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Signed by [warden] Richard Sandford.
Variant draft of PRO, Mint 1/7, p. 71 (of the same date, unsigned and printed in NC, 6: 276-7).
In the three years 1713-15, Mint income lagged seriously behind expenditure. Coinage has increased since peace, and if the increase continues the deficit will rise to £5,000 or £6,000 p.a. The deficit has hitherto been financed from surpluses amassed during the war when little money was coined, but the remaining surplus is now under £1,000. In renewing the Coinage Act, which is about to expire, the Commons should be encouraged to increase coinage duty by 50% (from 10s. to 15s. a ton on wine and from 20s. to 30s. a ton on brandy).
To the tble
of his ts
May it please rps
The Act of Coinage being near expiring We have
thought it rr
annexed Abstract shewing what the moneys leviable by that
Act have amounted unto these three years last past, & what
the charges of the Mints in the Tower & at Edinborough
have amounted unto during the same time. By this Abstract
the Income has been about 9600 li yearly at a medium &
The coynage has increased every year since the peace, &
if it continues to be so great as it has been the two last years, the
charge of the Mint will exceed the Income by about five or
six thousand pounds yearly. This charge has been supplied
hitherto out of the stock which accrued to the Mint in the
time of war when the coynage was small, and by the great
coinage since the peace this stock is now reduced to less then one
thousand pounds ch
above a month longer.
Wherefore we humbly propose to r
House of Commons may be moved that the Act of Coinage may
be renewed this session of Parliament with an augmentation
of the Duty from ten shillings to fifteen shillings per Tun
upon wines &c & from 20s to 30s per Tun upon Brandy, with
such Restrictions or Applications of the money arising therefrom
as the House shall think fit.
Which is most humbly submitted to your Lordships
great Wisdom
Rich Sandford