Further Considerations [29]
all our Money will be to the Nation, I have computed in another place. That I think is of some Consideration in our present Circumstances, though the Confusion that this new raised Money, I fear, is like to introduce; and the want of Money, and stop of Trade, when the clip'd is called in, and the weighty is to be recoin'd; be of much greater. His Fourth, Eighth, and Ninth Reasons, p. 84. and 86. are taken from the saving our present mill'd Money from being cut and recoin'd. The End I confess to be good: 'Tis very reasonable, that so much excellent Coin, as good as ever was in the World, should not be destroyed. But there is, I think, a surer and easier way to preserve it, than what Mr. Lowndes proposes. 'Tis past doubt, it will be in no danger ofrecoining, if our Money be kept upon the present Foot: But if it be raised, as Mr. Lowndes proposes, all the present mill'd Money will be in danger, and the Difficulty of Counting it upon the new proposed Foot will inforce it to be recoin'd into new pieces of Crowns, Half-Crowns, Shillings, and Six-pences, that may pass for the same Number of Pence the present do, viz. 60. 30. 12. and 6. as I have above shewn. He says in his Fourth Reason, that if pieces, having the same Bigness, should have different Values, it might be difficult for the common People (especially those not skill'd in Arithmetick) to compute how many of one kind will be equal to the Summ of another. Such Difficulties and Confusion, in Counting Money, I agree with him, ought carefully to be avoided. And therefore, since ifpieces having the same Bigness and Stamp, which the People are acquainted with, shall have new Values different from those which People are accustomed to; and these new Values shall in Numbers of Pence not answer our way of accounting by Pounds, and Shillings; it will be difficult for the common People (especially those not skill'd in Arithmetick) to compute how many of anyone kind will make any Summ they are to pay or receive; Especially when the Numbers of any one kind of pieces will be brought into so few even Summs of Pounds, and Shillings. And thus Mr. Lowndes's Argument here turns upon himself, and is against raising our Coin, to the value proposed by him, from the Confusion it will produce. His 8th Reason, p. 86. we have in these Words, It is difficult to conceive how any Design of amending the clip'd Money, can be compassed without raising the Value of the Silver remaining in them, because of the great Deficiency of the Silver clip'd away which (upon recoining) must necessarily be defraid and born one way or other. 'Tis no Difficulty to conceive, that clip'd Money, being not lawful Money, should be prohibited to pass for more than its Weight. Next, it is no Difficulty to conceive, that clip'd Money, passing for no more than its Weight, and so being in the state of Standard Bullion, which cannot be exported, should be brought to the Mint, and there exchanged for weighty Money. By this way, it is no Difficulty to conceive how the amending the clip'd Money may be compassed, because this way the Deficiency of the Silver clip'd away, will certainly be defraid and born one way or other. And thus I have gone over all Mr. Lowndes's Reasons for raising our Coin: Wherein, though I seem to differ from him, yet I flatter my self, it is not altogether so much as at first sight may appear; since by what I find in another Part of his Book, I have reason to judge he is a great deal of my Mind. For he has five very good Arguments for continuing the present Standard of Fineness, each of which is as strong for continuing also the present Standard of Weight; i.e. continuing a Penny of the same Weight of Standard Silver, which at present it has. He that has a mind to be satisfied of this, may read Mr. Lowndes's first five Reasons for continuing the present Standard of Fineness, which he will find in his 29, 30, 31, 32, Pages of his Report. And when Mr. Lowndes himself has again considered what there is of Weight in them, and how far it reaches, he will at least not think it strange if they appear