Some Considerations of the Lowering of Interest [43]
the respective Rate set on each of them by Law. And when this is ever varied from, it is but a Trick to serve some present occasion; but is always with loss to the Country where the Trick is play'd. 2. The other way of raising Money is by raising all your Silver Coin at once, the proportion of a Crown, a Shilling, and a Penny, in reference to one another, being still kept, (viz. That a Shilling shall weigh One fifth of a Crown Piece, and a Penny weigh One twelfth of a Shilling, in Standard Silver) But out of every one of these, you abate One twentieth of the Silver, they were wont to have in them. If all the Species of Money, be, as 'tis call'd raised by making each of them to have One twentieth less of Silver in them than formerly; and so your whole Money be lighter than it was: These following will be some of the consequences of it.
1. It will rob all Creditors of One twentieth (or 5 per Cent.) of their Debts, and all Landlords One wentieth of their quit Rents for ever; and in all other Rents as far as their former Contracts reach, of 5 per Cent. of their yearly Income; and this without any advantage to the Debtor, or Farmer. For he receiving no more pounds Sterling for his Land or Commodities, in this new lighter Coin, than he should have done of your old and weightier Money, gets nothing by it. If you say yes, he will receive more Crown, Half-Crown, and Shilling Pieces, for what he now Sells for new Money, than he should have done if the Money of the old Standard had continued; you confess your Money is not raised in Value, but in Denomination; since what your new Pieces want in Weight, must now be made up in their number. But which way soever this falls, 'tis certain, the Publick (which most Men think, ought to be the only reason of changing a settled Law, and disturbing the common current course of things) receives not the least Profit by it: Nay, as we shall see by and by, it will be a great Charge and Loss to the kingdom. But this, at first sight, is visible; That in all Payments to be received upon precedent Contracts, if your Money be in effect raised, the Receiver will lose 5 per Cent. For Money having been Lent, and Leases and other Bargains made, when Money was of the same Weight and Fineness that it is now, upon Confidence that under the same names of Pounds, Shillings and Pence, they should receive the same value, (i.e. the same qiantity of Silver) by giving the denomination now to less quantities of Silver by One twentieth, you take from them 5 per Cent. of their due. When Men go to Market to buy any other Commodities with their new, but lighter Money, they will find 20 s. of their new Money will buy no more of any Commodity than 19 would before. For it not being the denomination but the quantity of Silver, that gives the value to any Coin, 19 Grains or parts of Silver, however denominated or marked, will no more be worth, or pass for, or buy so much of any other Commodity as 20 Grains of Silver will, than 19 s. will pass for 20 s: If any one thinks a Shilling or a Crown in name has its value from the denomination, and not from the quantity of Silver in it, let it be tried; and hereafter let a Penny be called a Shilling, or a Shilling be called a Crown. I believe no body would be content to receive his Debts or Rents in such Money: Which though the Law should raise thus, yet he foresees he should lose Eleven twelfths by the one, and by the other Four fifths of the value he received; and would find his new Shilling, which had no more Silver in it than One twelfth of what a Shilling had before, would buy him of Corn, Cloth, or Wine but One welfth of what an old Shilling would. This is as plainly so in the raising, as you call it, your Crown to 5 s. and 3 d. or (which is the same thing) making your Crown One twentieth lighter in Silver. The only difference is, that in one the loss is so great, (it being Eleven twelfths) that every body sees, and abhors it at first proposal; but in the other (it being but One twentieth, and covered with the deceitful name of raising our Money) People do not
1. It will rob all Creditors of One twentieth (or 5 per Cent.) of their Debts, and all Landlords One wentieth of their quit Rents for ever; and in all other Rents as far as their former Contracts reach, of 5 per Cent. of their yearly Income; and this without any advantage to the Debtor, or Farmer. For he receiving no more pounds Sterling for his Land or Commodities, in this new lighter Coin, than he should have done of your old and weightier Money, gets nothing by it. If you say yes, he will receive more Crown, Half-Crown, and Shilling Pieces, for what he now Sells for new Money, than he should have done if the Money of the old Standard had continued; you confess your Money is not raised in Value, but in Denomination; since what your new Pieces want in Weight, must now be made up in their number. But which way soever this falls, 'tis certain, the Publick (which most Men think, ought to be the only reason of changing a settled Law, and disturbing the common current course of things) receives not the least Profit by it: Nay, as we shall see by and by, it will be a great Charge and Loss to the kingdom. But this, at first sight, is visible; That in all Payments to be received upon precedent Contracts, if your Money be in effect raised, the Receiver will lose 5 per Cent. For Money having been Lent, and Leases and other Bargains made, when Money was of the same Weight and Fineness that it is now, upon Confidence that under the same names of Pounds, Shillings and Pence, they should receive the same value, (i.e. the same qiantity of Silver) by giving the denomination now to less quantities of Silver by One twentieth, you take from them 5 per Cent. of their due. When Men go to Market to buy any other Commodities with their new, but lighter Money, they will find 20 s. of their new Money will buy no more of any Commodity than 19 would before. For it not being the denomination but the quantity of Silver, that gives the value to any Coin, 19 Grains or parts of Silver, however denominated or marked, will no more be worth, or pass for, or buy so much of any other Commodity as 20 Grains of Silver will, than 19 s. will pass for 20 s: If any one thinks a Shilling or a Crown in name has its value from the denomination, and not from the quantity of Silver in it, let it be tried; and hereafter let a Penny be called a Shilling, or a Shilling be called a Crown. I believe no body would be content to receive his Debts or Rents in such Money: Which though the Law should raise thus, yet he foresees he should lose Eleven twelfths by the one, and by the other Four fifths of the value he received; and would find his new Shilling, which had no more Silver in it than One twelfth of what a Shilling had before, would buy him of Corn, Cloth, or Wine but One welfth of what an old Shilling would. This is as plainly so in the raising, as you call it, your Crown to 5 s. and 3 d. or (which is the same thing) making your Crown One twentieth lighter in Silver. The only difference is, that in one the loss is so great, (it being Eleven twelfths) that every body sees, and abhors it at first proposal; but in the other (it being but One twentieth, and covered with the deceitful name of raising our Money) People do not