The Maintenance of Free Trade [5]
at 33 shilling 4 pence by which Computation the said 42 Stivers make but four shillings two pence half penny or thereabouts in true value? Absit ignorantia. Whereas, if our merchants of Spaine should give the saide price there in exchange for 42 Stivers, as they did formerly, (and may be done by order of exchange:) They shall not finde thereby Ten in the hundreth gaine, which they can make here more certaine and commodiously, whereby this money will be imported, without inhauncing of our Coyne. This is so plaine in the understanding of Merchants, that there needeth no other explanation, for it demonstrateth manifestly, that if the lowe exchange were not, This Gayne would proove to be Imaginary, as we have noted. And this causeth these Realls of Spayne to be diverted from us, and might els be imported to the said Merchants or others, which doe practice upon the Benefite of moneys to bee made betweene the exchange and moneys. For the Rule is infallible, That when the exchange doth answer the true value of our moneys according to their intrinsicke weight and fineness, and their extrinsicke valuation: They are never exported, because the Gayne is answered by exchange, which is the Cause of Transportation. This cause being prevented, maketh the effect to cease; and this is engraffed in every man's judgement, according to the Maxima often noted heretofore, Sublata Causa, Tollitur effectiu. So that exchange still hath the command and striketh the Stroake, insomuch that albeit the price thereof riseth and falleth, according to Plenty or Scarcity of money: yet moneys are overruled thereby. For is you inhaunce the Coyne, the exchange doth controlle it and rise accordingly. And if you undervalue the same, The exchange in like manner doth fall in price. Wherein note the operation of exchange both here and beyond the Seas, in places where exchanges runne upon the pound of 20 shillings Starlin. If the inhauncing of Coyne be beyond the Seas, and the exchange be not made accordingly: Then our moneys are carried out. If the inhauncing of Coyne were made here: E contra, moneys would bee imported. But the merchant Stranger, who observeth the rule of exchange, and (will not be over-taken as wee are;) will over-rule the same ipso facto, and give you so much less in exchange, as we shall inhaunce our Coine by valuation, or imbase the same by Allay. In like manner if you Cry downe moneys beyond the Seas, Th'exchange will alter in price accordingly: and if you Cry down moneys here, or undervalue them by name, Th'exchange ought to Rule and to make the denomination accordingly in price, and still remaineth Predominant over moneys and commodities. For even as Commodities being the Body of Trafficke, draw unto them moneys, and therein may seeme to be Active; yet money (being the right judge or Rule which giveth or imposed a price unto Commodities:) is the Thing Active, and Commodities become the thing Passive: Even so, although money is the Subject whereupon exchanges are made: yet still th'exchange is made to Rule moneys; To the end, that the value thereof should bee answered by the Publike Measure of exchange; To prevent all abuses and inconveniences arising by the price of Commodities, and the valuation of moneys in exchange: which moneys are either Reall or imaginary, according to the Custome of the place of exchange by
the device of Bankers. This was Seriously observed in the yeere 1576 by divers most honourable and Grave Counsellours of State, Namely, Sir Nickolas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the great Seale; Sir William Burghley Lord Treasurour of England, Thomas Earle of Sussex, Francis Earle of Bedford, Sir Francis Knowles, Sir James Croft, and Master Secretarie Walshingham, with the assistance of other worthy persons of experience, namely Sir Thomas Chamberlain, Sir Thomas Gresham Knight, Master Peter Osborne, Master James Altham, Master Thomas Rivet, and Master Richard Martin, Master of the Mints: for they found that the following inconveniences were practised, by Bankers or exchangers for their Private gaine and benefite, for
the device of Bankers. This was Seriously observed in the yeere 1576 by divers most honourable and Grave Counsellours of State, Namely, Sir Nickolas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the great Seale; Sir William Burghley Lord Treasurour of England, Thomas Earle of Sussex, Francis Earle of Bedford, Sir Francis Knowles, Sir James Croft, and Master Secretarie Walshingham, with the assistance of other worthy persons of experience, namely Sir Thomas Chamberlain, Sir Thomas Gresham Knight, Master Peter Osborne, Master James Altham, Master Thomas Rivet, and Master Richard Martin, Master of the Mints: for they found that the following inconveniences were practised, by Bankers or exchangers for their Private gaine and benefite, for