In 1695 the matter was taken up in the House of Commons, and a committee appointed. The report of this committee, which was never passed, was based on the proposition of a reduction of standard. By Montague's influence the proposals were dropped, and it was not till the 22nd November that the Act for remedying the ill state of the coins passed. It is well known that the unwise determination of the Government of William III. to adhere to the pre-existing standard was due to the action and contrivance of Montague as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and to the influence of Locke's writings. By a subsequent series of Acts, based on the complaints of merchants representing the evils resulting from the unsettled price of gold, the price of the guinea was ordered to be gradually reduced from 30s. to 28s., 26s., and finally 22s., before 10th April 1696. [Sidenote: ENGLAND: RECOINAGE OF 1696] This great recoinage scheme was only completely accomplished in 1699, having occupied the greater part of four years, and after a long series of Acts and proclamations of, occasionally, very doubtful wisdom. According to the accounts of the officers of the Mint, the new silver coin amounted in tale to £6,882,908, 19s. 7d. The worn and clipped money called in was estimated roughly at £4,000,000, on which the loss was about £2,000,000; the whole charge and loss being stated at not less than £2,700,000. It is significantly affirmed that, in a manner, all the called-in silver was found to consist only of pieces coined between the days of Edward VI. and 1662, a sure indication of the fate which had befallen the coinage issued since the Restoration. Before the transaction was finally complete the last safeguard and complement of the system had been adopted, in fixing the relation of the gold coinage to the new silver issue. On the 22nd September 1698, a report was given in to the House of Commons, signed by four names, including that of John Locke, stating that the value of gold in Holland and the neighbouring countries was, as near as could be computed upon a medium, 15:1 in silver; and that, according to this value, the currency of the guinea at 22s. was too high, and occasioned a disproportionate importation of gold and an exportation of silver. The bringing down of the guinea to 21s. 6d. would make the value of English gold and coin very near 15-1/2:1 to silver, which, though not so low as the rate in Holland, would in their opinion be sufficient to correct the error.