Catalogue Entry: MINT00686

Memorandum on the royal tin trade

Author: Isaac Newton

Source: MINT 19/3/561, National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, UK

[Normalized Text] [Diplomatic Text]

Contents

Emphatically approves an increase in the price of tin to £6 a hundredweight or a little less, as the Queen is losing £30,000 a year. Proposals for an agreement to be reached with the Dutch East India Company to prevent them undercutting this.

On reverse: calculations and a draft table of annual tin exports to various countries.

Notes

[Note on dating: MINT00701 (Mint 19/3/545) mentions that about two years into the Queen's tin contract, which was signed in December 1703, the Mint Board seriously considered the potential advantages of a price increase, but soon changed their minds after obtaining more reliable information. 'Two years' must be an overestimate, however, as MINT00690 (Mint 19/3/597-9) makes it plain that they were already having doubts about the wisdom of such a measure by 1 August 1705.]

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Professor Rob Iliffe
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Faculty of History, George Street, Oxford, OX1 2RL - newtonproject@history.ox.ac.uk

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