Let me here observe, by the bye, that all the pounds remitted from Holland to England, for filling the subscription for 12 millions of last year, cost the remitters but about 10_f._ 10_st._ for the pound sterling. If this low course of exchange be owing (as some pretend) to a wrong balance of trade against England, and not (as I pretend) to the lightness of the gold currency; then we must allow, that the expence of the German war (which is what alone carries off coin out of the kingdom) must have exceeded all the profits of the English commerce, which I apprehend to be at present immense; and also all the money lent by foreigners towards the loan of 12 millions. I leave to others more knowing than myself, to determine if such a supposition be admissible. If it be rejected, let any man reflect how absurd it would be to raise, at this time, the standard of the pound sterling to the old value; and to repay at 11_f._ 12_st._ such sums as have been borrowed at the value of 10_f._ 10_st._ or in other words, to make a present to the Dutch creditors of above 11 _per cent._ upon account of a loan for a year or two. [Sidenote: Defects of the silver currency of Holland.] Having now given as good an account as I can of the Dutch coin, according to the regulations of the state, I shall next point out the defects of their silver currency, and shew the consequences which result from them. As for the gold, it is at present perfectly well regulated. The riders are all exact in their weight, fineness, and denomination; the ducats are all now recoined of legal weight and fineness; and the denomination not being fixed, they serve, in a trading nation, as a merchandize, of which the weight and fineness are well ascertained. The only defect, therefore, I can discover in the Dutch gold currency, is the form of the pieces. They have too much surface in proportion to their weight, and the impression is too sharp; both which contribute greatly to the wearing of the coin. [Sidenote: Account of this currency.] The silver currency of Holland is of two sorts. The bank species, and the current species. Here it must be observed, that by bank _species_ is not meant Amsterdam _banco_, or bank money, but certain coins which are called _bank species_. These are, Pieces of 3 guilders. ————— 30 stivers. ————— 20 stivers. These are called _groff gelt_, as being the good specie, of which hitherto we have only spoken. Sums to be paid in bank species, must be composed of ⅔ of this currency, and of ⅓ of what follows, viz. Riders of 14 florins. Dutch half crowns of 28 stivers. Ses t’halves of 5½ stivers. I have put in the riders, though a gold coin, in order to give a compleat enumeration of all the kinds of these bank species. [Sidenote: Regulations for the payment of foreign bills in coin.]