A Discourse of Coin and Coinage [50]
but able
to judge of what should be propounded by others: a point of so
great Importance, that for want of that ability the wisest States
and the greatest Councils of Christendom, for many Ages, have
been abused by misterious names, and perplexed subtities of Mint
men, gold smiths, and Exchangers; who, as they had the whole
knowledge of this subject in themselves, so they had their
several Interests, and I conceive that I have performed all the
points that I have undertaken in this discourse; save on, which
is that speaking of the several means of raising of Money, I said
that the Occasions thereof had been two,
The one for the drawing of Money from the neighbouring
Countries, or preserving of their own.
The other, when the States without any such pretence, but
forced only by the violence of Necessity to raise means of
Subsistence for themselves, have doubled and trebled, nay
sometimes sextupled the values of their Moneys, of which I
promised to speak further: and for this purpose, I intend to set
down, --
The history of the most memorable Raisings that have been in
this kind, both in our Age and heretofore, of what nature they
were, and how these States did draw their Benefit and Subsistence
out of them.
Secondly, What other Extremities and Confusions, those
Raisings did draw the said States, and the People thereof.
Thirdly, What Remedies these States have applyed to reduce
and settle those Extremities and Confusions whereinto they were
fallen, in which History I shall come to touch some Examples very
modern, as that which of late years was made by the Emperour
which now reigns, especially in the higher parts of Germany, a
raising so high and excessive as it equals any of the antient
Examples, even of those mentioned by Pliny, to be practised by
the Romans in their great extremities in the Punick Wars, whether
you respect the excess of the Multiplication, or the Strangeness
of the effects which it produced; the most famous Occasions,
which I purpose to examine were,
First, Those Raisings, mentioned by Pliny to be, by the
Romans in the first Punick Wars, which was to make every piece of
Coin current at six times the value of what it was before, since
which time, although there were sundry raisings made by the
Romans, yet none of them was neer this Proportion.
In the Kingdom of France, I cannot find any extraordinary
raisings made of the Money, until the time of Phillip le Bell and
Charles le Bell, and then the Kings of France, did raise an
ordinary tribute by coining Moneys of a base value, and when they
were dispersed in the Peoples hands, suddenly calling them back
again, and making them uncurrent, by which they got extreamly
both by the coinage and recalling them; for that none might
exchange or melt these Moneys so recalled, but the Officers
appointed by the King, which was a Gain of a most unjust and
grievous condition that ever was practised in any Kingdom, and
did accordingly produce great Tumults and Seditions there; yet
his practice did remain until the time of Charles the fifth,
otherwise called the wise, whereof (besides the Records of the
Mint in that Kingdom which do shew the perpetual alterations of
the Moneys in these times) I do remember two memorable Evidences
out of Histories, of which one is,
That at what time the State of France, during the desolation
of that Countrey by the English Wars, did grant unto the King the
Gabel of Salt, and the Impost upon Wine, they did particularly
Covenant, That for such a space the King should not alter the
standards of his Coin.
One other is, that Hollingshead in his Chronicle making
mention of a voyage made by the black Prince from Burdeaux into
Languedock doth cite the Letter of one Sir John Wingfield, a
principal Servant to the Prince, wherein he saith, That the
Countries and good Towns, which were wasted at this Journey,
found to the King of France every year more to the maintenance of
his War than half his Realm besides, except the Exchanges of his
Money which
to judge of what should be propounded by others: a point of so
great Importance, that for want of that ability the wisest States
and the greatest Councils of Christendom, for many Ages, have
been abused by misterious names, and perplexed subtities of Mint
men, gold smiths, and Exchangers; who, as they had the whole
knowledge of this subject in themselves, so they had their
several Interests, and I conceive that I have performed all the
points that I have undertaken in this discourse; save on, which
is that speaking of the several means of raising of Money, I said
that the Occasions thereof had been two,
The one for the drawing of Money from the neighbouring
Countries, or preserving of their own.
The other, when the States without any such pretence, but
forced only by the violence of Necessity to raise means of
Subsistence for themselves, have doubled and trebled, nay
sometimes sextupled the values of their Moneys, of which I
promised to speak further: and for this purpose, I intend to set
down, --
The history of the most memorable Raisings that have been in
this kind, both in our Age and heretofore, of what nature they
were, and how these States did draw their Benefit and Subsistence
out of them.
Secondly, What other Extremities and Confusions, those
Raisings did draw the said States, and the People thereof.
Thirdly, What Remedies these States have applyed to reduce
and settle those Extremities and Confusions whereinto they were
fallen, in which History I shall come to touch some Examples very
modern, as that which of late years was made by the Emperour
which now reigns, especially in the higher parts of Germany, a
raising so high and excessive as it equals any of the antient
Examples, even of those mentioned by Pliny, to be practised by
the Romans in their great extremities in the Punick Wars, whether
you respect the excess of the Multiplication, or the Strangeness
of the effects which it produced; the most famous Occasions,
which I purpose to examine were,
First, Those Raisings, mentioned by Pliny to be, by the
Romans in the first Punick Wars, which was to make every piece of
Coin current at six times the value of what it was before, since
which time, although there were sundry raisings made by the
Romans, yet none of them was neer this Proportion.
In the Kingdom of France, I cannot find any extraordinary
raisings made of the Money, until the time of Phillip le Bell and
Charles le Bell, and then the Kings of France, did raise an
ordinary tribute by coining Moneys of a base value, and when they
were dispersed in the Peoples hands, suddenly calling them back
again, and making them uncurrent, by which they got extreamly
both by the coinage and recalling them; for that none might
exchange or melt these Moneys so recalled, but the Officers
appointed by the King, which was a Gain of a most unjust and
grievous condition that ever was practised in any Kingdom, and
did accordingly produce great Tumults and Seditions there; yet
his practice did remain until the time of Charles the fifth,
otherwise called the wise, whereof (besides the Records of the
Mint in that Kingdom which do shew the perpetual alterations of
the Moneys in these times) I do remember two memorable Evidences
out of Histories, of which one is,
That at what time the State of France, during the desolation
of that Countrey by the English Wars, did grant unto the King the
Gabel of Salt, and the Impost upon Wine, they did particularly
Covenant, That for such a space the King should not alter the
standards of his Coin.
One other is, that Hollingshead in his Chronicle making
mention of a voyage made by the black Prince from Burdeaux into
Languedock doth cite the Letter of one Sir John Wingfield, a
principal Servant to the Prince, wherein he saith, That the
Countries and good Towns, which were wasted at this Journey,
found to the King of France every year more to the maintenance of
his War than half his Realm besides, except the Exchanges of his
Money which