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<DATE>2014-11-25</DATE>
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<NAME>Mona Logarbo</NAME>
<RESP>MURP</RESP>
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<ITEM>Proofed and reviewed as part of batch B140731.pdcc.</ITEM>
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<IDG S="marc" R="UM" ID="B43725">
<STC T="W">P3751</STC>
<BIBNO T="oclc">767618619</BIBNO>
<VID>212632</VID>
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<TEXT LANG="eng">
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<DIV1 TYPE="text">
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<PB REF="2" MS="y">
<HEAD><HI>PROPOSALS</HI> for the Re&s;toring the Silver Money of <HI>England</HI> to its former <HI>STATE.</HI></HEAD>
<P>THE nece&s;&s;ity of this is &s;o vi&s;ible to all &s;orts of Men, that it were lo&s;t Labour to endeavour to prove it; all the Difficulty being in finding a way to effect it. Several have attempted this by various methods, which when they come to be con&s;idered, prove either very hard to be brought into Act, or very full of Hazard.</P>
<P>No Man can tell certainly what the Quantity of the current Silver Quoin of <HI>England</HI> is, how much of it is melted down, lo&s;t, tran&s;ported, <HI>&amp;c.</HI> or Clip'd, but by an ill grounded conjecture which will certainly prove fal&s;e when it comes to be tried. Nor can any Man be &s;ure how much counterfeit and ba&s;e Money we have mixed with the Sterling Money; &s;o that what ever is given to make good the lo&s;s to the Nation, will be found too much or too little, and difficult to be rai&s;ed.</P>
<P>The <HI>Scots</HI> in the mean time have &s;hewen us a ready and a certain way to do it, <HI>viz.</HI> the ordering all Silver Money to go by weight at 5 <HI>s.</HI> the Ounce, two pence bated; and leaving the lo&s;s upon tho&s;e in who&s;e hands the <HI>Silver Money</HI> &s;hall be found at the pa&s;&s;ing this Order.</P>
<P>This I humbly conceive may be&s;t be done by a <HI>Proclamation,</HI> founded upon a Vote of the <HI>Lords</HI> and <HI>Commons,</HI> and the &s;tatute of <HI>Henry</HI> 7th. again&s;t clip'd <HI>Money,</HI> to take place from the Day of the Date of the &s;aid <HI>Proclamation.</HI></P>
<P>But then it may be needfull, all Contracts and Debts agreed before the <HI>Proclamation,</HI> &s;hall either be made payable in <HI>Gold</HI> at Thirty Shillings to the Guinea, or in Silver by Tale and not by Weight, and &s;uch as was then u&s;ually taken in all Payments.</P>
<P>All Bargains after the <HI>Proclamation</HI> to be under&s;tood of <HI>Silver</HI> by Weight, or of <HI>Gold</HI> ac|cording to value in the la&s;t Section.</P>
<P>The Fir&s;t good effect of this will be the putting a full and effectual &s;top to the <HI>Cliping Trade</HI> hereafter; for there will not be one Farthing to be gained by it.</P>
<P>The Second will be the bringing out all the good <HI>&s;ilver Money</HI> in the Nation, which is now hoarded up, and will be kept in as long as the <HI>clip'd Money</HI> go; being in intrin&s;ick va|lue very near one half better than the <HI>clipped Money.</HI></P>
<P>The Third is, The bringing all the clip'd and counterfeit <HI>Money</HI> to the Tower to be there Examined and Reminted.</P>
<P>The trouble of Weighing and Examining the old clip'd <HI>Money</HI> being &s;o great, that all men that have any quantity, will immediately melt it down and &s;end it to the Mint.</P>
<P>But then this is to be under&s;tood only of the <GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 word"> <HI>Money,</HI> for that which has been milled in the two la&s;t Reigns, is &s;uppo&s;ed &s;till to go by Tale and not by Weight.</P>
<P>All the clip'd Money that is Sterling, being thus Reminted, the ba&s;e Money may al&s;o be brought to the <HI>Tower,</HI> and there be reduced to a Standard of 4 <HI>s.</HI> in the Ounce more or le&s;s, and then be minted into <HI>Groats, Three Pence</HI> and <HI>Two Pences</HI> for common u&s;e, and &s;o perhaps may be as u&s;efull to the Nation as the other Money; provided no Man be compellable to take a|bove 5 <HI>s.</HI> of it in any one &s;ingle payment. There may many Objections be made again&s;t this method of Reducing the Silver Money of <HI>England</HI> to its former State.</P>
<P N="1">1. Men pretend many men will be undone by it; to which I an&s;wer, very few can ex|cept tho&s;e that were in an ill &s;tate before, few men having &s;o much &s;ilver Money by them, that the lo&s;s of one half of it will undo them; and yet they are helped too by being enabled to pay their old Debts by Tale and not by Weight.</P>
<P N="2">2. The next is, The Nobility and Gentry will not lo&s;e &s;o much by it, as the <HI>Bankers, Gold|&s;miths</HI> and <HI>Trade&s;men,</HI> becau&s;e they are &s;uppo&s;ed not to keep &s;o much ready Money by them as the others. Now this at wor&s;t, is but returning the lo&s;s upon them, that have been the cau&s;e of bringing it upon the Nation for their own profit; and if a way could be found out in ju&s;tice they ought to bear the whole lo&s;s. But &s;till, there will be no man in the Nation, to a day Labourer, but will bear his &s;hare in it, and &s;o equally to that, perhaps the wit of Man cannot invent &s;o equal a way of di&s;tributing the lo&s;s, as this by any other Method.</P>
<P N="3">3. Is the &s;top of Trade: But if <HI>Gold</HI> be at the &s;ame time fixed for &s;ome time at the &s;ame price it now commonly goes, all the great Payments will be made in <HI>Gold</HI> as now they are; and this I think out to be done till all the old Money is Reminted.</P>
<P N="4">4. The great Objection is, That there will not be Money enough in the <HI>Nation</HI> to cary on our <HI>Trade</HI> and to maintain the <HI>War.</HI> Now &s;uppo&s;e there is fix Millions of <HI>&s;ilver money</HI> in the <HI>Nation,</HI> and that one half of it is cliped away and corrupt Money, &s;o that when it is melted down, it will make but 3 Millions of good Money. I &s;ay, the&s;e 3 Millions of good Money will go further than &s;ix (&s;uch as it now is) when there is no cliped Money to pa&s;s but by Weight, for according to the &s;carcity, &s;o will the circulation be very Quick or rather Rapid; where as when there is a great plenty, much of it mu&s;t of nece&s;&s;ity &s;tagnate or lie &s;till.</P>
<P>The <HI>Gold</HI> will help the want of <HI>Silver,</HI> as I &s;aid in my an&s;wer to the 3d. Objection.</P>
<PB REF="3">
<P> <HI>Bullion</HI> is now 6 <HI>s.</HI> the Ounce or upwards, but then the Rea&s;on is the clip'd Money, for there is no doubt but it may be brought with milled money at 2 <HI>d.</HI> the Ounce advance and perhaps le&s;s.</P>
<P>When men come to be pre&s;&s;ed with the want of Money to drive on their <HI>Trade,</HI> they will certainly take care to mint all the <HI>Bullion</HI> and <HI>Plate</HI> they can &s;pare, and e&s;pecially if they can buy cheaper for <HI>Silver</HI> than for <HI>Gold,</HI> as may be &s;uppo&s;ed here.</P>
<P N="5">5. Some pretend all our Money, when it is once <HI>Mill'd,</HI> will be melted down, or carried out of the Nation. <HI>An&s;w.</HI> If the <HI>Money</HI> that go be &s;ome of it clip'd, and the re&s;t not; then all the good <HI>Milled Money</HI> will be carried away, or melted down, or hoarded up: But if there be none but &s;uch, then there will not be any thing gaiued by the melting or tran&s;porting it, becau&s;e the full value of it mu&s;t be paid for it in <HI>Money</HI> or <HI>Goods,</HI> whereas now a <HI>Five &s;hilling milled piece</HI> may be had for &s;ix <HI>clipp'd &s;hillings</HI> that weigh not above half that piece.</P>
<P>As long as the <HI>Money</HI> &s;tand thus, all the Gentry and Nobility of the Nation lo&s;e one third or fourth part of their E&s;tates, and it is growing &s;o, that this lo&s;s is very near equal to the Land Tax they pay; and it may be worth the while to con&s;ider how long we are able to bear this, <HI>viz.</HI> To pay 4 &s;hillings in the Pound to the Charges of the War, and lo&s;e as much by the bad|ne&s;s of our <HI>Money,</HI> for any Man &s;hall buy Cheaper with <HI>Milled</HI> than with <HI>clipp'd Money.</HI></P>
<P>The War being managed Abroad where our <HI>clipp'd Money</HI> will not go by Tale, and his Ma|je&s;ty having none but &s;uch paid into the <HI>Exchequer,</HI> he mu&s;t by con&s;equence have one, two or three Millions, more or le&s;s, to equal that lo&s;s: And if the <HI>Money</HI> be not reduced to the former &s;tate before the <HI>Money</HI> be granted for the next Campaign, there mu&s;t be &s;o much the more granted to equal the lo&s;s; And if after it is granted the <HI>Money</HI> is reduced in this next Se&s;&s;ion of Parliament, then &s;o much le&s;s will &s;erve: Yet men are as much &s;tarted at the noi&s;e of 6, 7 or 8 Millions of clipped, as of unclipped <HI>Money,</HI> tho' the latter is double in value and effect to the former. So that it may &s;eem but rea&s;onable, this &s;hould be the fir&s;t thing that is taken into con&s;ideration and &s;ettled.</P>
<P>The mi&s;chief is &s;till growing, and the <HI>Money</HI> is every day made wor&s;e than it was before, both in quantity and quality, and the difficulties that attend the Redre&s;s grow as the mi&s;chief grow: So that it is the intere&s;t of every good man in the <HI>Nation,</HI> that it &s;hould be forth|with done.</P>
<P>All other methods that I have &s;een are more &s;low, more difficult and not certain to effect the cure; whereas this will mo&s;t certainly put an end to the <HI>Clipping Trade,</HI> and in a &s;hort time after, reduce the <HI>Money</HI> of <HI>England</HI> to what it was before it was either Clipped or Cor|rupted with mixed Mettalls.</P>
<P>If the putting the whole lo&s;s upon the pre&s;ent Po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ors of the &s;ilver <HI>Money</HI> of <HI>England</HI> that is Clipt be thought too &s;evere, then I humbly conceive, that however it is ab&s;olutely nece&s;|&s;ary that all the <HI>Clipt Money</HI> &s;hould be ordered to go by Weight to prevent the Cliping any more, and that what is brought into the <HI>Tower</HI> to be Reminted, &s;hould be there Regi&s;tred both as to the Tale and Weight, and the per&s;on that brought it in, to the intent that the Par|liament in another Se&s;&s;ion may have a full and clear pro&s;pect what the lo&s;s is, and thereupon &s;hall make &s;uch allowance for the &s;ame, as &s;hall then be thought fit.</P>
<P>And it is mo&s;t certain, what allowance &s;oever is made will fall mo&s;tly to the advantage of the <HI>Richer Men;</HI> becau&s;e all tho&s;e that have &s;mall &s;umms will not be able to bring it to the Mint, and con&s;equently mu&s;t take what they can git for the &s;ame of the <HI>Bankers</HI> and other <HI>Rich Men,</HI> who will make the utmo&s;t Advantage they can of the Publick, by making the lo&s;s appear as great as they can.</P>
<P>The Limiting a certain day, beyond which no <HI>clipt Money</HI> &s;hall pa&s;s by Weight, will ha&s;ten the reminting of it, and the allowing men a liberty to Weigh as well as tell their Money, will prevent all Clipping for the Future, when it &s;hall be nece&s;&s;ary for tho&s;e that put it off, to make good all that is wanting to the Receiver from time to time. This is on a Suppo&s;all, all that what is not milled be allowed to pa&s;s current by Tale, if it be not Clipped, or a lit|tle Clipped.</P>
<P>But if the lo&s;s be at la&s;t made good to the pre&s;ent Po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ors of the Clipt Money, then will the Bankers of <HI>England</HI> Clip all the Old Money they can git into their Hands, becau&s;e they &s;hall have the Benefit of the Cliping it, and al&s;o receive from the Nation as much as they can Damnify the Money before it is Reminted; but if the lo&s;s be put upon the pre&s;ent Po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ors, then the Cliping of Money will immediately cea&s;e for Ever.</P>
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<P><HI>London,</HI> Printed for <HI>R. Cumberland</HI> at the <HI>Angel</HI> in St. <HI>Pauls Church Yard,</HI> 1695.</P>
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