Part 8

CHAP. VIII. Of Regulating our Silver Coyn.

To give an exact Estimate of what Silver Coyn is necessary for the carrying on our Trade in its full Vigor, is a task I am not at present willing to undertake, but the least I can guess at is 5000000 l. considering that great Sums will always remain in the Exchequer, and Banks; for I look upon the Banks not as Chanels only, but as great Receptacles likewise, wherein money must rest and wait for opportunities of disposing it.

None of Hypotheses depend upon definite or determinate Sums, and I shall beg nothing essentially necessary to the carrying on of my design, but I desire for the present working only of my Proposition, that a few Postulata be a while granted me.

It matters not much whether any of ’em be true for they may easily be varied Mutatis Mutandis.

POSTULATA.

1. That the Current Silver Coyn of ENGLAND l. s. ought to be at least 5.000.000 Sterl.

2. That there is not in England at present above 4.000.000 l. Sterl.

3. That there passes not publickly above 3.000.000 l. Sterl.

4. That the hoarded Silver Coyn is about 1.000.000 l. Sterl.

5. That the present Current Counterfeited Coyn is about 1.000.000 l. Sterl.

6. That the present Current Silver Coyn not counterfeited, but clipt filed or otherwise diminished is about 2.000.000 l. Sterl.

7. That the Current Silver Coyn in daily use, not counterfeited but cliped or otherwise diminished is not intrinsically above 1.000.000 l. Sterl.

Now the Axioms I shall build upon are chiefly these.

AX. I.

That a way to induce the Subject to a voluntary compliance with the necessities of State, is preferable to any manner of Compulsion.

And by this I intend to obviate two Projects, viz.

1. That the Clipt Money be all called in without giving full satisfaction to the Proprietors; and this I take to be a piece of Injustice, because this Money was at first given out to us by the Government, as a sufficient pledge and unalterable Security of our Properties, and it was at first issued out of the Mint in such various and undesigned Shapes, in respect of the Peripherie or Circumference in which it hath been debased, and so various withall in the thickness and weight of each respective piece, that ’twas almost impossible for the Subject to distinguish the diminutions, which at first were so Curious, so Subtil, and small as was not to be easily suspected; and it hath been by gradual and sensible approaches that the present abasements are so considerable.

But this cannot be so well urged in behalf of Counterfeit Money, it is not any thing we have received of the State, it never was given to us, as a Pledge and Security; and so never was Money properly so called, but a False, and Counterfeit sort of Ware which every man Bartered for at his own Peril, and to such Caveat Emptor might properly have been said.

But if the wisdom of Parliament things fit to make Compensation for all the Counterfeit Money, I have nothing to say against it: They are the proper Judges.

Or if they shall not think fit to give a full Compensation for the Clipt Money, I have nothing to say, it would be great presumption in a private man to dictate.

In the method I shall tender, I shall make provision for a full Compensation for all the clipt and diminished money of the Royal Standard; at the small expence of 250.000 l. which is vastly less than I have heard yet proposed, I reckon three quarters of the money may be paid back in good Milled Coyn forthwith, as fast as it can be coyned.

The second Project I designed by the former Axiom to obviate is,

The compelling of people to supply a present exigence by bringing in their Plate into the Mint:

Which would be an attempt I doubt of pernicious Consequence, and instead of that I have made a provision; whereby questionless as much Plate will be crouded into the Mint with all the speed imaginable, as shall make up in tale the two millions of Pounds Sterling of clipt money which when melted down produced but one; and then I presume the extraordinariness of the encouragement may, and ought to Cease.

AX. II.

That our coyn cannot be secured against Exportation, Melting down, and Hoarding up, unless it have either a real, or extrinsick value above the intrinsick.

AX. III.

That a real value to make up the want of intrinsick given to Money, will be more satisfactory to all His Majesties good Subjects than a mere extrinsick value above the intrinsick.