136 PARLIAMENTARY COLBERTISM 
A proposal for raising the money had been approved by a 
committee of the House of Commons? and would in all 
probability have been carried into effect, but for the inter- 
vention of Locke, who denounced it in vigorous terms. He 
succeeded in impressing Montague, the future Lord Halifax, 
who was framing the scheme for re-coinage®; and as a result, 
the new coins were issued at the old denominations. The 
hopes of the bankers and moneyed men, who had hoarded 
new silver in the hope that the value would be raised, were 
balked®; and the landed men, who had let their lands on 
terms calculated in defective coins and subsequently re- 
ceived payments in the amended coin, would be gainers by 
the fact that the old denomination was retainedd, It is at 
nd the old all events obvious that it was much more convenient to keep 
ae to the old denominations; the difficulty of counting up any 
retained Jaro0 payment in coins worth 3s. 14d. each would have been 
considerable’. 
The difficulties which arose from the scarcity of money 
were distinctly aggravated during the process of re-coinage®, 
when a large number of pieces were necessarily withdrawn 
from circulation. Five country mints were established? to 
facilitate the process of recoinage. Sir Isaac Newton was at 
1 One of the resolutions reported by the committee on 12 March 1695 was in 
favour of raising the new silver crowns 18 0/, 80 as to pass for 5/6. Ruding, 11. 36. 
3 Thorold Rogers, First Nine Years, 44. 
» The crucial decision was taken om 20th October 1696, when the House 
decided not to alter the denomination of the coins (C0. J. x1. 567). After this, 
according to Haynes, the new money which had been hoarded began to come into 
circulation much more rapidly, p. 149. 
4 Tt is said that Montague only succeeded in carrying through his scheme 
because the landed men were convinced that it was to their interest to retain the 
old denominations, and after he had purchased a considerable amount of support 
trom other members of the House of Commons. The arguments pro and con are 
clearly stated by Kennett, Complete History, m1. 505. Among the most effective 
writers on Lowndes’ side was Sir R. Temple, who argued that to “keep up an 
old Standard under an old Denomination below the value of Bullion is the greatest 
Folly imaginable,” Some Short Remarks upon Mr Locke's Book (1696), p. 8. In 
a rejoinder E. H. argues that raising the value of the coin would certainly bring 
about a rise in the price of commodities, Decus et Tutamen (1696), 23. Ruding 
comments severely on the wrongheadedness of the Chancellor in being guided by 
Locke's view, Annals, it. 58. 
5 Lowndes, Essay on Amendment, p. 214; Macculloch, 4 Select Collection o 
Tracts on Money, and criticism by Haynes, 203—235. 
¢ Sir John Dalrymple, Memoirs, 1790, Part mx. book 1v. p. 86. 
7 At Exeter, Bristol, Chester, York, and Norwich. 
A.D. 1689 
—1776. 
was 1m- 
genious 
but tncon- 
ventent 
in the 
re-coinage