Further Considerations [11]
than the price of Silver in Bullion, the Coin hath and will be melted down. This I think, tho' it be allowed Mr. Lowndes for as Apparent a Truth, and as certain a Maxim as he could wish, yet serves not at all to his purpose of lessening the Coin. For when the Coin, is as it should be, according to the Standard (let the Standard be what it will) weighty and unclip'd, it is impossible that the value of Coin'd Silver should be less than the value or price of Uncoin'd; Because, as I have shewn, the value and quantity of Silver are the same: And where the quantities are equal, the values are equal; excepting only the odds that may be between Bullion that may be freely exported, and Coin'd Silver that may not; The odds whereof scarce ever amounts to above 2d. Per Ounce, and rarely to above a penny or an half-penny. And this odds (whatever it be) will equally belong to his raised mill'd Money, which cannot be exported, as it will to our present mill'd Money, which cannot be Exported; As I shall have occasion to shew more particularly hereafter. All this disorder, and a thousand others, comes from light and unlawful Money being current. For then it is no wonder that Bullion should be kept up to the value of your clip'd Money; that is, that Bullion should not be sold by the Ounce for less than 6s. 5d. when that 6s. 5d. clip'd Money paid for it, does not Weigh above an Ounce. This instance therefore of the present price of Bullion, proves nothing but that the quantity of Silver in Money governs the value of it, and not the denomination; as appears when clip'd Money is brought to buy Bullion. This is a fair Tryal: Silver is set against Silver, and by that is seen whether clip'd Money be of the same value with weighty of the same denomination, or whether it be not the quantity of Silver in it that regulates its value. I cannot but wonder that Mr. Lowndes, a Man so well skill'd in the Law, especially of the Mint, the Exchequer, and of our Money, should all along in this Argument speak of clip'd Money, as if it were the lawful Money of England; and should propose by that (which is in effect by the Clippers Sheers) to regulate a new sort of Coin to be introduced into England. And if he will stand to that measure, and lessen the new Coin to the rate of Bullion sold in exchange for present current clip'd Money, to prevent its being melted down; he must make it yet much lighter than he proposes, so that raising it, or to give it its due name, that lessening of it one fifth will not serve the turn: For I will be bold to say, that Bullion now in England is no where to be bought by the Ounce for 6s. 5d. of our present current clip'd Money. So that if his Rule be true, and nothing can save the weighty Coin from melting down, but reducing it to the weight that clip'd Money is brought to, he must lessen the Money in his new Coin much more than one fifth; for an Ounce of Standard Bullion will always be worth an Ounce of clip'd Money, whether that in tale amount to 6s. 5d. 6s. 6d. Ten Shillings, or any other number of Shillings or Pence of the nick-named clip'd Money. For a piece of Silver that was Coin'd for a Shilling, but has half the Silver clip'd off, in the Law and in Propriety of speech is no more a Shilling than a piece of Wood, which was once a sealed Yard, is still a Yard when one half of it is broke off. Let us consider this Maxim a little further; which out of the language of the Mint in plain English, I think, amounts to thus much, viz. That when an Ounce of Standard Bullion costs a greater number of Pence in tale, than an Ounce of that Bullion can be Coin'd into by the Standard of the Mint, the Coin will be melted down. I grant it, if Bullion should rise to 15 Pence the Ounce above 5s. 2d. as is now pretended; which is to say, that an Ounce of Bullion cannot be bought for less than an Ounce and a quarter of the like Silver Coin'd. But that, as I have shew'd, is impossible to be: And every one would be convinced of the contrary, if we had none now but lawful Money current. But 'tis no wonder if the price and value of things