Tables Showing the Denominations of the Principal Greek and Roman Coins, and Their Values in Sterling Money,

GRECIAN MONEY.

ROMAN MONEY.

It is evident from the statement on p. 29 that it must have been written during the reign of Louis XIII. of France, who died in 1643, and apparently some eight or ten years before that date.

See note p. 123.

See Note on the Recoinage of 1696-99.

Literature of Political Economy, p. 163.

Mr. Raper also translated from the German, and published in 4to. in 1787, the learned and interesting work of Grellmann on the “History, &c., of the Gipsies.”

These tables have been omitted in this reprint, as being no longer of any value.

Make evident

Much controversy has taken place in regard to the origin of this term. The better opinion seems to be that it is derived from the Easterlings, or foreigners so called (most probably Jews and Italians), employed at an early period, or between 1080 and 1160, in regulating the coinage of the kingdom. Ruding, 3rd ed. v. I. p. 7: but see, also, Hearne’s Discourses, vols. I. and II; Menage Dictionnaire Etymologique, voce Sterlin; Clarke’s Connexion of the Roman, Saxon, and English Coins, p. 80, &c.

This is the inference drawn from the statement of Suetonius by Budæus and Casaubon (Sueton. Pitisci, vit. Jul. § 54). But other authorities reckon the proportion at about 8 to 1.

Cicero de Officiis, lib. iii. § 20.

See Henault “Abregé Chronologique.” Anno, 1364.

In the 43rd of Elizabeth a pound of standard silver, Troy weight, was coined into 62s.

That is the pound sovereign; the fine sovereign, a distinct coin from the other, was 23 car., 3½ gr. fine. Snelling’s “Gold Coinage,” p. 21.

Issued 28 November, 1611, the 9th James I.

The exact proportion was 2.622 to 1. For a fuller and more accurate account of the successive changes in the standard of money and in the weight of the coins, see Mr. Lowndes’ Report and the Tables in a subsequent part of this volume.

Box.

See Sir F. M. Eden on the Poor, I. pp. 32-33.

This is a controverted question, but on the whole we have no difficulty in dissenting from the opinion of Petty. Coins are to be regarded rather as the property of the public than of individuals. They pass freely from hand to hand among all classes; and their weight is diminished by the wear they undergo, and sometimes also (as was especially the case in 1690) by the fraudulent practices of clippers and others. But it would be most unjust to make the present holders of Coins responsible for their wear during the previous twenty or thirty years, or for the depredations practised upon them in the teeth of the law by knaves and swindlers. These are losses which the Coins have incurred in the public service, and they should consequently be borne by the public.

It is true that in carrying out this principle considerable difficulties have sometimes had to be encountered. Previously to the great recoinage of 1696-99, the practice of clipping the Coin was carried to a great height. And it was contended that if a Proclamation were issued, calling in the Coins in circulation by a certain day that they might be exchanged for new Coins of full weight, a corresponding premium would be offered to the clippers to redouble their activity in the interval. And as this was the course adopted on the occasion referred to, the anticipated result was realized to the fullest extent. It is believed, indeed, that the Coins lost as much by clipping between the period when it was announced that they would be called in and exchanged for new Coins, and their exchange for the same, as they had done in the course of the preceding ten or twelve years. (Leake’s English Money, 2nd ed. p. 391, &c.)

But it is very improbable that a loss of this sort will have to be again made up, inasmuch as milled Coins, which are now exclusively in use, are little susceptible of being clipped. And it may further be observed, that the loss experienced in 1696-99, from the circumstances already mentioned, might have been in great measure obviated had Government taken upon itself the responsibility of the Coinage, and quietly prepared a supply of Coins at the Mint sufficient to enable them at once to call down those in circulation.

The recoinage of 1696-99, notwithstanding the great expense and difficulty with which it was effected, proved on the whole a failure. This, however, was not a consequence of anything immediately connected with the Coinage, but is entirely to be ascribed, as will be afterwards seen, to the over-valuation of Gold as compared with Silver.

Vide Hales of Sheriffs Accounts, p. 5.

9 E. 3. & 17 R. 2. Prohibited Goldsmiths and others to Melt down small Coins, under Pain of Forfeiture of the Molten Silver.

14 Car. 2. Prohibited the Melting any the Silver Moneys, under Pain of Forfeiting the same, and double the Value; if by a Freeman, he is to be Disfranchised; and if not a Freeman, he is to be Imprisoned Six Months. 6 & 7 W. & M. makes the Conviction of Melters more Practicable, and inflicts Six Months Imprisonment for the Offence.

The first of these tracts, entitled “Some Considerations of the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest and Raising the Value of Money,” was published in 1691.

The second tract written in answer to the Report of Mr. Lowndes, and entitled “Further Considerations concerning Raising the Value of Money,” appeared in 1695. They make together a pretty considerable volume.

So called from its being partly coined of gold brought from the coast of Guinea.—Snelling’s Gold Coins, p. 29.

See on this subject some conclusive remarks in Liverpool On Coins, p. 145.

Snelling’s Gold Coins, p. 31.

Liverpool On Coin, pp. 68—85.

This latter alternative was proposed by Locke.

Liverpool On Coins, p. 145.

A Table of the weight, fineness, and value of different coins was added to this Representation, which it has not been thought necessary to reprint.

Essay on Medals, vol. ii. p. 124.

Introduction to Anderson’s “Diplomata,” p. 176.

The Representations of Sir Isaac Newton here referred to have been already given; and it has not been thought necessary to reprint the table of coins.

The balance spring in a good watch is worth above a million of times the value of the steel.

This shews the great value of arts and industry. But their usefulness doth not terminate in the mere value of their productions; their benign influence extends much farther. By furnishing employment, at the same time, both to the mind and body; they tend to improve the understanding, to humanise mankind, and to preserve them from that brutal barbarism, which is ever the attendant of stupid indolence and inactivity. Each individual, by a laudable industry, striving to benefit himself; the whole community share the fruits, and peace and good order is every where maintained.

But here occurs a difficult question; how to employ usefully all that are fit and able to work, and to maintain comfortably such as cannot help themselves? Our indulgent parent hath so ordered things, that it should not be necessary for all to work: Some compute, that the labour of one-fourth of the people is sufficient to maintain the other three-fourths; that one-fourth, as infants, old people, &c. are quite helpless: that one-fourth live upon their lands; whence one-fourth are left for the learned professions, state offices, and for being merchants, shopkeepers, soldiers, &c. Here then are three parts that are mere consumers; and as a country grows in wealth, the candidates for genteel employments may become more numerous in proportion to the rest, perhaps too much so for the land and labour to maintain: And thus, too many expecting a livelihood without labour, murmurs, complaints of the decay of trade, want of money, &c. will be loud. Amongst the lower class, some professions at times will be naturally overstocked: But if there be want of employments upon the whole, there must be some defect in our police; as the produce of England is undoubtedly sufficient, to employ and maintain comfortably, a much greater number of inhabitants.

Things are also said to be cheap or dear, in respect to the prices they bore at some former market.

Lands yielding uncommon products, as mines, &c. are not here considered; the uncommonness of them gives an opportunity to the owners of making more than ordinary profit by such products.

Great care should be taken that all charitable contributions are duly applied to their proper objects, and are not embezzled or wantonly squandered.

The mutual conveniencies accruing to individuals, from their betaking themselves to particular occupations, is perhaps the chief cement that connects them together; the main source of commerce, and of large political communities.

The name of Newton, to omit many others of great eminence in different kinds of knowledge, will do honour to this nation, whilst men continue civilized, and preserve the sciences among them. We have lately lost a mechanic, whose assistance on many occasions was eagerly courted, even by our vain and rival neighbours; a man well known, and, being known, admired, in all the principal courts, and learned academies of Europe. I need not say that I here mean the late George Graham, whose eminent skill in mechanics, by which he was known to the world, was yet known to his friends to have been but a small part of his merit. We have yet several artists who excel in their respective professions, all that went before them. What Mr. Harrison hath done about clocks, is truly admirable; and mathematical instruments were never made so perfect and exact, as they have been and still are by Mr. Bird: These men stand unrivalled. I have many more very excellent artists in my eye, but I forbear naming any, lest I should do injustice to others who might have an equal share of merit.

Whilst I am celebrating the superior skill of some of our most eminent artists, I am not very wide from my subject: And I wish it was duly considered, by those who ought to consider it, what countenance and encouragement is due to such men; what great benefactors they are to their country, what great reputation and wealth they bring to it, who by their fame and example create emulation in others, and so raise and support a reputation of our artificial products in distant countries.

When our great load of taxes, reaching down to the meanest artificer, is considered; it would seem that labour is cheaper in England than in other countries; that is, that our artificers are more skilful, and produce more and better goods in a given time, than is usually done elsewhere: For, in comparing the price of labour, the mere consumptions or earnings of the labourers, are not alone sufficient; what their labour produces, must also be taken into the account. Without supposing that labour, in effect, is really cheap with us, it would be difficult to account how such large quantities of our artificial products could be vended abroad. But how long this supposed superiority of our workmen, can be able to balance our other disadvantages, deserves seriously to be considered.

Agreeable to this is the old adage, “Jack-of-all-trades will never be rich.” And those smattering geniuses who will be meddling in various arts, rather than employ others in their proper callings, are but poor œconomists, as well as bad neighbours.

This would be no less than the taking a general view of the whole political œconomy of established communities; it would be shewing how the several parts are necessarily connected, mutually dependent on and subservient to each other, and to the whole: Such a work might be of singular use to the statesman, by pointing out to him, what parts are growing too luxuriant, and what parts want further nourishment and countenance; and perhaps, in the whole system of politics, if the whole doth not ultimately terminate there, no part is of that importance as the preserving of a due order in all things at home.

How trades beget and nourish each other, is beautifully described in a book, containing many judicious observations upon that subject, entitled A plan of the English commerce, page 20 to 27. The author, after supposing fifty farmers, each with two hundred pounds stock, settled in a kind of circle of a convenient extent in some uninhabited part of England, shews how in a little time a town with various trades, would be naturally built and settled in the midst of them; and how these farmers and their families, which he supposes to consist of 350 persons, would bring to them and find maintenance for at least 1000 persons more. The whole detail is too long for this place, and to abridge would be to maim it. This book was printed for C. Rivington, in St. Paul’s Church-yard, anno 1718.

Besides having of our own growth, plenty of all sorts of provisions, materials for buildings, apparel, &c. we have also lead, tin, copper, iron, calamy, coal, culm, allom, copperas, fullers earth, and sundry other minerals; some of which are in a manner the peculiar growth of this country, and very desirable abroad: But I do not recollect to have heard, that France yields any one natural product wanted by us.

This advantage is, in many other respects, much overbalanced by the milder and more temperate frame of our government.

The freedom of this nation, is the true parent of its grandeur: If ever it becomes enslaved, its august and mighty monarch, will dwindle into an inconsiderable and petty tyrant.

In a state of barter, there can be but little trade, and few artizans. For want of a ready exchange for their goods, people would look little farther than to get food, and some coarse raiment: The landed men would till only so much land, as sufficed their own families; and to procure them those few rude necessaries which the country afforded. Hence, without some kind of money, the arts can make no progress; and without the arts, a country cannot flourish or grow populous. Ignorance and idleness will naturally beget trespasses, incroachments, wars and contentions, ever destructive to the growth of people. Does not this account for what we daily see, even amongst nations reckoned polite? And how important is it, that the rulers of the earth should be more liberally educated?

The first step from mere barter to the invention of money, was probably by pledges or deposites, which the owner was to redeem. And metals being durable, divisible without loss, and easy of carriage; and having from their usefulness a value set upon them, like other things; men coveted to have metals for their pledges, and some one metal preferable to the rest; and this desire becoming universal, that metal, from being used as a mere pledge, soon became money. Suppose this metal was silver: “He who had more goods than he had occasion for, would chuse to barter them for silver, though he had no use for it; because silver would not decay upon his hands, or be of any expence to him in keeping; and with it he could purchase other goods as he had occasion, in whole or in part, at home or abroad; silver being divisible without loss, and of the same value in different places. Ex. If A had 100 sheep, and desired to exchange them for horses: B had 10 horses, which were equal to, or worth the 100 sheep, and was willing to exchange: But A not having present occasion for the horses, rather than be at the expence of keeping them, he would barter his sheep with C, who had the value to give in silver, with which he could purchase the horses at the time when he had occasion. Or, if C had not silver, but was willing to give his bond for the silver, or the horses, payable at the time A wanted them: A would chuse to take the bond payable in silver, rather than in horses; because silver was certain in quality, and horses differed much. So silver was used as the value in which contracts were made payable.” And thus the transitions from bartering to pledging, and from pledges to money, were very natural and obvious.

The above extract is taken from an ingenious piece, tho’ not free from some grievous mistakes, of the celebrated Mr. John Law’s, entitled, Money and trade considered, printed at London in 1720.

In like manner, money is used as the measure by which goods to be delivered at different places, are valued. Ex. If a piece of wine was to be delivered at London by A, merchant there, to the order of B, vintner at Brecknock; and the value to be delivered in butter at Brecknock, by B to the order of A. The wine is not to be valued by the quantity of butter it is worth at London, nor the butter by the quantity of wine it is worth at Brecknock. The way to know what quantity of butter is equal to the wine, is, by the quantity of money each is worth at the places where they are to be delivered: Thus, supposing as before, silver to be money; if the piece of wine be worth at London 20 ounces of silver, and 20 ounces of silver be worth 24 stones of butter at Brecknock; then 24 stones is the quantity of butter to be given there, in return for the wine.

Art, 7

There is a very wide and essential difference betwixt money and bills: The one, having an intrinsic value, is in all contracts and dealings, the equivalent, as well as the measure. Bills are nothing but mere promises or obligations of payment: And even public bills, for such only usually pass as money, have only a local credit, being limited to the territories of the state that issued them; and depending merely upon their faith, those that are in private hands are, to say no worse, subject every day to be debased by the creation of more new bills. For bills, whilst they pass as money, partake so far of its nature, that the more, or for a greater sum, there are of them in currency, the less will be the value of any given bill, or a bill for a given sum.

Some of our plantations have severely felt the ill effects of those weak, unjust and destructive measures, of increasing the quantities of bills; whilst the Philadelphians, by keeping sacredly to a certain number or sum total of bills, have not only preserved their credit amongst themselves; but even extended it, to some of the neighbouring provinces; where, I am informed, a Philadelphian bill will fetch more than one of their own, made for the same or a like sum.

Copper coins with us are properly not money, but a kind of tokens passing by way of exchange instead of parts of the smallest pieces of silver coin; and as such, very useful in small home traffic.

A certain proportion of copper will even depreciate the value of the silver mixed with it; if this proportion be so great, as to make the silver not fit for common purposes, without refining.

For the same reason, a proportion even of gold mixed with silver, that is less than a penny weight in a pound Troy, doth not add to the value of the silver, excepting so far as it increases the mass; the gold, in this case, being reckoned only as silver, and not considered as increasing the value of that silver, with which it is mixed. And I am informed, that a penny weight of gold in a pound weight of silver, is the least proportion of gold, that will pay for refining; this being reckoned a profit only, of about one farthing per ounce.

Page 1, 2. The Troy weight, Pondus Trecense, from Troyes in Champagne, is generally supposed to have been introduced here by the Normans, but does not seem to have been immediately established. It is most probable that the pound of the Tower, or the monyers pound, was also the pound in common use before the conquest; and that it continued to be so for a considerable time after, till the Troy pound, perhaps from its greater weight, got the preference by degrees. It is observable, that in the old statute called Assisa panis et cerevisiœ, 51 Hen. III. and which it self refers to “older ordinances made in the time of the king’s progenitors,” the weights of the several quantities of bread, &c. therein mentioned, are not expressed in Troy but in money weights, that is, in pounds, shillings, pennies, and farthings. “When a quarter of wheat is sold for xii d. then wastel breade of a ferthing shall weight vi li. and xvi s. Breade cocket of a ferthing of the same corne and bultel, shall weigh more than wastel by ii s. Cocket breade made of corne that is of less price, shall weigh more than wastel by v s. A simnel of a ferthing shall weigh ii s. less than wastel, &c.”

Our learned author goes on, and brings several more authorities to shew, that the money or Tower weights, known also in France, were those antiently used in England. But I shall trespass no farther upon him here, than in adding the following extract of a verdict relating to the coinage of 30th October, 18 Hen. VIII. remaining in the Receipt of the Exchequer at Westminster, in which are the following words. “And whereas heretofore the merchaunte paid for coynage of every pounde Tower of fyne gold, weighing xi oz. quarter Troye, ii s. vi d. Nowe it is determyned by the king’s highness, and his said councelle, that the foresaid pounde Towre, shall be no more used and occupied, but al maner of golde and sylver shall be wayed by the pounde Troye, which exceedith the pounde Towre in weight iii quarters of the oz.”

The above citation shews the precise time when the Tower or old Saxon weight, was laid aside, viz. 30th Octob. 1527; and that the proportion of the Tower pound to the Troy pound, was exactly as 15 to 16.

Our money pound is at present only 10/29[Editor: ?] or about one-third of what it was at the conquest; for then it contained 11¼ ounces of our present Troy weight, and now it is 20/62 of a Troy pound. By this rule, the readers of Mr. Lowndes and of some other authors, may correct the accounts which he gives of our coins. At the accession of King James I. to this throne, the Scotch money pound was but equal to the 1/12 of ours; and the French livre is at present, only about half the value of the Scotch pound.

The English, to their great honour, have adulterated their coins less than most of their neighbours. A summary account of these adulterations with us, will be given hereafter.

The silver monies of England, are now known by the name of sterling or sterling money: A name supposed to be derived from some Netherlanders, who were formerly here employed in coining money, and then called here Easterlings.

Mr. Roberts, in his map of commerce, page 24, 199, takes notice, that at Venice they have a real weight called carat; whence we had the name carat, and also the weight so called by jewellers; and that the Venetians had this weight from the Indians or Moors. This author says, that 150 Venetian carats, make one ounce Troy; so that one carat is equal to 3⅕ grains Troy, which is nearly the weight of the carat used by our jewellers. The late learned and curious Martin Folkes, Esq; found by a nice examination when he was at Venice, that a Venetian carat doth weigh as above, or that 150 of those carats do make pretty exactly one ounce Troy.

This whole matter relating to the standard of our money, shall be farther discussed hereafter.

It is also for the same reason, better suited for the making of various sorts of utensils; and money, as hath been before observed is intrinsically valuable, because, by melting, the material is convertible into something useful. And it may be questioned, whether coins had preserved their value, and been continued as money, if silver and gold had not been applicable to other purposes.

Mr. Locke well observes, that that grain which is the most constant and general food of any country, as wheat in England, and rice in Turkey, is the most likely thing to keep the same proportion to its vent for a long course of time; and therefore the fittest thing to reserve a rent in, which is designed to be constantly the same in all future ages; and the fittest measure whereby to judge of the altered values of things in any long tract of time. For in England, and in this part of the world, wheat being the constant and most general food, not altering with the fashion, not growing by chance; but as the farmers sow more or less of it, which they endeavour to proportion, as near as can be guessed, to the consumption; it must needs fall out that it keeps the nearest proportion to its consumption (which is more studied and designed in this than other commodities) of any thing, if you take it for seven or twenty years together: Though perhaps the plenty or scarcity of one year, caused by the accidents of the season, may very much vary it from the immediately precedent or following. But wheat, or any other grain, cannot serve instead of money; because of its bulkiness, and too quick change of its quantity. For had I a bond to pay me 100 bushels of wheat next year, it might be a fourth part loss or gain to me; too great an inequality, to be ventured in trade: Besides the different goodness of several parcels of wheat in the same year. But money is the best measure of the altered value of things in a few years; because its vent is the same, and its quantity alters but slowly. Locke’s works, vol. II. p. 23, 24.

As there can be but one standard of money, and silver is and ought to be that standard; Mr. Locke was, and others are, of the opinion, that gold coins should be left to find their own value, without having any established legal rates. But this is a matter, I think, of too much importance to be entrusted to private judgment; and, if left at large, might subject the nation in general to great impositions, by a combination of the traders in coins. But of this subject, and also of copper coins, more hereafter.

There is always a great part of the property of mankind, lying dormant, or out of traffic: But as things are continually shifting, and those commodities, and those sums of money, which are out of trade to-day, may be in trade to-morrow; the prices of things always fundamentally depend upon the above rule; that is, on the proportion of the total of things to the total of money.

Thus, if in any country, a given sum A be the hundredth part of the total money of that country: If that sum total be doubled, the value of the sum A will be thereby reduced to one half, as being now but a two hundredth part of the whole; and had the sum total been reduced to a half, the value of A would have been doubled.

From this proposition, all the following ones in this chapter, naturally flow as corollaries; but on the account of their importance, they are treated and illustrated severally.

The way of living of the lower class of people, will be naturally best and most comfortable, in the happy regions of liberty; where property is duly diffused; where there is a gradual and an easy transition from rank to rank; without that ghastly and fearful void between peers and peasants, betwixt tyrants and slaves, which is ever the baneful fruit of arbitrary governments.

Money is here considered in the abstract; but as it is reducible into bullion, plate, &c. in that sense it is wealth like other commodities.

This hath been shewed in the preceding, as to a nation having no foreign commerce; how far such a commerce alters the case, will be considered a little farther on.

It will be some time before this supposed additional money can penetrate through all the branches of trade, and whilst some traders have exorbitant gains, others will grow poorer, because of their additional expence in many articles; however by degrees all dealers will help themselves, and grow rich at the expence of those who are mere consumers.

How far this may have been the case of some particular country, I do not here consider. But I think it is manifest enough, that an overflow of money in one place, may be the cause of poverty and distresses in another; and that a government may be declining, whilst duties and customs are increasing.

The effects of the imaginary increase of money in the year 1720, and of the real increase of factitious money at different periods since, do greatly illustrate and corroborate what hath been here advanced.

That is, each merchant is a gainer, if his returns, after paying all his expences of the voyage, are worth at home more, or will purchase again a greater quantity of goods than he had exported: This overplus is the merchant’s profit, without which he would no longer trade.

The common trite saying, “that if a merchant had a larger stock, he could afford to sell cheaper,” answers itself: If his stock is but small, he should himself consume less. If a rich galleon was to be divided among a certain number of our merchants, this would enable them indeed to buy dearer and to sell cheaper; but this would be detrimental both to their cotemporaries and successors, and I think, in the long run, to their country in general. For so far as it went, it would enhance the price of commodities at home, and lessen their vent at foreign markets.

I have spoke before in favour of the arts, and I would not here be understood to mean, that any of those whereby some of our own people gain a livelihood, should be discouraged; nor yet that those of narrow circumstances, should aim at having plate: But those of affluent fortunes might save themselves the expence of many superfluities, without affecting labour with us; and these savings laid out in plate would be of more benefit to their country, and to their own posterity.

See more upon this head, in the Universal Merchant, a work containing some judicious observations concerning trade.

This was the greatest security to merchants both as to their persons and effects, and consequently the greatest encouragement to commerce, and the greatest blow to despotism, of any thing that ever was invented. For, by this sort of correspondence, merchants can imperceptibly convey away their effects when and wherever they please; and this they will never fail doing, if they are in any wise molested or threatened with danger. But at the same time, that this is so beneficial to commerce, and to liberty, both in certain degrees, inestimable blessings; it weakens the attachments, and, as I may say, the allegiances of tradesmen to their mother-country. And I should not, for many reasons, chuse to have my abode where the chief property and the chief rule was in mercantile hands. For, as an alloy to its very great advantages, there is something selfish, ungenerous and illiberal in the nature and views of trade, that tends to debase and sink the mind below its natural state. Somewhat of this must be allowed to be the natural genius and bent of trade. Labourers or working people of all sorts, are quite excluded out of the present consideration; and what is here said is not intended as any reflection upon or disparagement to the other ranks of tradesmen: We live happily in a country, where various classes of men by their daily intercourses do, as it were, humanize, and benefit one the other a thousand ways, and correct those errors and notions, which men confined to a particular sphere, are but too apt to fall into.

Vol. III. small edition, p. 97, 98, 99.

Dealers in bills of exchange are in general terms usually called remitters: But with respect to a particular transaction, he who sells a bill, to be paid by his correspondent in another place, is called the drawer; and he who buys the said bill, and sends it abroad to have the value received by a fourth person, is called the remitter.

Folkes’s table of English silver coins, page 35. We are much obliged to this learned author for the great pains he took in gathering many curious anecdotes relating to this subject.

Edw. VI. 1551.

Folkes’s table of English silver coins, p. 35.

Ibid. p. 36.

In p. 30, 31, of the above work, are two remarkable passages relating to this subject, extracted out of two sermons preached before the king, by the truly excellent bishop Latimer, in March 1549. In the first he says, “We have now a pretty little shilling, indeed a very pretty one. I have but one I think in my purse, and the last day I had put it away almost for an old groat, and so I trust some will take them. The fineness of the silver I cannot see: but therein is printed a fine sentence, Timor Domini fons vitæ vel sapientiæ.” In the next sermon, he says, “Thus they burdened me ever with sedition. And wot ye what? I chanced in my last sermon to speak a merry word of the new shilling, to refresh my auditory, how I was like to put away my new shilling for an old groat. I was therein noted to speak seditiously.—I have now gotten one fellowe more, a companion of sedition, and wot you who is my fellowe? Esay the prophet. I spake but of a little prettie shilling, but he speaketh to Jerusalem after another sort, and was so bold as to meddle with their coynes. Thou proud, thou haughty city of Jerusalem: Argentum tuum versum est in scoriam, thy silver is turned into, what? into testions? scoriam, into dross. Ah seditious wretch, what had he to do with the mint? Why should he not have left that matter to some master of policy to reprove? thy silver is dross, it is not fine, it is counterfeit, thy silver is turned; thou hadst good silver. What pertained that unto Esay? marry he espied a piece of divinity in that policy, he threatneth them God’s vengeance for it. He went to the root of the matter, which was covetousness; he espied two points in it, that either it came of covetousness, which became him to reprove: or else that it tended to the hurt of poore people; for the naughtiness of the silver was the occasion of dearth of all things in the realm. He imputeth it to them as a crime. He may be called a master of sedition indeed. Was not this a seditious fellow; to tell them this even to their faces?” I have cited these passages at large, because they not only shew in the clearest manner, this good bishop’s own sentiments of the pernicious consequence of the base money then current, but what most probably was also the common notions and talk at that time.

This speech was really made in 1626, by Sir Robert Cotton. See ante p. 123.

This Report is printed in the forecited speech of Sir Robert Cotton. See ante p. 132. We therefore omit the extract from it which Mr. Harris has here inserted.

§ 31 & 32, Part I.

§ 53, Part I.

By perquisites, I do not here mean known and settled fees.

And yet some have been daring enough to use this very fraud, as an argument for committing it: But of this more hereafter.

§ 11, 12, & 13. Part II.

This is a necessary condition; for a delay here might oblige the merchant to sell his bullion at an undervalue, to those who could better stay to have it coined.

For all coins in foreign dominions are mere bullion, and treated as such.

See more upon this head, in the first part of this Essay, chap. III.

I do not take upon me, in this place, to state how much it is that we over-rate gold; the exact proportion between gold and silver, not affecting the present argument.

§ 50. Part I.

§ 41. Part I.

This notion, which is a very general one, I fansy was first broached and propagated by the bankers; they might think, if the quantity of circulating cash could be increased, it would be brought the faster into their shops, and be suffered to stay there the longer before it was again recalled.

§ 49 & 50. Part I.

Gold, copper, or paper-money, may either jointly or separately, be the means of draining away silver coins.

§ 34, 35, 36, & 37. Part I.

§ 38. Part I.

§ 33. Part II.

§ 58. Part I.

I consider merchants here and elsewhere, solely as foreign dealers, without regarding their private transactions with shop keepers, &c. in the places where they dwell: in this last light, they are upon the the same footing with all other private dealers.

The conceit of a late writer, of reducing the price of guineas by a general recoinage of them into a larger size, and his arguments drawn from the inconveniencies that would thence arise, require no answer.

It hath been clearly shewed in divers parts of this essay, that the rates of gold coins are, from their very institution, subject to alteration; and the making of this alteration as often as the case may require, is in all respects just, prudent, and necessary.

§ 11 to 20. Part II.

§ 36, 37. Part II.

§ 21. Part I.

§ 38. Part II.

This piece is translated into English, and was printed for A. Miller in the Strand, anno 1739.

British Merchant, vol. I. p. 6, 7, 10, 16, 17. Small Edition.

“When the mark was at 20 livres about 1660, labour was dearer in France than in England.”

This was published in the year 1675, and contains many useful observations relative to this subject.

The standard should be one clean piece of metal, kept under the locks of some of the principal officers of state; and, I think, it should not be accessible to any one, without their personal presence, if not of a certain number of other privy-counsellors. All the use that there need be made of this standard, would be for the adjusting of duplicates or representatives of it, which might be kept in the several offices, as those things called standards are at present. These, being adjusted with due care and exactness, together with their artificial parts and multiples, the law might declare to be sufficiently exact, or near to the true standard, for common use. And to these all persons might have recourse at such proper seasons as the law should direct, upon paying of very moderate fees.

See Gronovius, de pecunia vetere, l. ii. c. 8.

See the dedication of his Discourse of the Roman Foot and Denarius, printed in the year 1647, and reprinted, with other of his works, by Dr. Birch, in 1736. I quote the original edition, which contains 134 pages numbered after the dedication. That of Dr. Birch, begins at p. 181 (excluding the dedication), and ends at p. 356.

Ibid.

See his Discourse, p. 61.

Philosophical Transactions, No. 465.

p. 61.

p. 103.

p. 66.

p. 72.

Compare p. 94 and 120, with p. 61.

p. 103.

Eisenschmid, p. 34.

p. 33.

p. 40 and 42.

Greaves, p. 103.

Eisenschmid, p. 34, 35.

Pollux, L. IX. c. 6. § 86.

See Aristophanes, Ranæ ver. 733. Polybius, in Excerpt. Leg. § 28. Δότωσαν δὲ Αἴτωλοι ἀργυρίου μὴ χείρονους Ἀττικου κ. τ. λ. and § 35. Ἀργυρίου δὲ δότω Ἀντίοχους Ἀττικου̑ Ῥωμαίοις ἀρίσου. κ. τ. λ.

Xenophon περὶ προσόδων. c. 3. Καὶ ὁι ἀργύριον ἐξάγοντες, καλὴν ἐμπορίαν ἐξάγουσιν· ὅπου γὰρ ἂν πωλω̑σιν ἀυτὸ, πανταχου̑ πλει̑ον του̑ ἀρχαίου λαμϐάνουσιν.

The piece of 50 gr. in P. II. T. 48. of the Pembroke collection, seems to be a Pentobolon; and the first in that plate a Hemiobolion. Mr. Stuart brought both half and quarter Oboles of silver from Athens.

Pollux, L. IX. c. 6. § 60. There is a half Tridrachm of Alexander in the British Museum.

See the Schol. on ver. 737 of Aristophanis Ranæ.

Aristoph. Eccles. ver. 810 and the following.

Theophrast. περὶ ἀπόνοιας, and περὶ βδελυρίας. Demosthenes c. Midiam. Athenæus, L. III. c. 32. and elsewhere. Pollux, L. IX. c. 6. § 65.

Pembroke Coll. P. II. T. 48.

Vitruv. L. III. c. 1.

Suidas, v. Ὀϐολός. v. Ταλαντον. and one of the fragments in the appendix to Stephens’s Greek Thesaurus, col. 217.

Pollux. L. IX. c. 6. § 65. 67. Suidas v. Τεταρτημόριον. The fragments ascribed to Galen and to Cleopatra in Stephens’s Greek Thesaurus, col. 215, 217. That ascribed to Dioscorides says, the third part. These fragments speak of it as a weight, not a coin.

Pliny, Nat. Hist. L. XXI. near the end of the last chapter.

Polybius, L. II. p. 103. of Casaubon’s edit.

Pollux, L. IX. c. 6. § 53. Suidas, v. Γλαύξ. v. Δαρεικός. Harpocratio, v. Δαρεικός.

Suidas, v. Γλαύξ. Hesychius, v. Λαύρεια.

Thucyd. L. II. § 55. and L. VI. § 91. Xenoph. περὶ προσόδων. Strabo L. IX. p. 399, and Pausanias at the beginning of his first book.

Thucyd. L. II. § 13.

Athenæus, L. VI. p. 231. See Diodorus, L. XVI. p. 527. Stephens’s edit.

Diodorus, L. XVI. p. 514.

Herodotus, L. VII. § 28. and Thucyd. L. VIII. § 28. call it Στατὴρ δαρεικός.

Pollux, L. IV. c. 24. Hesychius, v. Χρυσου̑ς.

Greaves, p. 72.

P. 71.

Eisenschmid. p. 16, says, Budelius, who was master of the mint at Cologne, found the money ounce used in Flanders and the United Provinces, to weigh 579⅕ Paris grains (equal to 4751/8[Editor: ?] Troy) and that Gassendus found it but 577. See also the Memoires of the Royal Academy of Science, for the year 1767. pp. 364, 370. I weighed the Dutch half marc of 4 ounces, from Amsterdam, in an excellent balance, and found it to weigh 3 ounces, 19 p. weight, and 4 grains Troy; which divided by 4, gives 19 p. weight, 19 grains, or 475 Troy grains, for the weight of the Dutch ounce. This ounce contains 640 Dutch grains; and

As 640 to 179, so are 475 to 13217/20, the weight of Snellius’s coins.

See Snellius de re nummaria, Vol. IX. of the Thesaurus Antiquitatum Græcarum, col. 1583.

Eisenschmid. p. 44.

See Eisenschmid’s figure, and c. 7. of P. II. T. 48, of the Pembroke collection.

See Montfaucon’s Palæographia Græca, p. 135, and the Marmor Atheniense, lately published by Mr. Chambers. The Scholiast on ver. 688 of Euripides’s Phœnissæ dates the introduction of the long vowels into Athens, in the Archonship of Euclides.

See Pollux, L. IX. c. 6. § 86 and 76.

A. Gellius, L. I. c. 8.

Nat. Hist. L. XXXIII. c. 3.

Stephani Thes. Græc. t. IV. col. 25.

L. IX. c. 6. § 86.

See the word Μνα̑ in the index to Stephens’s Greek Thesaurus.

Πρόδηλον ὅτι δραχμὴν λέγομεν νυ̑ν ἐν τοι̑ς τοιούτοις ἅπασιν, ὅπερ Ρ‘ωμαι̑οι δηνάριον ὀνομάζουσιν. Galen L. VIII. De compos. medicam, as quoted by Gronovius, L. II. c. 6. De Pecun. Vet.

Festus, De Verborum Signif. v. Talentum.

Herod. L. III. § 89.

Pollux, L. IX. c. 6. § 86.

Var. Hist. L. I. c. 22.

Polyb. Excerpt. Legat. § 28.

Xenoph. Exped. L. I.

Plato, in his Hipparchus.

The common reading is sestertios DCCCC, which I shall consider hereafter.

Plin. Nat. Hist. L. XXXIII. c. 3. In most editions of Pliny before Hardouin, the numbers 40 and 45, are thus written X. XL. M. and X. XLV. M. whence Agricola and Snellius have supposed the M. after the former number, to be a mistake of the transcriber for II. and that after the latter for III. But Hardouin in his note on this passage hath shewn the M. in both places, to be superfluous. In the last clause, I read minutissimè vero not minutissimè Nero.

See the epitome of L. XV.

Vitruvius, L. III. c. 1. So likewise Volusius Mætianus. Taciti Annal. L. 1. § 17. & 26.

Varro de Re Rustica, L. I. c. 10. Collumella, L. V. c. 1. and Volusius Mæcianus.

Celsus de Medicina, L. V. c. 17. Pliny, Nat. Hist. L. XXXIII. c. 9.

See Thes. Antiq. Roman. Vol. XI. col. 1661.

Thes. Antiq. Roman. Vol. XI. col. 1619.

Ibid. col. 1635.

Gruter’s Inscriptions, p. ccxxi.

Fabretti Inscript. p. 523.

Gruter’s Inscriptions, p. ccxxiii.

Greaves, p. 92. in a note.

Festus de verb signif. v. publica pondera

See Philosoph. Trans. Vol. LI. p. 790.

Divers ouvrages de Mathematique & de Physique par Mess. de l’Academie Royale, Paris, 1693, in folio. p. 366, 371.

Fabretti Inscript, p. 527.

See Greaves, p. 92.

Eisenschmid, p. 174, 175.

Savot. P. III. c. 7. Hardouin’s note on Pliny. This piece is 3 Roman Scruples, which valued at 60 Sesterces of 21/3[Editor: ?] Asses to the Sesterce, was worth 150 Asses, or 9 silver Denarii and 6 Asses, wanting but 2 Asses of 9½ Denarii. Now in Ptolomy’s geographical tables, where the degree is divided unciatim, after the Roman manner; this character ↓ stands for one half; therefore being placed before the X (as on the coin) it might denote 9½, as I before the X stands for 9. But Mr. Duane hath a gold coin with the same mark, and of the same impression as this, which weighs but 45½ grains, though it seems to be perfect.

Memoires de l’Academie des Inscriptions, Vol. XXX. p. 359.

Cicero de Officiis, L. III. § 20.

Cicero, ibid. Pliny, Nat. Hist. L. XXXIII. c. 9.

Pliny, L. XXXIV. c. 6.

Seneca de Ira, L. III. c. 18.

Tab. VIII.

Recherches curieuses des monnoyes de France. Paris, 1666. in folio.

Eisenschmid, p. 34.

Lampridius, in Alex. Severo.

Siquis solidos appendere voluerit, auri cocti VI solidos quaternorum scrupulorum, nostris vultibus figuratos, adpendat pro singulis unciis, XII. pro duabus: eadem ratio servanda & si materiam quis inferat, ut solidos dedisse videatur. Cod. Theod. de Ponderatoribus, § 1. Again, Illud autem cautionis adjicimus, ut quotiescunque certa summa solidorum pro tituli quantitate debetur, & auri massa transmittitur, in LXXII solidos libra feratur accepta. Cod. Justin. L. X. Tit. 70. de Susceptoribus, § 5.

Cum plures Denarios appenderemus ejusdem formæ, inscriptionis, & penè magnitudinis, atque ita similes, ut non solum eodem tempore, sed eodem prorsus die, percussos fuisse conjiceres, tamen cos deprehendimus quinis, novenis, aut denis granis pondere a se invicem distare. Villalp. De apparatu urbis & templi, p. 357. Ten Roman grains are equal to about 7⅗ Troy.

Pliny, Nat. Hist. L. VI. c. 22.

Galen, de med. comp. sec. genera, L. III. c. 3.

Rhemnius Fannius, Cleopatra, Dioscorides, &c.

Greaves, p. 113.

Eisenschmid, p. 33.

Eisenschmid, p. 175.

See the Discourse on the Roman Foot, Phil. Trans. Vol. LI.

See the Theod. and Justinian Codes quoted in p. 562.

Glossæ nomicæ, quoted by Gronovius, L. IV. c. 16. de pecunia vetere.

See the preceding note.

Jubemus ut pro argenti summa quam quis thesauris fuerit illaturus, inferendi auri accipiat facultatem, ita ut pro singulis libris argenti, quinos Solidos inferat. Cod. Theod. De argenti pretio, & Cod. Justin. L. X. Tit. 76.

Cum publica celebrantur officia, sit sportulis nummus argenteus,—nec majorum argenteum nummum fas sit expendere, quam qui formari solet, cum argenti libra una in argenteas sexaginta dividitur. Cod. Theod. De expensis ludorum.

Χρὴ γινώσκειν ὅτι τὸ ἓν κεράτιον ϕόλλεισ εἰσὶ ιϐ, ἤτοι μιλιαρησίου τὸ ἥμισυ· τὰ οὐ̑ν ιϐ κεράτιά ἐστι νομίσματους ἥμισυ· τὸ δὲ ἀκέραιον νόμισμα ἔχει μιλιαρήσια ιϐ, ἤτοι κεράτια κδ’. Schol. in L. XXIII. Βασιλικω̑ν, apud Gronov. L. IV. c. 16. De pecunia vetere.

See Rhemnius Fannius, and others.

Glossæ nomicæ apud Gronov. L. IV. c. 16.

See the Glossæ nomicæ, quoted by Gronovius near the end of c. 16. of L. IV.

Φόλλις σταθμός ἐστι, λεγόμενους καὶ βαλάντιον· ἕλκει δὲ δηνάρια διακόσια πεντήκοντα, τουτ’ ἔστι λίτρας τιϐ, καὶ οὐγγίας ἓξ, ὡς ἔχοντους ἑκᾴστου δηναρίου λίτραν ά καὶ οὐγγίας γ́. Glossæ nomicæ, apud Gronov. L. IV. c. 16.

Æris pretia quæ a provincialibus postulantur, ita excipi volumus, ut pro XXV. libris æris, Solidus a possessore reddatur. Cod. Theodos. de collatione æris.

Cod. Justin. L. X. Tit. 29.

Eisenschmid, p. 141.

Hero, Epiphanius, &c.

Herodotus, L. III. § 95.

Plato in his Hipparchus.

Xenophon in his Expedition of Cyrus, L. I.

Pliny Nat. Hist. L. XXXIII. c. 3.

Suetonius in Julio, c. 26.

Taciti Annal. L. I. § 17.

Polybius, L. VI. p. 484 of Casaubon’s edition.

Polybius, L. II. p. 103.

Polybius, L. VI. p. 484. Taciti Annal. L. I. § 17.

Polybius, Excerpt. Legat. § 28. Livy L. XXXVIII.

Pliny, Nat. Hist. L. XXXIII. c. 3.

L. XIX. c. 1.

Taciti Hist. L. I. § 24. Suetonius in Othone, c. 4. See also Dio Cassius, L. LV.

Suetonius in Julio, c. 54.

See the Pembroke Collection, from Tab. XX. to XXIV.

See Cod. Justinian. L. X. Tit. 76. quoted above.

Pliny Nat. Hist. L. XXXIII. c. 3. & c. 9.

See Gronovius, De pecunia vetere, L. I. c. 4.

Suetonius in Julio, c. 38. Cicero in Verrem, L. I. § 14.

Iliad H. ver. 472.

Iliad Ω. ver. 232.

Herodot. L. I. § 94.

See Pollux, L. IX. c. 6. § 80, 81, 87. & L. IV. c. 24. § 175.

Polybius, Excerp. Leg. § 35. Livy, L. XXXVIII. c. 38.

Polyb. Exc. Leg. § 24. Livy, L. XXXVII. c. 45.

Analecta Græca, p. 393. Paris, 1688, in Quarto.

Pliny, Nat. Hist. at the end of L. XXI. Scr. Largus, in his Preface.

A. Gellius, L. I. c. 8. Hoc facit nummi nostratis Denariûm decem millia.

See the Appendix to Stephens’s Greek Thesaurus, col. 219.

Compare Dionysius with Livy.

Gronovius, De pec. vet. L. I. c. 6.

Livy, L. XXXVIII. § 55.