Is it surprizing that, at London, gold in bullion should be worth as much as gold of the same standard in guineas, weight for weight? It is worth as much at the mint, why should it not be worth as much at market? Any man may offer to pay _for the ounce_ of all the guineas coined by Charles II. James II. and William III. now in circulation, the highest market price that ever was given for standard gold bullion in London, and gain by the bargain. This, I hope, will be sufficient to satisfy any body that there is a mistake in ascribing the high price paid for the French crown in the London exchange, to a wrong balance upon the trade of England with France. From this new light in which I have placed the question, I hope the arguments used in the 16th chapter of the first part of the third book, will acquire an additional force; and that thereby the eyes of this nation may be opened with regard to the interests of the French trade; a point, I should think, of the highest concern. To calculate, as every body does, the par of the French crown, either by the gold or the silver in the English _standard_ coin, when no such _standard_ coin exists; and to state all that is given for the crown above 29½_d._ if you reckon by the silver, or 30¼_d._ if you reckon by the gold, for the price of a wrong balance, is an error which may lead to the most fatal consequences. If government should think fit to impose, in their own mint, a coinage, equal to that of France, and make all their coin of equal weight, and at the due proportion, it will take off all the loss we suffer by paying coinage to France, which we at present impute to the exchange, while she pays none to us. But then it will occasion nearly the same fluctuations upon the real par of exchange as at present; only from another cause on the side of Great Britain. At present our exchange becomes favourable from the weight of our own currency, and the balance against France upon her trade; which, in Paris, raises the price of the bullion with which we pay our French debts. On the other hand, our exchange becomes unfavourable from the lightness of our own currency, from the coinage we pay to France, and balance against us; which last carries off all our new guineas; and in the Paris market, sinks the value of that bullion in which we pay our French debts. Were matters put upon a right footing, we should gain from France the price of our coinage, when our balance is favourable, and pay coinage to France when their balance is favourable; instead of seeing our exchange turn more in our favour, only from the additional weight of the coin in which we pay. If French coinage should appear too high a price for the interest of other branches of British trade, a question I shall not here determine, let us impose at least as much as to keep our guineas out of the melting pot, and banish all the old coin which throws us into such confusion.