must send silver from hence to reimburse them, and repay the money they have drawn out of their hands. Whilst bullion may be had for a small price more than the weight of our current cash, these exchangers generally choose rather to buy bullion, than run the risk of melting down our coin, which is criminal by the law. And thus the matter for the most part went, whilst milled and clipped money passed promiscuously in payment: for so long a clipped half-crown was as good here as a milled one, since one passed, and could be had as freely as the other. But as soon as there began to be a distinction between clipped and unclipped money, and weighty money could no longer be had for the light, bullion (as was natural) arose; and it would fall again to-morrow to the price it was at before, if there were none but weighty money to pay for it. In short, whenever the whole of our foreign trade and consumption exceeds our exportation of commodities, our money must go to pay our debts so contracted, whether melted or not melted down. If the law makes the exportation of our coin penal, it will be melted down; if it leaves the exportation of our coin free, as in Holland, it will be carried out in specie. One way or other, go it must, as we see in Spain; but whether melted down, or not melted down, it matters little : our coin and treasure will be both ways equally diminished, and can be restored only by an over-balance of our whole exportation, to our whole importation of consumable commodities. Laws made against exportation of money or bullion will be all in vain. Restraint, or liberty in that matter, makes no country rich or poor: as we see in Holland, which had plenty of money under the free liberty of its exportation, and Spain in great want of money under the severest penalties against carrying of it out. But the coining, or not coining our money, on the same foot it was before, or in bigger or less pieces, and under whatsoever denominations you please, contributes nothing to, or against its melting down, or exportation, so our money be all kept, each species in its full weight of silver, according to the standard: for if some be heavier, and

some lighter, allowed to be current, so under the same. denomination the heavier will be melted down, where the temptation of profit is considerable, which in wellregulated coin kept to the standard cannot be. But this melting down carries not away one grain of our treasure out of England. The coming and going of that depends wholly upon the balance of our trade; and therefore it is a wrong conclusion which we find, p. 71, "That continuing either old or new coins on the present foot will be nothing else but furnishing a species to melt down at an extravagant profit, and will encourage a violent exportation of our silver, for the sake of the gain only, till we shall have little or none left." For example: let us suppose all our light money new coined, upon the foot that this gentleman would have it, and all our old milled crowns going for 75 pence, as he proposes, and the rest of the old milled money proportionably; I desire it to be showed how this would hinder the exportation of one ounce of silver, whilst our affairs are in the present posture. Again, on the other side, supposing all our money were now milled coin upon the present foot, and, our balance of trade changing, our exportation of commodities were a million more than our importation, and likely to continue so yearly; whereof one half was to Holland, and the other to Flanders, there being an equal balance between England and all other parts of the world we trade to: I ask, what possible gain could any Englishman make, by melting down and carrying out our money to Holland and Flanders, when a million was to come thence hither, and Englishmen had more there already than they knew how to use there, and could not get home without paying dear there for bills of exchange? If that were the case of our trade, the exchange would presently fall here, and rise there beyond the par of their money to ours, i. e. an English merchant must give in Holland more silver for the bills he bought there, than he should receive upon those bills here, if the two sums were weighed one against the other: or run the risque of bringing it home in

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specie. And what then could any Englishman get by exporting money or silver thither?

These are the only two cases wherein our coin can be melted down with profit; and I challenge any one living to show me any other. The one of them is removed only by a regular just coin, kept equal to the standard; be that what it will, it matters not, as to the point of melting down of the money. The other is to be removed only by the balance of our trade kept from running us behind-hand, and contracting debts in foreign countries by an over-consumption of their commodities.

To those who say, that the exportation of our money, whether melted down, or not melted down, depends wholly upon our consumption of foreign commodities, and not at all upon the sizes of the several species of our money, which will be equally exported, or not exported, whether coined upon the old or the proposed new foot: Mr. Lowndes replies:

1. That "the necessity of foreign expense, and exportation to answer the balance of trade, may be diminished, but cannot in any sense be augmented, by raising the value of our money."..

I beg his pardon, if I cannot assent to this. Because the necessity of our exportation of money, depending wholly upon the debts which we contract in foreign parts, beyond what our commodities exported can pay; the coining our money in bigger or less pieces, under the same or different denominations, or on the present or proposed foot, in itself neither increasing those debts, nor the expenses that make them, can neither augment nor diminish the exportation of our money.

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2. He replies, p. 72, That melters of the coin "will have less profit by fourteen-pence halfpenny in the crown," when the money is coined upon the new foot.

To this I take liberty to say, that there will not be a farthing more profit in melting down the money, if it were all new milled money, upon the present foot,

than if it were all new coined, as is proposed, one-fifth lighter. For whence should the profit arise more in the one than the other? But Mr. Lowndes goes upon this supposition; That standard bullion is now worth six shillings and five-pence an ounce of milled money, and would continue to sell for six shillings and five-pence the ounce, if our money were all weighty milled money both which I take to be mistakes, and think I have proved them to be so.

3. He says, "It is hoped that the exchange to Holland may be kept at a stand, or at least from falling much lower." I hope so too. I hope so too. But how that concerns this argument, or the coining of the money upon a new foot, I do not see.

4. He says, p. 73, "There is a great difference, with regard to the service or disservice of the public, between carrying out bullion, or coin for necessary uses, or for prohibiting commodities." The gain to the exporters, which is that which makes them melt it down and export it, is the same in both cases. And the necessity of exporting it is the same. For it is to pay debts, which there is an equal necessity of paying, when once contracted, though for useless things. They are the goldsmiths and dealers in silver, that usually export what, silver is sent beyond sea, to pay the debts they have contracted by their bills of exchange. But those dealers in exchange seldom know, or consider, how they, to whom they give their bills, have, or will employ, the money they receive upon those bills. Prohibited commodities, it is true, should be kept out, and useless ones impoverish us by being brought in. But this is the fault of our importation: and there the mischief should be cured by laws, and our way of living. For the exportation of our treasure is not the cause of their importation, but the consequence. Vanity and luxury spends them: that gives them vent here: that vent causes their importation: and when our merchants have brought them, if our commodities will not be enough, our money must go to pay for them. But what this paragraph has in it against continuing our

coin upon the present foot, or for making our coin lighter, I confess here again, I do not see.

It is true what Mr. Lowndes observes here, the importation of gold, and the going of guineas at 30s. has been a great prejudice and loss to the kingdom. But that has been wholly owing to our clipped money, and not at all to our money being coined at five shillings and two-pence the ounce; nor is the coining our money lighter the cure of it. The only remedy for that mischief, as well as a great many others, is the putting an end to the passing of clipped money by tale, as if it were lawful coin.

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5. His fifth head, p. 74, is to answer those, who hold, that, by the lessening our money one-fifth, all people, who are to receive money upon contracts already made, will be defrauded of twenty per cent. of their due: and thus all men will lose one-fifth of their settled revenues, and all men, that have lent money, one-fifth of their principal and use. To re move this objection, Mr. Lowndes says, that silver in England is grown scarce, and consequently dearer, and so is of higher price. Let us grant for the present, it is of higher price (which how he makes out, I shall examine by and by). This, if it were so, ought not to annul any man's bargain, nor make him receive less in quantity than he lent. He was to receive again the same sum, and the public authority was guarantee, that the samé sum should have the same quantity of silver, under the same denomination. And the reason is plain, why in justice he ought to have the same quantity of silver again, notwithstanding any pretended rise of its value. For if silver had grown more plentiful, and by consequence (by our author's rule) cheaper, his debtor would not have been compelled, by the public authority, to have paid him, in consideration of its cheapness, a greater quantity of silver than they contracted for. Cocoa-nuts were the money of a part of America, when we first came thither. Suppose then you had lent me last year 300, or fifteen score cocoa-nuts, to be repaid this year, would you be satisfied, and think yourself