The Industrial Revolution

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1027928145

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-159926

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Cunningham, William http://d-nb.info/gnd/128907487

Title:: The Industrial Revolution

Place of publication:: Cambridge

Publisher:: The University Press

Year of publication:: 1922

Scope:: xxii S., S. 404-886

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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A.D. 1689 —1776. afforded profitable opportuni- fies for clipping and sweat- tng the coin 434 PARLIAMENTARY COLBERTISM more noticeable!. The attempt to keep heavy and light pieces in circulation together proved a failure, and only resulted in the constant melting down of new coins as issued from the Mint. In the meantime the old hammered money was being seriously maltreated by dealers in coin. Some of the pieces were thicker than others, and they were filed down to the usual size; others were stamped with the impression at one side, and the margin left bare was trimmed off; at first the men who tampered with the coinage were “pretty modest ” in clipping. Defective coins were only occasionally met with in 1672, but after 1685% the practice became a very serious evil indeed. Not only did clipping become a regular business, but the old and worn coin lent itself to fraudulent imitation, and a considerable amount of base money was put into circulation by coiners®, Altogether, the condition of tho’ never clip'd, did many of ‘em in their weight and value want or exceed the legal Standard in the under written disproportion, viz. Some of ‘the erowr njo~- th- t}- the sixpence« *, '\ crowns 3 crowns shillings sixpences 0 / were not of an exact assize Now when pieces so very ill siz’d as these came out of the Ming, and the lighter pass'd under the same Name, and at the same value with the heavyest, this presented the Clippers with too fair an opportunity of rounding the weighty pieces with the Sheers and the file, til they reduc’d ‘em to ab equall weight, and size with the rest; for they were pretty modest in the practice of clipping, 'ti) after the year 1685.” Op. cit. 63. 1 The fundamental principle in Locke's argument on the subject of coinage was the identity in exchange value between one ounce of silver and another, Further Considerations concerning raising the Value of Money (1695), p. 2. But Barbon showed conclusively that within certain limits, silver, which has the stamp of money, may circulate for more than its value as bullion, Discourse concerning Coining the New Money Lighter, p. 28. This was indeed a matter of common experience at the time, Review of the Universal Remedy for all Diseases incident to the Coin (1696), p. 12 (Brit. Mus. 1139. d. 6 (2)). The writer points out that * every Degree of Currancy given to defective Coin. is a new Lock put upon the Good,” p. 39. 3 Haynes, op. cit. 64, 67. 8 Haynes, op. cit. 66, 69. They fabricated base money which looked like old eoin that had been clipped; tb. 77.

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