Part 3

Nor will preaching do much Good, upon those that never come to Church.

Clipping is the gainfulest Sin that ever was invented, and sits the easiest upon the Sinner’s Mind, and ’tis never to be remedied but by making it impracticable, which Mill’d Money only (and no other to be current) can do.

And what a perpetual Discontent and Confusion must it end in, if People shall come at last to proffer a Groat for a Shilling?

This must increase still vastly the Value of Guineas; this must raise the Price of all Commodities, this must make it impossible to expect any Money at all, either for the King’s Use, or Balance of Trade; and this will not only force us to recall our Troops from Flanders, and by a natural Consequence let in the War upon us, but it would put a sudden and universal stop to all Foreign Trade.

And what fatal Consequences may it have in the mean time at home let us consider.

It may very well be suppos’d that a Dragooner may proffer to a Corn-Chandler 2 s. for a Bushel of Oats, and that the Corn-Chandler seeing that there is not Three Peny wt. or 9 Peny worth of Silver in both the Shillings, should not like the Bargain, what’s now to be done?

Should There be a Law with Penalty for refusing clipp’d Coin, as there is for crack’d Six-pences, this would encourage Clippers to leave nothing remaining in a Shilling but the Figure XII.

Should the Law prohibit the passing of all Silver clipp’d within the Ring, than two Thirds of the present Money of England would be immediately cry’d down: Then the Loss of clipp’d as well as counterfeit Money would be very hard upon the Proprietors, and we should have two Thirds less Money for carrying on our Trade:

And now we have two Thirds less than we should have, and if that two Thirds, which is cry’d down at the Owner’s Loss, should be carry’d to the Mint, and new coin’d, it would scarce yield a twelfth Part of what we should then want.

If the Law should put down all Silver Money but of such a Weight, then certainly all Money above that Weight would be clipp’d down to it, and every Man must carry a pair of Scales in his Pocket, and we are still subject to the Consequence of the former Paragraph, as that former Paragraph would be to the first Conclusion of this, viz. That all Money would be soon clipp’d down to the publick Standard.

Let the matter be canvas’d never so much, it must at last come to this Conclusion.

We cannot subsist either in War or Peace if the Coin of England be not speedily regulated.

CHAP. II. Of the present Scarcity of Silver Coin in England.

Now let us consider, that if all the current Silver Coin of England were passable and unalterable, yet we have vastly too little in Tale for carrying on the Trade of the Nation.

And this will appear several Ways, but chiefly by the high Price or Guineas and the Causes thereof.

Guineas have risen from 21 s. 6 d. to 30 s. either because the intrinsic Value of Gold hath risen near in Proportion to the Diminution of the intrinsic Value of Silver Coin, or by reason of the Scarcity of the Silver Coin, or the Uncertainty of it, or partly by Reason of one, and partly t’other, which I believe is the Truth, that the Badness and Scarcity of Silver Coin hath occasioned an extravagant Rise of Gold.

Now if so much as concerns the Scarcity of Silver be granted me, then I have nothing to do upon this Article, but shew that the present high Price of Gold is dangerous to the Nation, and more dangerous will a farther Advance of the Price thereof be.

And to them who think the Badness of our Coin the greatest Reason of the present high Valuation of Gold, I shall in the mean time say, that if the Price of Gold hath risen, suppose 4 s. or 5 s. in a Guinea, upon the Account only of the Baseness of our Silver Coin; then in handling that Notion we must look upon Gold not so much a Coin as a Commodity, and so indeed it is at this Present; because the Price of Gold in the Oar or Ingott hath risen almost proportionably to that which is coin’d; so that a Man doth not take a Guinea rather than 29 clipp’d Shillings, because the King’s Impress is upon it; for so ’tis upon the Shillings; or because Authority has made it pass so, for that Authority is wanting; but because it is of a greater intrinsic Value than is in 29 Shillings of clipp’d or counterfeit Money, which is now most current: So that the Valuation of the Commodity Gold hath encreased as the intrinsic Value of our Silver Coin hath decreased.

And if so, then it is to be suspected that the Price of all staple Commodities have encreased in equal Proportion, or that they are in such a Proportion now higher than they wou’d have been; for Gold and Silver being reciprocally the Standards and Measures of Proportion of one another, are so of every thing else; and if I can now buy as many Ounces and Peny-Weights of Silver for a Guinea, as I could have done formerly, then is not Silver Risen more than Gold: and if I can buy as many Grains of Gold now with an Ounce of Silver as I could formerly, then is not Gold risen more than Silver. And this is, perhaps more than a Supposition: For when Silver was 5 s. an Ounce, I cou’d buy 4 Ounces 6 Peny-wt. with a Guinea, and so I can now, that Silver is 6 s. 6 d. per Ounce. Again when Gold was about 3 l. 14 s. an Ounce, I cou’d buy an Ounce of Gold with 15 Ounces of Silver, and so I can now, or near the Matter: So that the Commodities of Gold and Silver answer one another as they did, or near thereabout, abating only for the Portableness of Gold and its Coinage; whereas no Coinage is now allowable for those Pieces of Silver wherein the Coinage is defaced and spoiled; and if those two Commodities are so much higher than they would have been: For they are the Measure and Rule of Proportion of all. Then when the Value of Gold and Silver rises, the intrinsic Value of all Commodities rise with ’em:

For suppose an Eastland or Hamburgh Merchant brings over a Barrel of Mum, which he (when our Money was old Standard) sold for 3 l. he disliking our Money now, sells his Mum, not according to the extrinsic Valuation of our Money, which is risen since he was here last; because the Intrinsic is diminished, but according to the common Value of Gold and Silver in the World; and therefore requires now 4 l. because he judges our Silver to be a fourth Part worse than it was, or if at 5 l. he judges it to be 2 Parts in 5 worse.

Again, suppose he sells his Mum for Gold, or is to exchange his Silver for Gold, that which he was wont to sell for 3 Guineas, he expects 3 Guineas for still; or if you are to pay him in Silver, he expects as much as he can change for 3 Guineas, he wo’nt be fobb’d off with less: So the Merchant sells as cheap as ever; but we pay more, because what we pay, is dearer than it was.

You’ll object against this way of reasoning, and say ’tis the Risques of the Sea, and Obstructions of Trade now in Time or War, makes all foreign Commodities dearer.

But I hope I don’t err in saying, that the Merchant notwithstanding the War wou’d take less of our Silver Coin for the same Commodities if it were better, and less Gold of us if it wou’d buy as much Silver in his own Country.

And there are Reasons which may ballance the Dangers of the Seas in Times of War in Reference to our Commerce with the Subjects of Neutral Princes.

On our side Taxes are great, and the Subject cannot afford to buy so many foreign Commodities as at other times: And on their side they have not so good a Vent as they had; so their Commodities must stick on hand unless sold so cheap as may make amends for the Hazards of the Sea, and the Cheapness of Commodities wou’d be the natural Effects of Scarcity of Money, if our Money had the same real Value as formerly.

Again a Collier who trades to Newcastle is wont to receive a Guinea for every Chaldron of Coals he brought into the River at such a Time of Year, and so he doth still, and no more; and who can say Coals are risen and Mum is risen? No such thing; but Gold and Silver are risen: And when we give the same Gold and Silver for a Commodity as we did, we wrongfully say the Commodity is dear, when ’tis not that but the Gold and Silver which costs us more. We give the same Labour, the same Leather, the same Mault, for the same Quantity of Gold and Silver which we did.

And now ’tis the Country Gentlemen, Artizans and Day-Labourers have the hardest Bargain of all.

The Farmer sells his own Corn and Cattle according to the Value of Gold and Silver, and the Mercer his Silks, and the Draper his Cloth, and the Tanner his Leather; but the Farmer in the mean time pays his Rent, and Husbandmen, and Artizans, according to the Value of our present Coin, and when he paid 28 Guineas a Quarter formerly, twenty shall serve turn now; and the Scrivener buys the Country Gentlemen’s Lands, according to the Valuation of Coin; and not Metal; and the Land which cost the Father 600 Guineas, is now sold by the Son for 430; and half a Year hence it may be proffered for 300. This is nothing but Ruine and Confusion to the Landed Men of the Kingdom.