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A52733
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A proposal for amending the silver coins of England, and the possibility of it, without any great charge to the nation. Demonstrated in two different ways.
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Neale, Thomas, d. 1699?
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1696
(1696)
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Wing N349; ESTC R222058
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18,870
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64
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A PROPOSAL For Amending the Silver Coins OF ENGLAND And the Possibility of it without any Great Charge to the NATION Demonstrated In Two Different Ways LONDON Printed for the Author and are to be Sold by R. Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-lane 1696. A PROPOSAL For Amending the Silver Coins OF ENGLAND c. HAving often reflected on the Misfortunes that the Clipping Counterfeiting and Melting down of the Silver Coin of England would bring on this Nation and fore-seeing that I should be involved in the same as a Member of the Society I thought it my Duty to bestow sometime in the thoughts of endeavouring to find out a proper Remedy for that Publick Disease being encouraged by the Insight I have had already into that matter having had an occasion to apply my self to know the different Standards of Gold and Silver either in Ingot or in Current Coin I fram'd then a Project about two Years ago in which I had always before my Eyes the great Difficulty of finding out a sufficient Fund to carry on the War and supplying the Charges of amending our Silver Coins 'T is true the Distemper was not then so great as it is at present but I thought it ought speedily to be remedied for fear it should become worse if I may say not uncurable I considered therefore with my self all the Objections that I think are made at this day and I hope I have removed them as much as is possible humanly speaking However I grant that there are in this Case such Difficulties as will never be removed if no Body will contribute towards it as for Example 'T is certain our old Coin is hardly worth half of its first value and if every Body will have the old Species changed for new ones of the same Weight Standard and Price as the old was made for and will not at the same time contribute any thing towards it under pretence of the Taxes he is obliged to pay to carry on the War I don't know how they may be satisfied unless one should have the power of making something of nothing or the rare Secret so much inquired after of converting our Lead into Gold or Silver But if Men were more reasonable and were once sensible of the Inconveniences that bad Mony brings into their Trade and of the loss they suffer daily by the diminution of the Coin they would rather than be reduced to Trust or Exchange earnestly intreat the King and Parliament to find out in their Wisdom a proper Remedy for that Disease and instead of repining at the very name of Taxes for that purpose they would cheerfully offer to pay them for the Amendment of our Silver Coin will appear to any Thinking Man a necessary Thing to secure our Riches establish our Prosperity and enable us to carry on this War with more Vigour and less Charge But if Men will shut their Eyes against their own Interest must we be always in this deplorable Condition I don't think so and I make bold to say that His Majesty and the Two Houses of Parliament are to the rest of the Nation what a good Father is to his Child And now supposing that a Father had suffered his Child to be several times let Blood by way of Precaution or to preserve his Health would it not be a very odd thing if he should refuse to suffer him to be let Blood once more to dissipate a Flux which according to the Judgment of the best Physicians would infallibly deprive him of his Sight Sure I am that no good Father would give ear to the unreasonable Apprehensions his Child should have of the Chirurgions Lancet The Application is easy enough but I hope it is needless for I think I see a better Disposition in the Nation and every Body seems resolved to pay what Taxes shall be found necessary to free our selves from the innumerable Inconveniences that attend the badness of our Coin This Disposition ought to Encourage all Friends and true Lovers of England to impart all they know of this Matter so that their Projects being compar'd together the best and the most easy way might be abstracted out of them for the Amendment of our Silver Coin The Right Honourable the Lords of the Treasury have given us a good Example in desiring some Ingenious Gentlemen to give their Opinions concerning several Projects and ordering Mr. Lownds their Secretary to make a Report of the same with his own Thoughts on the Case which he has performed with a great deal of Ingenuity and Accuracy It was from this Motive that I made bold to present on the Fourth of Ianuary last to the Lords of the Treasury a Project for Reforming our Coin which since that time I have laboured to improve and illustrate by answering all the Difficulties and Objections that I thought could be made against it I have also examined the various Opinions of those who have written on that Subject and perused almost all the Projects that were given the last Session of Parliament It would be useless and too tedious to make particular Observations on those Projects and therefore I 'll content my self with these few General Propositions I. That an Ounce of Gold and Silver of the same Weight and Standard has in all parts in the World the same Intrinsick value as here in England II. That the Denomination of the pieces of Gold and Silver or the raising or the lowering their current Price adds nothing to the Intrinsick value thereof as for Example If the Piece we call a Crown was raised from five Shillings to ten Shillings or lowered to 2 s. 6 d. it is always the same Piece there is no more and no less Silver in it and its Allay is neither courser nor finer III. If its Intrinsick value be always the same 't is plain that Foreigners will take our Coin according to it and not according to its Denomination VI. That our Coin being taken by Foreigners only according to its Intrinsick value they give their Commodities in Exchange in Proportion to the same V. That they take our Commodities in Exchange for theirs or for Gold or Silver proportionably according to the Estimation they make of our Coins viz. according to its Intrinsick value VI. That the Exchange with Foreign Countries is always fixed and settled or with a very inconsiderable difference sometimes more sometimes less according to what we owe them or they owe us when the Value Weight and Standard of the Coins are settled VII That Foreigners make a considerable profit upon us by reason of the uncertainty of the value of our Clipt Mony and have a great advantage in the Exchange taking the occasion from the badness of our Mony From these Observations it follows that the raising or lowering our Coin is nothing to the Riches of our Country but that it is highly necessary to melt down all the Clipt Mony to make new Coins which may not be Clipped and to fix its
many Tradesmen and other People because for this Twelve-Month past we have seen hardly any other Mony but Guineas 3. Because People are already disposed to it and had it not been for an Act of Parliament they would have certainly raised the Milled Crowns thereabout to that price proportionably to the price of Gold 4. I have fixed it to 6 s. 8 d. rather than to 6 s. 6 d. without any other Mystery but because that price is devisible by equal quantities of Pence Farthings and accommodated to the present denominations of Crowns Shillings c. and also to the Species of Gold 3. As to the First Article of my Project wherein I say there is about one third part of our Coin lost by Clipping I know that some Ingenious Men are of another opinion and that they pretend that there is abundance of old Mony unclipt hoarded up I wish it may prove so but that is so far from being an Objection to my Project that it makes it more easy I own I have supposed the thing at the worst but a Table hereunto annexed will make it more plain and therein I have calculated how many Ounces of Silver we want to make good the Loss When I Presented my Project to the Lords of the Treasury I supposed there was but Four Millions and a half of Silver Mony in England but upon better Information I have thought I might suppose Five 4. I demand two Years time to melt down all the old Silver Coin of England and to make the new for the following Reasons 1. Because it is difficult to have Mints enough to do it in a shorter time 2. Supposing there should be Mints enough yet it would be necessary to allow two Years time for if there was but one allowed the price of Silver which must fall gradually should fall too suddenly viz. every Six Months and so the Inhabitants of the remotest Counties from London should hardly have time enough to be acquainted with it 3. I grant that there is no time to be lost in this Affair but too great a Precipitation may be liable to as great Inconvenience as a Delay and after all People must have time to carry their old Mony to the Mint and the Mint must have time to Coin it It will be well enough if we are in the mean time supplied with new Coin for Sums not exceeding 10 l. and Bills upon the Banks for greater ones by the Changers as it is in my Proposal for this answers all our wants 5. It is just and more convenient that the Mint should take the old Coin rather by Weight than by any other way and it will be a greater Satisfaction for the King and the Nation that in the Books appointed for that purpose at the Mint or in the hands of the Changers there should be several Columns whereof one should be for the Weight and the others for the old Estimation in Pounds Shillings and Pence 6. It is proposed that the old Mony be taken in Current Payments at a certain Rate the better to carry on our Trade till we have new Mony enough 7. I suppose the new Crown to weigh a full Ounce though I know it does weigh only 19 dw 8 gr and a half which makes an Allowance of about 3 and one third per Cent for the Melting and the Stamp so that if a Pound Weight of Silver Standard valued at Three Pound is cut as it is usual in 62 Shillings a Pound and eight Ounces of Silver which will cost but 5 l. will make 103 Shillings and Four-pence in Number though they be but of the same weight I say that an old Crown weighing 15 dw is to be Current and taken at the Mint for Five Shillings which is a necessary Consequence from what I said at first concerning the Price of Silver for if a new Crown weighing an Ounce is worth 6 s. 8 d. an old Crown of Silver Standard of 15 dw must by the same reason be worth 5 s. 8. Silver is the Center of Trade and all things in the World either Lands Houses Goods Diamonds and other Commodities are but its Circumference so that if the price of Silver is not fixed 't is impossible to make a just Estimation of Commodities as it is impossible to say how far the Circumference is from the Center if the Center be not fixed 'T is then highly necessary to fix the price of Silver in Quantity Quality and Estimation either Coined or not Coined The price of Quantity of Silver not Coined is fixed in England by the Weight of a Pound containing 12 Ounces Troy the Ounce of 20 dw and the dw of 24 gr The price of Quantity of Silver Coined is fixed from a number of Pieces that the King orders to be cut from a Pound Weight of Silver as 12 Crowns 62 Shillings c. The price of Quality of Silver not Coined is fixed by the Assay that is made to know whether it is better or worse than Standard And of Silver Coined by the Standard of the same which is 11 Ounces 2 dw Fine 18 dw Allay The price of Estimation of Silver Coined is fixed by Publick Authority being ordered that a Crown Piece weighing 19 dw 8 gr ½ be esteemed Five Shillings c. But the price of Estimation of Silver not Coined is not fixed in England and I think it is absolutely necessary to fix it As to the Price of Quantity and Quality of Silver I believe it would be very difficult if not impossible to fix it in a better way than it is now and besides the least Alteration in this Case would be liable to many Inconveniences but as to the Price of Estimation of Silver not Coined I see no reason why it should it be Arbitrary rather than the Estimation of Silver Coined and if it be prohibited to sell a Crown weighing 19 dw 8 gr that is to say within a small matter of an Ounce above Five Shillings I would fain know why an Ounce of Silver not Coined of the same Standard as the Crown should be sold for Six Shillings and Six-pence As long as the thing continues so there is no doubt but the Goldsmiths will melt down all the Milled Mony that falls into their hands for the Profit is clear But if the Price of Estimation of Silver not Coined is once fixed and that it be prohibited to sell or buy above the Price set upon it by Law they may sell it under if they please and that the Estimation of the Silver Coined be proportionable to it which are inconsiderable difference for the Stamp of 3 ¼ or 3 ⅓ per Cent. as it is now we need not fear that our Coin will be melted down no Body shall have the least Temptation towards it and the Reason is very plain for Silver in Ingot will be then as cheap and cheaper as the Silver Coined of 3⅓ per Cent. This is enough to shew how necessary it is to fix the