acknowledge my self in Print to be his Convert if his Arguments had convinced me than to troubled the World with the Reasons why I Dissent from him In this Disposition my Pen rested from medling any farther with this Subject whilst I was in Town soon after my own Health and the Death of a Friend forc'd me into the Country And the business occasion'd thereby and my own private Affairs took up all my time at my first coming thither and had continued on to do so had not several repeated intimations and instances from London not without some reproaches of my backwardness made me see that the World concern'd me particularly in M. Lowndes's Postscript and expected something from me on that occasion Though possibly I was not wholly out of his mind when Mr. Lowndes writ that Invitation yet I shall not make my self the Compliment to think I alone am concern'd in it The great importance of the matter made him desire every one to contribute what he could to the clearing of it and setting it in a true light And I must do him this Right to think that he prefers the publick Good to his private Opinion and therefore is willing his Proposals and Arguments should be with freedom examin'd to the bottom that if there be any mistake in them no body may be misled by his Reputation and Authority to the prejudice of his Country Thus I understand his Postscript and thus I shall endeavour to comply with it I shall to the best of my skill examine his Arguments with all Respect to him and Fidelity to Truth as far as I can discover it The frankness of his proceeding in particular with me assures me he is so great a Lover of Truth and Right that he will not think himself injur'd when that is defended and will be glad when it is made plain by whose Hand soever it be This is what has made me publish these Papers without any derogation to Mr. Lowndes or so much as a suspition that he will take it amiss I judge of him by my self For I shall think my self obliged to any one who shall shew me or the Publick any material mistake in any thing I have here said whereon any part of the Question turns Books lately Printed for and Sold by A. and J. Churchill at the Black-Swan in Pater-Noster-Row A View of Universal History from the Creation to the Year of Christ 1695. By Francis Tallents sometimes Fellow of Magdalen-College Cambridge The whole graven in 16 Copper-Plates each 15 inches deep and 12 broad bound up into Books the Sheets lined A Work of great Exactness and Curiosity Price 16 s. Cambden's Britannia newly Translated into English with large Additions and Improvements By Edmund Gibson of Queens College in Oxford The General History of the Air. By Robert Boyle Esq Quarto A Compleat Journal of the Votes Speeches and Debates both of the House of Lords and House of Commons throughout the whole Reign of Queen Elizabeth Collected by Sir Simonds Dewes Baronet and Published by Paul Bowes of the Middle-Temple Esq The 2d Edition Fol. The Works of the famous Nicholas Machivael Citizen and Secretary of Florence Writen Originally in Italian and from thence faithfully Translated into English Fol. Mr. Lock 's Essay concerning Humane Understanding The Third Edition with large Additions Fol. His Thoughts of Education Octavo The Fables of Aesop and other Mithologists made English by Sir Roger L'Estrange Kt. Fol. Two Treatises of Government The first an Answer to Filmer's Patriarcha The latter an Essay concerning the true Original Extent and End of Civil Government Octavo Notitia Monastica Or A short History of the Religious Houses in England and Wales c. By Thomas Tanner A. B. Octavo The Resurrection of the same Body asserted from the Tradition of the Heathens the Ancient Jews and the Primitive Church With an Answer to the Objections brought against it By Humphrey Hody D. D. Bishop Wilkins of Prayer and Preaching Enlarged by the Bishop of Norwich and Dr. Williams 8 o. Considerations about lowering the Interest and raising the Value of Money Octav. Short Observations on a Printed Paper Entituled For encouraging the Coining Silver Money in England and after for keeping it here Octavo Sir W. Temple 's Hist. of the Netherlands 8 o. Miscellanea Octavo Dr. Gibson's Anatomy of humane Bodies with Figures Octavo Dr. Patrick's New Version of all the Psalms of David in Metre Twelves Two Treatises of Natural Religion Oct. Gentleman's Religion with the Grounds and Reasons of it The Novels and Tales of the Renowned Iohn Boccacio The first Refiner of Italian Prose containing an Hundred Curious Novels By seven Honourable Ladies and three Noble Gentlemen Framed in Ten Days The Fifth Edition much Corrected and Amended Logica Sive Ars Ratiocinandi Ontologia Sive De Ente in Genere Pneumatologia seu Despiritibus Auctore Ioanne Clerico 12 o. The Lives of the Popes from the time of our Saviour Jesus Christ to the Reign of Sixtus IV. By Sir Paul Rycaut Kt. The Second Edition corrected The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus the Roman Emperour concerning Himself To which is added The Life of Antoninus with some Remarks upon the whole By Monsieur and Mad. Dacier Never before in English Octavo Sermons Preached by Dr. R. Leighton late Arch-Bp of Glasgow The Second Edition Octavo The Roman History written in Latin by Titus Livius with the Supplements of the Learned Iohn Freinshemius and Iohn Dujatius Faithfully done into English Fol. Aâ—icius Manlius Severinus Boetius of the Consolation of Philosophy In Five Books Made English by the Right Honourable Richard Lord Viscount Preston Octavo Sir Richard Baker's Chronicle of the K. of England continued down to this Time The Reasonableness of Christianity as delivered in the Scriptures Octavo Prince Arthur an Heroick Poem In Ten Books By R. Blackmore M. D. Fellow of the College of Physicians London Fol. The Christians defence against the fear of Death with seasonable Directions how to prepare themselves to Dye well Written originally in French by Charte Drilincourt of Paris and Translated into English by M. D. Assigny B. D. Third Edition The Royal Grammer containing a new and easie Method for the speedy attaining the Latin Tongue FURTHER Considerations Concerning Raising the Value OF MONEY SIlver is the Instrument and Measure of Commerce in all the Civilized and Trading parts of the
FURTHER Considerations Concerning Raising the Value OF MONEY WHEREIN Mr. Lowndes's Arguments for it in his late Report concerning An Essay for the Amendment of the Silver Coins are particularly Examined LONDON Printed for A. and I. Churchil at the Black Swan in Pater-Noster-Row MDCXCV TO THE Right Honorable S r Iohn Sommers Kt. Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England and one of His Majesties most Honorable Privy Council MY LORD THE Papers I here present your Lordship are in Substance the same with one which I delivered to you in Obedience to the Commands I received by your Lordship from their Excellencies the Lords Justices and with another which I writ in Answer to some Questions your Lordship was pleased to propose to me concerning our Coin The Approbation your Lordship was pleased to give them then has been an Encouragement to me to revise them now and put them in an Order fitter to comply with their Desires who will needs have me print something at this time on this Subject And could any thing of this Nature be received with Indifferency in this Age the Allowance they have had from your Lordship whose great and clear Judgment is with general Consent and Applause acknowledged to be the just Measure of Right and Wrong amongst us might make me hope that they might pass in the World without any great Dislike However since your Lordship thought they might be of use to clear some Difficulties and rectifie some wrong Notions that are taken up about Money I have ventured them into the World desiring no Mercy to any erroneous Positions or wrong Reasonings which shall be found in them I shall never knowingly be of any but Truths and my Countrey 's side the former I shall always gladly imbrace and own whoever shews it me And in these Papers I am sure I have no other Aim but to do what little I can for the Service of my Country Your Lordship 's so evidently preferring that to all other Considerations does in the Eyes of all Men sit so well upon you that my Ambition will not be blamed if I in this propose to my self so great an Example and in my little sphere am moved by the same Principle I have a long time foreseen the Mischief and Ruine coming upon us by clipp'd Money if it were not timely stopp'd And had Concern enough for the Publick to make me print some Thoughts touching our Coin some Years since The Principles I there went on I see no reason to alter They have if I mistake not their Foundation in Nature and will stand They have their Foundation in Nature and are clear and will be so in all the Train of their Consequences throughout this whole as it is thought mysterious Business of Money to all those who will but be at the easie Trouble of stripping this Subject of hard obscure and doubtful Words wherewith Men are often mislead and mislead others And now the Disorder is come to Extremity and can no longer be plaid with I wish it may find a suddain and effectual Cure not a Remedy in Sound and Appearance which may flatter us on to Ruine in the Continuation of a growing Mischief that calls for present Help I wish too that the Remedy may be as easie as possible and that the Cure of this Evil be not ordered so as to lay a great Part of the Burden unequally on those who have had no particular Hand in it Westminster-Hall is so great a Witness of your Lordship's unbiassed Justice and steady Care to preserve to every one their Right that the World will not wonder you should not be for such a lessening our Coin as will without any Reason deprive great Numbers of blameless Men of a Fifth Part of their Estates beyond the Relief of Chancery I hope this Age will scape so great a Blemish I doubt not but there are many who for the Service of their Countrey and for the Support of the Government would gladly part with not only one Fifth but a much larger Portion of their Estates But when it shall be taken from them only to be bestowed on Men in their and the common Opinion no better deserving of their Countrey than themselves unless growing exceedingly rich by the publick Necessities whilst every body else finds his Fortune streightned by them be a publick Merit that deserves a publick and signal Reward this Loss of one Fifth of their Debts and Income will sit heavy on them who shall feel it without the Alleviation of any Profit or Credit that will thereby accrue to the Nation by such a lessening of our Coin If any one ask how I a retired private Man come at this time to meddle with Money and Trade For they are inseparable I reply that your Lorship and the other great Men that put me upon it are answerable for it Whether what I say be to the purpose or no that I my self am answerable for This I can answer to all the World that I have not said any thing here without a full Perswasion of its Truth nor with any other Motive or Purpose than the clearing of this artificially perplexed rather in it self mysterious Subject as far as my poor Talent reaches That which perhaps I shall not be so well able to answer to your Lordship and my self is the Liberty I have taken in such an Address as this to profess that I am MY LORD Your Lordships most humble and most Obedient Servant IOHN LOCKE THE PREFACE THough Mr. Lowndes and I differ in the Way yet I assure my self our End is the same and that we both propose to our selves the Service of our Country He is a Man known so able in the Post he is in to which the business of Money peculiarly belongs And has shewed himself so learned in the Records and Matters of the Mint and so exact in Calculations and Combinations of Numbers relating to our Coin either already in use or designed by him that I think I should have troubled the Publick no more on this Subject had not he himself engaged me in it and brought it to that pass that either I must be thought to renounce my own Opinion or must publickly oppose his Whilst his Treatise was yet a Manuscript and before it was laid before those great Persons to whom it was afterwards submitted he did me the Favour to shew it to me and made me the Compliment to ask me my Opinion of it Though we had some short Discourse on the Subject yet the multiplicity of his business whilst I staid in Town and my Health which soon after forced me out of it allowed us not an occasion to debate any one point throughly and bring it to an issue Before I returned to Town his Book was in the Press and finished before I had the opportunity to see Mr. Lowndes again And here he laid a new Obligation on me not only in giving me one of them but testing me when I received it from
Par. It is Low when he pays less than the Par. The Par is a certain number of pieces of the Coin of one Country containing in them an equal quantity of Silver to that in another number of pieces of the Coin of another Country v. g. supposing 36 Skillings of Holland to have just as much Silver in them as 20 English Shillings Bills of Exchange drawn from England to Holland at the rate of 36 Skillings Dutch for each pound Sterling is according to the Par. He that pays the Money here and receives it there neither gets nor loses by the Exchange but receives just the same quantity of Silver in the one place that he parts with in the other But if he pays one pound Sterling to receive but 30 Skillings in Holland he pays â…™ more than the Par and so pays â…™ more Silver for the Exchange let the Sum be what it will The reason of High Exchange is the buying much Commodities in any Foreign Country beyond the value of what that Country takes of ours This makes English Men have need of great Sums there and this raises the Exchange or Price of Bills For what grows more into demand increases presently in price Returning Money by Exchange into Foreign parts keeps not one Farthing from going out It only prevents the more troublesome and hazardous way of sending Money in specie forwards and backwards Bills of Exchange more commodiously by Scrips of Paper even the Accounts between particular Debtors and Creditors in different Countries as far as the Commerce between those two places is equivalent But where the over-ballance on either side demands payment there Bills of Exchange can do nothing But Bullion or money in specie must be sent For in a Country where we owe Money and have no Debts owing to us Bills will not find Credit but for a short time till Money can be sent to reimburse those that paid them unless we can think Men beyond Sea will part with their Money for nothing If the Traders of England owe their Correspondents of Holland 100.000 l. their Accounts with all the rest of the World standing equal and remaining so one Farthing of this 100.000 l. cannot be paid by Bills of Exchange For example I owe 1000 l. of it And to pay that buy a Bill of N. here drawn on Iohn de Wit of Amsterdam to pay P. van Lore my Correspondent there The Money is paid accordingly and thereby I am out of Van Lores Debt but one Farthing of the Debt of England to Holland is not thereby paid for N. of whom I bought the Bill of Exchange is now as much indebted to Iohn de Wit as I was before to P. van Lore Particular Debtors and Creditors are only changed by Bills of Exchange but the Debt owing from one Country to the other cannot be paid without real Effects sent thither to that value either in Commodities or Money Where the ballance of Trade barely pays for Commodities with Commodities there Money must be sent or else the Debt cannot be paid I have spoke of Silver Coin alone because that makes the Money of Account and measure of Trade all through the World For all Contracts are I think every where made and Accounts kept in Silver Coin I am sure they are so in England and the Neighbouring Countries Silver therefore and Silver alone is the Measure of Commerce Two Metals as Gold and Silver cannot be the Measure of Commerce both together in any Country Because the Measure of Commerce must be perpetually the same invariable and keeping the same proportion of value in all its parts But so only one Metal does or can do to it self So Silver is to Silver and Gold to Gold An Ounce of Silver is always of equal value to an Ounce of Silver and an Ounce of Gold to an Ounce of Gold and two Ounces of the one or the other of double the value to an Ounce of the same But Gold and Silver change their value one to another For supposing them to be in value as sixteen to one now perhaps the next Month they may be as fifteen and three quarters or 15 and â…ž to one And one may as well make a measure v. g. a Yard whose parts lengthen and shrink as a Measure of Trade of Materials that have not always a setled unvariable value to one another One Metal therefore alone can be the Money of Account and Contract and the Measure of Commerce in any Country The fittest for this use of all other is Silver for many reasons which need not here be mention'd It is enough that the World has agreed in it and made it their common Money and as the Indians rightly call it Measure All other Metals Gold as well as Lead are but Commodities Commodities are Moveables valuable by Money the common measure Gold though not the Money of the World and the Measure of Commerce nor fit to be so yet may and ought to be coined to ascertain its Weight and Fineness And such Coin may safely have a Price as well as Stamp set upon it by publick Authority so the value set be under the Market price For then such pieces Coin'd will be a Commodity as passable as Silver Money very little varying in their price As Guineas which were Coin'd at the value of 20 s. but passed usually for between 21 or 22 shillings according to the current rate But not having so high a value put upon them by the Law no body could be forced to take them to their loss at 21 s. 6 d. if the price of Gold should happen at any time to be cheaper From what has been said I think it appears 1. That Silver is that which mankind have agreed on to take and give in Exchange for all other Commodities as an Equivalent 2. That 't is by the quantity of Silver they give or take or contract for that they estimate the value of other things and satisfie for them and thus by its quantity Silver becomes the Measure of Commerce 3. Hence it necessarily follows that a greater quantity of Silver has a greater value a less quantity of Silver has a less value and an equal quantity an equal value 4. That Money differs from uncoin'd Silver only in this that the quantity of Silver in each piece of Money is ascertain'd by the Stamp it bears which is set there to be a publick Voucher of its weight and fineness 5. That Gold is Treasure as well as Silver because it decays not in keeping and never sinks much in its value 6. That Gold is fit to be Coin'd as well as Silver to ascertain its quantity to those who have a mind to Traffick in it but not fit to be joyn'd with Silver as a Measure of Commerce 7. That Iewels too are Treasure because they keep without decay and have constantly a great value in proportion to their Bulk But cannot be used for Money because their value is not measur'd by their