24 
2 
oa 
ef 
e 
st 
y 
Wr 
1t 
1% 
Sf 
eae 
an 
iter 
Jhis 
nty 
and 
441 
age 
ner, 
But 
the 
'Urse 
ir of 
ABES 
3 out 
pon 
y old 
RECOINAGE OF 1696 435 
the currency was most deplorable. Very little silver was A.D. 1689 
to be had, and what was forthcoming was defective and ~~ ° 
debased. As Lowndes says, “Great contentions do daily 
arise amongst the King’s Subjects, in Fairs, Markets, Shops, 
and other Places throughout the Kingdom, about the Passing 
or Refusing of the Same, to the disturbance of the Public 
Peace; many Bargains, Doings and Dealings are totally 
prevented and laid aside, which lessens Trade in general; 
Persons before they conclude in any Bargains, are necessi- 
tated first to settle the Price or Value of the very Money 
they are to Receive for their Goods; and if it be in Guineas 
at a High Rate, or in Clipt or Bad Moneys, they set the 
Price of their Goods accordingly, which I think has been 
One great cause of Raising the Price not only of Mer- 
chandizes, but even of Edibles, and other Necessaries for 
the sustenance of the Common People, to their Great 
Grievance. The Receipt and Collection of the Publick Taxes, 
Revenues and Debts (as well as of Private Mens Incomes) 
are extreamly retarded.” The larger silver pieces had 
suffered most and the smaller coins were comparatively 
uninjured; but the malpractices had been carried so far gulte 
that the prices of commodities in silver appear to have risen arieof 
considerably, This metal was still the recognised standard 27ic® 2, 
of currency, and the fall in the value of silver coins became in silver. 
apparent, both in the high rates which had to be paid for 
guineas? and in the unfavourable state of the exchanges?. 
It became obvious that no satisfactory remedy could be 
carried out, unless the evil was dealt with in a thorough- 
going fashion, and the old coinage was called in. An in- 
genious scheme for amending the silver coinage, with the 
least possible disturbance to prices, was put forward by 
Mr Lowndes, the Secretary of the Treasury. He proposed i 
that the new money should be issued at higher denomina- ending 
bons; a silver coin of the weight and fineness of the old “4% 
crown should be made current, not as 60, but as 75 pence, Soagh ais. 
and the half-crown should represent, not 80, but 37} pence. to prices 
+ Essay for Amendment (1695), in Maceulloch, Tracts, p. 233. 
! The silver price of guineas was from 24/- to 30/. Haynes, op. cit. 120. 
¢ The discount on English drafts in Amsterdam varied between 13-7 per cent. 
and 23-5 per cent. Thorold Rogers, First Nine Years of the Bank of England, 40. 
28.9 
30 as to 
couse great 
incon- 
venience