Of the unequal Coinage of our Moneys This Title doth wholly depend upon the Mechanical part of making Money,which because I am unskilful in,I do handle with much scruple and retention,being forced to apply my self to what I read in others;and peradventure may in some points misunderstand,yet because this is a very main and principal cause of the exportation of Money I cannot omit it:And the first cause of the unequality of the coinage,is the greatness of the Remedies both of the weight and fineness:and I do find that some men of great experience and understanding even in this Mechanical part do hold,that the Money both of Gold and Silver may be made without any Remedy to be allowed either for weight or fineness.
This I am sure that it doth appear by the Records of former times,that the Remedies allowed have been many times less than now they are,and have been heretofore very variable according to the favour or the skill which the Masters of the Mint did use to make their own Advantage:since Henry VIIths time,the Mint Masters have bin tied to account to the King for half the Profits of the Remedies allowed,by which means it is manifest that half the Remedies allowed might be cut off,and the Kings profits might be better recompenced upon the price of the Coinage.By the Indentures of the Second of King James,the Officers of the Mint are tied to account to the King for the whole profit of the Remedies;but then there is a clause that the King shall give them allowance for so much as they shall over-put above the standard,which clause seemeth to me very captious:But if all the inequality of the Moneys coined did consist in the Remedies,the matter were not so much;but the great profit which hath been made by culling of the Coins by Goldsmiths and Cashiers to Merchants and others,through whose hands great Sums of Money do pass,doth manifestly prove that the inequality of the Moneys is much greater than the allowance of the Remedies can make it;yet when I consider upon what great Penalties the Mint Master is tied,how exact a Course is set down by his Indenture,and observ'd for the Examination and Trial of his work,I cannot imagine much less find out,where the Error lieth,but that there is an Error,and such an one as deserveth strict Enquiry and Redress by the State,I am verily perswaded.The Mint Master knoweth exactly how many pieces he is to sheer out of every pound weight,but whether these pieces are shorn so equal to one another in weight,as there shall be no advantage in culling out the heaviest from the lightest,that is the Scruple:The course is this,out of every proportion of Silver and Gold coined,there is a piece taken at adventure,by certain Officers trusted,and put into a Pix under their several Keys,and then at the years end,this Pix is opened in the Star Chamber,and telling out so many pieces as are to make a pound,they melt them and examine whether they hold the weight and fineness,within the Remedies required;which Course for the examination of the Fineness seemeth exact enough,but for the weight it may fall out that the pieces taken out of the several Proportions of Money coined,being melted together may hold the weight required within the Remedies,and yet the pieces of those several Proportions may differ in weight from one another,more than the Remedy allowed.
The Remedies that are propounded for this inequality are divers:
1.Some think that it may be redressed by a strict and severe Course to be held with all those,through whose hands the work doth pass for the perfection of their works.
Others are much pleased with belief of some invented Engines,which have been by some work-men offered for a more perfect and exact coining of Moneys,than can be performed by the stamp,and the ways that are now practised.
Others find no so good way as by the Mill,whereof divers experiments have been made both in this Kingdom and in other parts.Of which,because I dare in my self deliver no Opinion,Iwill only translate what I find written by a French Author,a man of great practice and experience in these Mysteries,but because in some places he hath words of Art which admit of no translation,I must be fain use the original Terms:He saith,That against the Establishment of the Mill it is objected,that after the Invention of it,by reason of the great clipping that belongs to it;the Conductor of it was of Necessity to have an Augmentation for the Workmanship.
