When goldsmiths sell their plate, they ought regularly to charge, for the metal, the current price of the market; but as that is constantly varying, the King, for their encouragement, has fixed the value of the marc of it at 52 livres, which is only 14 sols per marc below the value of the coined silver, including the price of coinage. Consequently, were goldsmiths to melt down the coin in order to make plate of it, they would lose 14 sols per marc, besides the expence of reducing the melted coin to the standard of the plate. Goldsmiths, therefore, in France, will never melt down the coin when they can find bullion in the market, at the price of 14 sols per marc below the value of the coin; and we have seen that the price imposed on coinage generally reduces the bullion to near 8 _per cent._ below coin: but supposing them to melt it down, there is no loss to the state, because the coinage is already paid. [Sidenote: Goldsmiths profit by the imposition on coinage,] By this regulation, goldsmiths profit by the imposition of coinage; because the mint price of silver being 8 _per cent._ below the value of the coin, and that keeping the price of bullion low, goldsmiths gain upon the sale of their wrought plate, all the difference between the price they pay for bullion when they make their provision of it, and the price they are allowed to sell it at when wrought. Another consequence of this regulation is, that there is no competition occasioned between the mint and the goldsmiths, to the prejudice of the latter. No body will carry bullion to the mint while there is the least demand for it to make it into plate. This consequence is plain. [Sidenote: And never find the mint in competition with them for the metals.] Bullion can never fall lower than mint price; consequently, the mint may rather be considered as receiving the bullion upon an obligation to pay a certain price for it, than as demanding it in the market. The smallest demand, therefore, from the goldsmith, will raise the price of bullion when it stands at mint price; because he who has it, will never give it to any body who has occasion for it, without some small advantage above what the mint must give him for it; but the mint price being fixed, no competition can come from that quarter, and therefore the advanced price the goldsmith gives must be very small. [Sidenote: Advantages of the French regulations.]