Besides these there are other circumstances to be attended to. Men who job in coin, pick up all the worst guineas they can when they go to market; or if they buy with paper, we may decide, that the bank at that time pays in guineas not above the weight of 123.23 grains troy; for if the bank paid with guineas of a greater weight, he who had occasion to carry his paper to market to buy gold bullion, would certainly rather go to the bank, and afterwards melt down their guineas. Were the bank of England never to pay but in gold of full weight, and were the exportation of guineas free, it is impossible that gold should ever rise above the mint price, which is 3_l._ 17_s._ 10½_d._ As a farther confirmation of the justness of the high valuation I have put upon a silver pound sterling of standard weight, I shall observe, that a new guinea passes in Holland (at the time when the exchange is at 10_f._ 10_st._) for 11_f._ 11_st._ and every body knows, that such a guinea in England is not above the intrinsic value of a silver pound sterling of full weight. If then I can get 11_f._ 11_st._ for a new guinea, I ought to get as much for a new silver pound sterling, since the intrinsic value of both is the same, when the proportion of gold to silver is as 1 to 14½. Now this guinea must be worth more than 11_f._ 11_st._ because the Jews, who carry them to the mint, give that price for them (I have disposed of them to Jews at that value[4]); and as the coinage of ducats costs, as we have seen, near 1 _per cent._ the guinea is intrinsically worth 2 stivers more, that is 11_f._ 13_st._ but as gold at present bears an advanced price upon account of the war, and that the proportion between gold and silver is in Holland above 1 to 14½, these are the reasons why the guinea, in Holland, is at present something above the intrinsic value of a silver pound sterling, which we have stated at _f._ 11.609, a trifle above 11_f._ 12_st._ Footnote 4: This was writ in Holland. [Sidenote: and not to the wrong balance of their trade, as is alledged.]