Selected quad for the lemma: law_n
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B03208
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The extortioners and stock-jobbers, detected. Or, an infallible receipt for the circulation of money.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing E3903; ESTC R176898
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5,185
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4
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hoped will save us from ruin And certainly the Extortioners and Stock-Jobbers would never have been so impudent as to put what price they please upon Money if they did not think themselves out of the reach of the Law or that the Laws when made to be of no effect But time must convince them wherein we hope to see this Law so well applied that it will prove a smart Rod for both the Knaves and Fools Backs Walk but to the Royal Exchange and you will presently see how the Face of Affairs are there altered occasion'd only by these ill-look'd Monsters the Business of the Exchange used to be selling of Commodities but now What price bank Bills What Security for Money Nothing but Plate or Land at Ten Fifteen Twenty or more per Cent. By these unreasonable Practises we plainly see that this was the true Cause why the King was not supplied as we have found by woful Experience They tell you that Money is of a greater value than ever and therefore they ought to make the best of it Self-interest may plead for it but the Notion is notoriously false For indeed Money is at no time of any greater value than what the Law hath put upon it and no Subject dare warrant the taking of more than Six per Cent. but is liable to be Indicted upon the Statute of Excessive Usury It 's true the King gives a greater Interest than Six per Cent. the Reason is to encourage the Subject to speedily supply the Necessities of the Kingdom but not without a Law first made The Subject ought to live in subjection to the Law and content himself with Six per Cent. until he hath Liberty by Law to do otherwise It 's of a dangerous Consequence to suffer the People to take a greater Interest for Money than the King gives himself for then the Government will never be supplyed as we have already seen Therefore the Neck of this Roguery must be broke or the Nation undone It 's no wonder that these daring Creatures break through all Laws when they dare spit in the Face of the Law-makers for if the Parliament makes any Law that prevents their unjust Practises they immediately put a mark upon those Members The last Sessions of Parliament there were great Debates before the House could settle the Coin occasioned also by these Tools They have also printed a List of all the Members with a mark upon them that were for lowering the Guinea's and settling the Silver not sparing to say in publick That they were not Friends to the Government But if there be no Law to punish them for their open Affronts in due time the Parliament may make one It 's very plain that these Extortioners and Stock-Jobbers never cried up the Rise of Silver and the Rise of Gold that the Kingdom in general might be the better but that they themselves might have gained extravagant Sums of Money that had great Cash by them And it is also as plainly seen That the Money being brought to its due weight and standard hath had this good effect already the Exchange from Holland being Thirty six shillings nine pence of our side which would not have been if the Money had been setled as they would have had it Indeed these surly Creatures do still retain their Anger and are resolved to have another touch at Parliament to raise the Guinea's and the Silver and get a Consideration for their Clipt Money being still in hopes of obtaining their Ends have kept up great Sums of Money which hath been another Reason that hath obstructed the Currancy of Money That they have kept it up appears thus At the Tenth of April Guinea's were to go for no more than Two and twenty shillings and the Fourth of May was Clipt Money to be no more made use of so that at that time we had no Money for currancy but the old broad Money and small parcels of old Mill'd and in a few days scarcely a Guinea to be seen which plainly shews they were very sullen resolving to keep them up and not to lose by them never reckoning what they had got unlawfully by them There is one Reason more that will convince you in a little time and that is If they do apply themselves to the Parliament the next Sessions you may then be sure they have kept up the Moneys and that you may be the better satisfied in the truth thereof the Monsters shall be described to you They have many Names and they are of divers Shapes some are old and some young their Haunts will be in the Court of Request or in the Lobby or among the Foot-boys on the Stairs But if you do not know them by their Shapes you will certainly know them by their Cry Raise the Guinea's Raise the Silver and allow for Clipt Money or we are all undone meaning we Extortioners and Stock-Jobbers The Jews who were a cunning and subtle People well knew the Distractions and Disorders that would have befall'n them if their weight and stand-hard had been corrupted to prevent which they kept the Shekel of Gold and the Shekel of Silver in the Sanctuary as sacred as the Law of Moses and they always had regard to the weight of the Shekel in the Sanctuary From whence we may learn That if our Laws did not protect and prevent the Corruptions of Coin Weights in Measures we should soon be in Confusion and should not know how to deal one with another It 's demonstrably true That the late Act of Parliament for Punching of all old broad Money for preventing its being clipt is very little regarded which gives a very just suspicion of these Extortioners and Stock-Jobbers having a further Design and that they will make a great bustle and struggle to get an allowance for the clipt Money alledging the Country People will all be undone when indeed most of them hath sustained already to loss But the Design must be deeper laid For if the Parliament should adhere to make an allowance for the clipt Money that is in their hands then all the old broad Money unpunched must once more come into the Clippers hands and so the Nation make good another piece of their Roguery It 's further observed That their barbarous Contrivances in keeping up the Coin of the Kingdom for the Reasons before mentioned hath brought us into these following Evils That the middle Trading-men of the Nation are in a worse Condition that the common Beggars they cannot sell their Commodities for Money nor can they receive their Debts and all manner of Friendship destroyed and if they go to borrow Money they are laught at unless they give them their unreasonable Demands What must these poor People do either starve or beg Nay many of these Monsters themselves refuse paying their own Debts making use of the common Necessitous Cry Is this a time to part with Money or pay Debts when the true Reason is whilst they keep the People out of their Money they Trade with it upon unconscionable Usury Therefore that they may have a just Reward according to their Merits it is thought advisable to publish this following ADVERTISEMENT THIS is to give Notice That there is a considerable Discovery already made of great Numbers of these unreasonable Men who are deep in these unwarrantable Practises and are to be speedily prosecuted Therefore those honest Gentlemen and others that are Lovers of Justice and their Countries welfare who have been in the like manner used having been obliged in their Necessity to give the Extortioners and Stock-Jobbers their unreasonable Demands If they please to meet a Will 's Coffee-house in the Court of Request the Twentieth instant being the first day of the sitting of the Parliament there they may be informed what proper Methods are to be taken for their Relief LONDON Printed for E. Whitlock near Stationers-Hall 1696.
THE EXTORTIONERS AND Stock-Iobbers detected Or An Infallible Receipt for the Circulation of Money OUR Fore-fathers in former days had so great an Aversion against Excessive Usury that they look'd upon the Usurers as void of all Humanity and Christianity and as a Mark of their Displeasure would not suffer them to have a Christian Burial It may be of good Service to have some such Mark put upon them now to shew the dislike of this Age who are in a great measure undone by them These cruel ill-natur'd Monsters are the destroyers and devourers of most Mens Substance by their unreasonable Dealings and Extorting Usuries prosecuting their own Covetous and Evil Designs having no regard to the Laws of God and breaking through all the Laws of Men as if they were to give no Account in this World nor the next But since these Catter-pillars have made havock and spoil at their own Will and Pleasure it is high time to inform them That there are Laws already made as a Scourge for all such Vermin there are a great many honest English-men that are true Lovers of their King and Country that will prosecute these Offenders and endeavour to make them sensible of their bold and barefac'd Frauds that are at this time of day put upon most of his Majesty's good Subjects who are drove to unexpressable Streights and Necessities by their Tricks and Contrivances by keeping the Money and hindering its Currancy on purpose to drive the People into great Wants that thereby they might make the better Markets of them exacting from them Five Ten Fifteen and Twenty per Cent. besides lawful Interest and not without extraordinary Security such as Plate or Land by which means Money is become an absolute Commodity to almost the ruin of some Thousands of the honest trading Men in the Kingdom for they will never lay Moneys out in Goods when they can by their unlawful Practises make much more of their Money than by laying it out in Commodities so that Trade must stop and all Business stand still if the Laws be not put in Execution In order thereunto you have here a Copy of an of Parliament which we heartily wish may by Authority be commanded to be read publickly in all the Churches in England every Sunday in the year to prevent future Frauds and Extortion An ACT for the Restraining the taking of Excessive Usury Anno duodecimo CAROLI Secundi Regis Cap. XIII FOrasmuch as the Abatement of Interest from Ten in the Hundred in former times hath been found by notable Experience beneficial to the Advancement of Trade and Improvements of Lands by good Husbandry with many other considerable Advantages to this Nation especially the Reducing of it to nearer Proportion with Foreign Statutes with whom we Traffick And whereas in fresh memory the like Fall from Eight to Six in the Hundred by a late constant Practice hath found the like Success to the general Contentment of this Nation as is visibly by several Improvements And whereas it is the endeavour of some at present to Reduce it back again in practice to the allowance of the Statute still in force to Eight in the Hundred to the great discouragement of Ingenuity and Industry in Husbandry Trade and Commerce in this Nation II. Be it for the Reasons aforesaid Enacted by the King 's most Excellent Majesty and the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled That no Person or Persons whatsoever from and after the Twenty ninth day of September in the Year of our Lord One thousand six hundred and sixty upon any Contract shall from and after the said Twenty ninth of September take directly or indirectly for Loan of any Moneys Wares Merchandise or other Commodities whatsoever above the value of Six pounds for the forbearance of One hundred pounds for a year and so after that Rate for a greater or lesser Sum or for a longer or shorter time And that all Bonds Contracts and Assurances whatsoever made after the time aforesaid for payment of any Principal or Money to be lent or Covenant to be performed upon or for any Vsury whereupon or whereby there shall be reserved or taken above the Rate of Six pounds in the Hundred as aforesaid shall be utterly void And that all and every Person or Persons whatsoever which shall after the time aforesaid upon any Contract to be made after the said Twenty ninth day of September take accept and receive by way or means of any corrupt Bargain Loan Exchange Chevisaunce Shift or Interest of any Wares Merchandise or other thing or things whatsoever or by any deceitful way or means or by any Covin Engine or deceitful Conveyance for the forbearing or giving Day of Payment for one whole Year of and for their Money or other thing above the Sum of Six pounds for the forbearing of One hundred pounds for a Year and so after that Rate for a greater or lesser Sum or for a longer or shorter Term shall forfeit and lose for every such offence the treble value of the Moneys Wares Merchandise and other things so Lent Bargained Sold Exchanged or Shifted III. And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That all and every Scrivener and Scriveners Broker and Brokers Solicitor or Solicitors Driver and Drivers of Bargains for Contracts who shall after the said Twenty ninth day of September take or receive directly or indirectly any Sum or Sums of Money or other Reward or Thing for Brokage Soliciting Driving or Procuring the Loan or Forbearing any Sum or Sums of Money over and above the Rate or Value of Five shillings for the Loan or Forbearing of One hundred pound for a year and so rateably or above Twelve pence for making or renewing of the Bond or Bill for Loan or Forbearing thereof or for any Counter-Bond or Bill concerning the same shall forfeit for every such Offence Twenty pounds and have Imprisonment for half a year The one Moiety of all which Forfeitures to be to the King our Soveraign Lord his Heirs and Successors and the other Moiey to him or them that will sue for the same in the same County where the same Offences were committed and not elsewhere by Action of Debt Bill Plaint or Information in which no Essoign of Law or Protection to be allowed It hath been a Question put by those that have suffered by Jobbers in Tallies and Bank Bills Whether this Statute does affect these unreasonable Practices Their best way to be informed therein is to advise with able Counsel But by this Act we see the great Councel and Wisdom of the Nation in former times fore-saw and well considered that the raising the Interest of Money or leaving to the liberty of the People to value it as they please would not only be a ruin to Ingenuity Industry and Trade but also undo the Kingdom and therefore in their great Wisdom did set Bounds and Limits and made this good and wholsome Law which at this time of day is