Proposal to raise £28,333 per 1,000 tons of copper coined by reducing the weight of halfpence and farthings

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May it please your Lordships

It is humbly conceived that the Copper Coin might be made much more useful to the Nation that it is, and bring in a vast proffit to the King; for as the Copper Farthings and half pence now are, the Coinage will cost as follows. viz^t

This your Lordships see that 1^ll coined Copper stands in 1^s: 9^d Charge and the vallue being but 1^s: 9^d there results no proffit from it; nay I fear that coining them as they now are (as is discoursed is intended) will prove a Charge to the Public.

But I humbly beg leave to propose a Method by which these small Coins may bring in above 280'000^£ to the Public, but some believe it will near double that sum, and this will be done by altering, our half-pence into two penny weight; which will be bigger than our silver six-pence, and our Farthing a Penny weight which will be as much bigger than our Silver three-pence as Copper is lighter than silver; this will make a pound Troy of Copper worth 5^s. when coined; This Copper coin so regulated will have three times the Pieces in a Pound it had before; so that the Hammering & Coinage which before cost 7^d per pound will now be 1^s: 9^d to which adding that Charge of Copper and cutting the Die the pound will stand in 2^s: 11^d charge. {Now}

But it is believ'd we can vend 2000 Tun between Great Brittain and our West India Plantations, for the Plantations themselves 'tis believed will take above 1000 Tun

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Now if your Lordships think fit to receive this Proposal it is demonstrated that many thousands of Pounds Proffit will accrue to the Government, and it being the undoubted Right and Prerogative of the King, to affix what vallue he pleases to his Coin, and since the Copper Coin as it now is will yield no Proffit to the King or Public, and that this Method proposed Answers the same End, it is hoped it will not be thought unreasonable to alter its Fabrication as to its weight.

For the present Coin by its largeness and eight is so cumbersome to the Pocket, that People having less of them than otherwise they wou'd it much hinders the Charity of good People.

I beg leave to offer another scheme to your Lordships Consideration, that if the Proffit arising from this Proposal which I have shewn is £283'333 be not applyed to the use of the King or Public that then it may be lent by the King as a stock to employ the Poor of Great Brittain, and to set to every County a part according to its bigness, some part to build work-houses, or hire others fit for that purpose, & the rest to remain as a Fund to employ that Poor in the Manufacture of each County (as is now practiced in Bristol, by an Act passed in the Reign of that late King William in the Year 1696) and the Proffits of these Manufactures to be at the King's Disposal, and thus besides the Proffits which wou'd immediately arise from the Manufactures, it wou'd allso vastly increase the Customes and take away a great part of the Poors Tax, and make a great Part of the Nation Merchants.

Thus the dissaffected in each County their Evil wou'd be overcome by Good, and this Charity wou'd be a true and a lasting Glory to the King and his Government; for it wou'd by this means be as rare to see a Beggar in England, as in other Places it wou'd be to see none, But if the Ennemies to the King and Government shou'd ever rise in any County, and the Magistrates be remiss in suppressing them, then the Fund for such County where the disorder is, to be recalled and disposed of as the King shall direct, this wou'd make the Poor as well as the rich (to whome they are now a Burden) Zealous in the Kings Interest, this wou'd make your Kingdoms Powerful & your People rich, and the idle and Poor that have no Employment wou'd by their Labour bring in a Considerable Yearly Revenue.

In short a Work of this Nature, wou'd make all Great Brittain have just Cause to hold in happy Memory, that his Majesty King George & your Lordships were the Beginners of so proffitable, Praise-Worthy & renown'd a work, and draw all his subjects Love to him.

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But if it so please your Lordships, I am ready upon Notice in the Gazette to offer your Lordships a Proposal of another Nature, which will raise above two Million of Money in one Year, without any Grieveance to the subject, and will allso save the Nation a great many thousands of Pounds Yearly, and this is as demonstrable as any Diagram in Euclid.

My Zeal to the King and the Public induced me to give your Lordships this trouble, and which I hope will procure your Lordships Pardon for the length of this Letter as well as the Presumption of

My Lords

Your Lordships

^[1]

most dutiful and

obedient humble Servant

W. F