new, viz. five per cent. which, I suppose, is more than the author would be willing to lose, unless he get by it another way.

Rem." And if the alteration designed should have "the effect of making our native commodities any 66 ways dearer.”

Answ. Here our author confesses, that proportionably as your money is raised, the price of other things will be raised too. But to make amends, he says,

Rem. "It does at the same time make the land which "produces them of more than so much more in value." Answ. This "more than so much more in value," is more than our author, or any body else for him, will ever be able to make out.

The price of things will always be estimated by the quantity of silver given in exchange for them. And if you make your money less in weight, it must be made up in tale. This is all this great mystery of raising money, and raising land. For example: the manor of Blackacre would yesterday have yielded one hundred thousand crowns, which crown-pieces, let us suppose numero rotundo to weigh each of them an ounce of standard silver. To-day your new coin comes in play, which is five per cent. lighter. There is your money raised: the land now at sale yields one hundred and five thou sand crowns, which is just the same one hundred thousand ounces of standard silver. There is the land raised. And is not this an admirable invention, for which the public ought to be at above one hundred thousand pounds charge for new coinage, and all your commerce put in disorder? And then to recommend this invention, you are told, as a great secret, That, "had not money, "from time to time, been raised in its denomination, "lands had not so risen too:" which is to say, Had not your money been made lighter, fewer pieces of it would have bought as much land as a greater number does now.

Rem. " The loss of payments, there spoken of, will, "in no sort, be so great, as if the parties, to whom these debts are owing, were now bound to receive them in "the money that now passes, and then to melt the

66 same

same down; so at this they will have no cause to complain.'

Answ. A very good argument! the clippers have robbed the public of a good part of their money (which men will, some time or other, find in the payments they receive) and it is desired the mint may have a liberty to be beforehand with those, to whom debts are owing. They are told, they will have no reason to complain of it, who suffer this loss, because it is not so great as the other. The damage is already done to the public, by clipping. Where at last it will light, I cannot tell. But men who receive clipped money, not being forced to melt it down, do not yet receive any loss by it. When clipped money will no longer change for weighty, then those, who have clipped money in their hands, will find

the loss of it.

Rem. "It will make the customs better paid, because "there will be more money."

Answ. That there will be more money in talc, it is possible: that there will be more money in weight and worth, the author ought to show. And then, whatever becomes of the customs, (which I do not hear are unpaid now) the king will lose in the excise above thirty thousand pounds per annum. For in all taxes where so many pounds, shillings, or pence are determined by the law to be paid, there the king will lose five per cent. The author here, as in other places, gives a good reason for it: for, "his majesty being to pay away this money "by tale, as he receives it, it will be to him no loss at "all."

As if my receiving my rents in full tale, but in money of undervalue five per cent. were not so much loss to me, because I was to pay it away again by tale. Try it at 50 per cent. the odds only is, That one being greater than the other, would make more noise. But the author's great refuge in this is, That it will not be perceived.

pur

Rem. If all foreign commodities were to be "chased with this new species of money sent out; we agree, That with 1001. of it there could not be so "much silver, or other commodities bought, as with "1001. in crown-pieces as now coined, because they VOL. V.

I

"would

"would be heavier; and all coin, in any kingdom but " where it is coined, only goes by weight; and for the

same weight of silver, the same every-where still will "be bought; and so there will, with the same quantity

of goods. And if those goods should cost five per cent. "more here in England than heretofore, and yield "but the same money (we mean by the ounce abroad) "the same money, brought home and coined, will yield the importer five per cent. more at the mint "than it heretofore could do, and so no damage to the "trader at all."

Answ. Here truth forces from the author a confession of two things, which demonstrate the vanity and uselessness of the project. 1. That, upon this change of your coin, foreign goods will be raised. Your own goods will cost five per cent, more. So that goods of all kinds being thereupon raised; wherein consists the raising of your money, when an ounce of standard silver, however minced, stamped, or denominated, will buy no more commodities than it did before? This confession also shows the falshood of that dangerous supposition, That mohey, "in the kingdom where it is coined, goes not by "weight," i. e. is not valued by its weight.

Rem. "It is true, the owners of silver will find a good "market for it, and no others will be damaged; but, on "the contrary, the making plenty of money will be an "advantage to all."

Answ. I grant it true, That if your money were really raised five per cent. the owners of silver would get so much by it, by bringing it to the mint to be coined. But since, as is confessed, commodities will (upon this raising your money) be raised to five per cent. this alteration will be an advantage to no-body, but the officers of the mint, and hoarders of money.

Rem. "When standard silver was last raised at the "mint, (which it was from 5s. to 5s. and 2d. the ounce, "in the 43d of Eliz.) and for above forty years after, "silver uncoined was not worth above 4s. 10d. the ounce, which occasioned much coining; and of money, none in those days was exported: whereas silver now is worth but the very same 5s. 2d. the ounce "still at the mint, and is worth 5s. 4d. elsewhere. So

..that

* that if this bill now with the lords does not happen to

pass, there can never any silver be ever any more "coined at the mint; and all the milled money will, in

"

a very little time more, be destroyed."

Answ. The reason of so much money coined in queen Elizabeth's time, and afterwards, was not the lessening of your crown pieces from 480 to 462 grains, aud so proportionably all the rest of your money, (which is that the author calls raising standard silver from 5s. to 5s. 2d. the ounce) but from the over-balance of your trade, bringing them in plenty of bullion, and keeping it here.

How standard silver (for if the author speaks of other silver, it is a fallacy) should be worth its own weight in standard silver at the mint, (i. e. 5s. 2d. the ounce) and be worth more than its own weight in standard silver, (i. e. 5s. 4d. the ounce) in Lombard-street, is a paradox that no-body, I think, will be able to comprehend, till it be better explained. It is time to give off coining, if the value of standard silver be lessened by it; as really it is, if an ounce of coined standard silver will not exchange for an ounce of uncoined standard silver, unless you add 15 or 16 grains overplus to it: which is what the author would have taken upon his word, when he says, "Silver is worth five shillings four(( pence elsewhere."

Five shillings four-pence of money coined at the mint, the author must allow to be at least 495 grains. An ounce is but 480 grains. How then an ounce of uncoined standard silver can be worth five shillings fourpence (i. e. how 480 grains of uncoined standard silver can be worth 495 grains of the same standard silver, coined into money) is unintelligible; unless the coinage. of our mint lessens the value of standard silver.

SIR,

"COIN

OIN and interest are two things of so great moment to the public, and of so great concernment in trade, that they ought very accurately "to be examined into, and very nicely weighed, upon

66

any proposal of alteration to be made in them. I pretend not to have treated of them here as they "deserve. That must be the work of an abler hand; I

have said something on these subjects, because you "required it. And, I hope, the readiness of my obe"dience will excuse to you the faults I have com"mitted, and assure you that I am,

"SIR,

"Your most humble servant,

"JOHN LOCKE."

SHORT