To the Rt HonbleRight Honorable the Lords Commissioners
of his MatsMajesties Treasury.
May it please yoer LordpsLordships
In obedience to yoer LordpsLordships Order of Reference of Aug. 12th,
1717 that I should lay before yoer LordpsLordships a state of the Gold & silver
Coyns of this Kingdom in weight & fineness & the value of gold in pro
portion to silver with my observations & opinion & what method may
be best for preventing the melting down of the silver coyn: I humbly
represent that a pound weight Troy of gold eleven ounces fine & one ounce allay is cut
into 44 Guineas, & a pound weight of silver eleven ounces two penny weight fine & eighteen penny weight allay is cut into 62 shillings & according to this rate a pound weight of fine gold is worth fifteen pounds weight, six ounces, seventeen penny weight, & tenfive grains of fine silver, reccon a guinea at 1£ 1s 6d in silver money. But silver in bullion exportable us usually worth 2d or 3d per ounce more then in coyn. Abd it at a medium such bullion of standard allay be valued at 5s 4d per ounce, a pound weight of fine gold will be worth byt 14£wt. 11oz 12dwt 9gr of fine silver in bullion. And at this rate a Guinea is worth but 20s 8d so much silver as would make 20s 8d. When ships are lading for the east Indies the demand of silver for exportation raises the price to 5s & 6d or 8d per ounce or above: but I consider not those extraordinary cases.
A Spanish Pistole was coyned for 32 Reaus or four pieces of eight Reaus usually called pieces of eight, & is of equal allay & the sixteenth part of itsthe weight thereof. And a Doppio Moeda of Portugal was coyned for ten Crusados of silver & is of equal allay & the sixteenth part of the weight thereof. Gold is therefore in Spain & Portugal of sixteen times more value then Silver of equal weight & allay according to their standardsof those kingdoms. At which rate a Guinea is worth 22s 1d. But this high price keep their gold at home & carrys away their silver into all Europe, so that at home they make their payments in silverGold & will not pay in gold silver without a premium Upon the coming in of a Plate fleet, the Premium ceases, or is but small, but as their silver goes away or is& becomes scarce the premium increases & is most commonly about six per cent. Which being abated a Guinea becomes worth about 20s & 9d in Spain & Portugal.
In France a pound weight of fine gold is recconed worth fifteen pounds weight of fine silver. In raising & falling their money, their Kings Edicts have sometimes varied a little from this proportion in excess or defect: but the variations have been so little that I do not here consider them. By the Edict of May 1709 a new Pistole was coined for four new Lewises & is of equal allay & the fifteenth part of the weight thereof except the errors of their Mints. And by the same Edict fine Gold is valued at fifteen times its weight of fine Silver. And at this rate a Guinea is worth 20s 8d.
The Ducats of Holland Hungary & the Empire were lately current valuedcurrent in Holland among the between men people at five Guilders pieces & five Styvers & changed by them for that summ. At which rate a Guinea is worth 20.s 7d.
According to the rates of gold to silver in Italy, Germany, Poland, Denmark & Sueden a Guinea is worth about 20s & 7d, 6d, 6d, 4d or 23d. For the proportion varies 109 varies a little in the several governments within those countries.
In the end of king William's reign & the first year of the late Queens when forreign coyns abounded in England, I caused a great many of them to be assayed in the Mint, & found by the assays that fine gold was to fine silver in Spain, Portugal, France, Holland, Italy, Germany & the northern Kingdoms in the proportions above mentioned, errors of the Mints excepted.
In China & Japan one pound weight of fine glold is worth but nine or ten pounds weight of fine silver, & in East India it may be worth about twelve. And this lowe price of gold in proportion to Silver, carries away the silver from all Europe.
The value of forreign Gold in England is having been raised too high by raising th
So then by the course of Trade & Exchange between nation & nation in all Europe, fine gold is to fine silver as 14 or 15 to one, & a Guinea &at the same rate is worth between 20s 5d & 20s 8d, except in the extraordinary cases, as when a plate Fleet is just arrived in Spain or ships are lading for the East Indies, which cases I do not here consider.
The Guinea having been raised to 21s 6d, which is 10d or 12d above the value abroad, & thereby the value of forreign Gold being raised as much in proportion to the silver moneys in England, the way to lower the value of forreign moneys Gold isn proportion to these moneys, is to lower the price of a Guinea in proportion to the same moneys. And if this will lower the price of forreign Gold in proportion to these moneys it will also lower the price of forreign silver in proportion to the same moneys, & bring it nearer to the price of silver in the MintCoyne. For the proportionalof value of forreign gold to forreign silver is settled by the trade & course of Exchange between nation & nation, & will not be altered by what we do amongst our selves in England alone. And what I here call the lowering the value of the Guinea is more truly the raising the value of our silver money , so amongst our selves, so that 20s 6d or 20s 8d in such money may be amongst our selves as well as abroad, of the same value with a Guinea & by consequence with so much forreign silver as in the course of Trade & Exchange is equal in value to a Guinea. For Gold is now become our standard money & silver is a commodity which rises & falls here in its price, as it does in Spain.
If a pound weight of standard silver should be cut into 3£ 4s 6d, it would make an ounce of silver moneys worth 5s 4d, & by consequence equal in value to an ounce of forreign silver, & thereby take away the temptation to export or melt down the silver moneys without hurting any body but those who want it for melting or exportation. But there is no need of altering the standard. The same thing may be done by bringing the value of the Guinea nearer to the standard. For by the standard of England setled by the Indenture of the Mint under the broad Seal, a Guinea is coyned for 20s & in the Mint is still called a twenty shillings piece. It was gradually raised by the Goldsmith's selling Guineas for 2d a piece more then their current value to Gentlemen who wanted them upon journeys for lightness of carriage. It was private interest without regard to the publick which at first raised the price of Guineas too high & were it not for private interest there would be no great difficulty in bringing them down to the price which they should have by the course of Trade & Exchange. This price I have recconned at 20s & 6d or 8d. But if at present the Guinea should be reduced only to 21s, it would bring forreign silver nearer to the Mint priceto the same value with silver in coin & thereby diminish the temptation to export or melt down our silver money. And by such a reduction it would appear better hereafter then at present, what further reduction would be requisite to bring down forreign silver to the same value with silver in coyn, [& thereby to bring some forreign silver to the Mint & make it as cheap to export or melt down forreign silver as to export of metmelt down the silver coyn.]