Further Considerations [15]
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 Summ, and the Publick Authority was Guarantee that the same Summ 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 wou'd not have been compelled by the Publick Authority to have paid him, in consideration of its cheapness, a greater quantity of Silver than they contracted for. Cacao 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 Cacao Nuts, to be repaid this Year: Wou'd you be satisfied and think your self paid your due, if I shou'd tell you, Cacao Nuts were scarce this Year, and that four-score were of as much value this year as an hundred the last; and that therefore you were well and fully paid if I restored to you only 240 for the 300 I borrow'd? Would you not think your self defrauded of one fifth of your Right by such a payment? nor would it make any amends for this to Justice, or Reparation to you, that the Publick had (after your contract, which was made for fifteen Score) alter'd the denomination of Score, and applyed it to sixteen instead of twenty. Examine it, and you will find this just the Case, and the Loss proportionable in them both: That is, a real Loss of 20 per Cent. As to Mr. Lowndes's proofs, that Silver is now one fifth more value than it was, and therefore a man has right donehim, if he receive one fifth less than his contract, I fear none of them will reach Mr. Lowndes's point. He saith p. 77. By daily experience nineteen penny weight, and three tenths ofa penny weight of Sterling Silver which isjust the weight of a Crown piece, will purchase more coined Money than five unclip'd Shillings. I wish he had told us where this daily experience he speaks of is to be found: For I dare say no body hath seen a Sum of unclip'd Shillings paid for Bullion any where this twelve months, to go no further back. In the next place, I wish he had told us how much more than five lawful mild'd Shillings, Bullion of the weight of a Crown piece will purchase. If he had said it would purchase six Shillings and three Pence weighty Money, he had proved the matter in question. And whoever has the weight of a Crown in Silver paid him in Mr. Lowndes's new Coin, instead of six Shillings and three Pence of our present Money, has no inury done him, if it will certainly purchase him six Shillings and three Pence all unclip'd of our present Money. But every one at first sight perceives this to be impossible, as I have already proved it. And I have in this the concurrence of Mr. Lowndes's new Scheme, to prove it tobe so. For p. 62. he proposes that his Silver Unite having the weight and fineness of a present unclip'd Crown piece, should go for 75 Perce; and that the present Shilling should go for 15 pence; by which establishment there will be 75 Pence in his Unite, and 93 Pence three Farthings in six Shillings three Pence, weighty Money of the present Coin; which is an undeniable confession, that it is as impossible for his Silver Unite, (having no more Silver in it than a present unclip'd Crown) to be worth, and so to purchase six unclip'd Shillings and three Pence, of our present Money, as it is for 75 Pence to be worth 93 of the same Pence, or 75 to be equal to 93. If he means by more, that his Sterling Silver of the weight of a Crown piece will purchase a Penny, or two Pence more than five unclip'd Shillings, which is the most, and which is but accidental too; What is this rise of its value to 15 Pence? And what amends will One sixtieth (a little more or less) rise in value, make for One fifth diminished in weight and lost