VII.: If gold and silver coins are not rated in due proportion to each other, as they are at a medium in the neighbourin

25. It hath been shewed in the preceding, that coin and bullion will not always exchange in equal quantities one for the other, although we had only one sort of coins, as silver, for instance, in currency; and the case would not be very different, though we had both silver and gold coins, if the legal rates of these were established in a due proportion, as they are at a medium in the neighbouring countries. For, bullion being a commodity, its price will fluctuate a little, so as sometimes to be above coin; and it hath been shewed that it can never be lower than mint price. But the difference upon the above accounts, can only be at particular times, and then not very considerable.

Silver bullion in England hath been for above half a century past, constantly higher than mint price, excepting only at a very few intervals of a short continuance. This hath been chiefly, and in a manner wholly, owing to gold being higher rated at our mint in proportion to silver, than it is in other countries: For, the causes considered in the preceding, affect equally both gold and silver; and their influence upon both, may be deduced from the share they have had upon gold. For, gold only coming into our mint, the deviations of gold bullion from mint-price, shew, accurately enough, the effects of the several concurring causes before-mentioned, upon the price of bullion both gold and silver; and they shew also, that these effects are but small, and usually of no long continuance.

To illustrate the case before us: Let us suppose that in England, gold coins are rated five per cent. higher in proportion to silver; or if you would rather consider it so, that silver coins are rated so much lower in proportion to gold, than in the neighbouring countries. This supposed disparity of five per cent. is three-pence upon a crown-piece, and about a shilling upon a guinea; that is, gold coins with us are rated a shilling in the pound sterling too high; or, which is the same thing, silver coins are rated a shilling in the pound sterling too low, in respect to guineas. But the law reaching only to coins, and bullion being free; the market will adjust the disproportion which the law had made; and either, silver bullion will rise above coin, or gold bullion will fall below the rate of guineas; till, as abovesaid, the legal disproportion between gold and silver is adjusted. But no bullion can fall below the rate of coin, whatever that rate be; the mint being always ready to exchange coin for bullion, at the legal or mint-price. Therefore the difference, in the present case of silver being lowest rated, will fall entirely upon the silver; that is, whilst the mint becomes a standard for the price of gold bullion, silver will rise in our market the above supposed difference of five per cent. or to about 65 pence the ounce, or to five shillings and three-pence, for as much silver as there is in a crown-piece. For, the merchant will always make that metal his standard, which is highest valued at the mint; and, in the present case, he will not part with his silver at a less rate in proportion to gold, than it will fetch him in other countries.

Both gold and silver in the eye of commerce, are commodities; and that equally, whether they be in the shape of coins or bullion; and the market prices of both with respect to one another, will be nearly the same everywhere, without regarding the mint prices in different places. Gold, as above instanced, being highest rated with us, will be brought here in great plenty; especially, whilst any heavy silver coins are to be had in exchange for it: But no silver can be brought in here, or worked into plate, till the market price of it hath rose, so as to make it equally profitable to import either silver bullion or gold; and silver being excluded from our mint, by the higher valuation there of gold, no more silver can stay here, than what is wrought into plate. For, a guinea fetching here as much of any thing, as can be purchased for 21 shillings; and in Holland, suppose, fetching no more than may be purchased with 20 of the same shillings; a merchant here will not part with a silver ingot, at a less rate than that of a guinea for 20 shillings: If the refiner or silversmith will not give him at that rate; he will send his ingot to Holland, and there purchase with it, either gold, a bill of exchange, or some other commodity, that will fetch him here as much as the money he had asked for the said ingot; all charges being paid, which are pretty nearly equal, for the transportation of both gold and silver.

Trade is too quick-sighted to be over-reached by laws; and gold and silver bullion are too universally known and coveted, to suffer any disparity in respect of one another: The European markets are never glutted with either, and they will fetch proportionably every where. Gold then being over-rated at our mint, silver bullion will get up as much above coin, as this over-rate amounts to; and, in like manner, should gold coins be undervalued, gold bullion would rise as silver had done before. These metals have every where a reference one to the other; and without this, the terms higher or lower rated, could have had no place.