the fourteenth century, any variation of one metal served as a vantage-point against the other, as a lever to press upon and force it out. One metal would have been safe (so long as no partial depreciation was allowed), two metals served simply as fulcra to each other's oscillations, to the undoing of both. The mediæval legislator could not grasp that there was a double train of principle and event transacting itself under his very eyes--the one, changes of denomination of coins; the other, changes of ratio. In less than thirty years after Edward III. had cried down the English coins to below the competing denominations of the Continent, the changes of the European ratio had produced their effect, and Richard II. found the realm denuded of its treasure and currency. [Sidenote: ENGLAND IN 1378] From 1360 the ratio on the Continent gradually sank from 12:1 till towards the end of the first quarter of the fifteenth century, when it stood in France as low as 9:1. That France experienced the process, which must have been perfectly natural and due simply to relatively diminishing production of silver in those years, 1360-1425, is seen in her alteration of the ratio from 12 to 10.74 in 1380 and to 10.29 in 1422. In England the same train of events made itself felt at almost the same moment. In 1378 great complaints were made of the export of gold and silver, and of the enfeebled state of the money which remained in the realm, "so that if a remedy be not speedily applied, the King will receive no more than 4s. where he should receive 5s." [Sidenote: THE MONETARY INQUIRY OF 1381] Three years later--one year after the French King had lowered his ratio from 12.1 to 10.74--the Commons presented a petition to the King during the sitting of Parliament, 1381, complaining of the wretched want of the kingdom, which was devoid of treasure, monies of gold and silver being carried out of the realm, and those remaining being clipped to one-third their nominal value. No money at all was being minted in the Tower, and a heavy export of our metals to Scotland and Ireland was taking place. Simultaneously the officers of the Mint presented a petition to the King and his Council in Parliament, complaining that no money was being coined. The causes of this, in their opinion, were-- 1. That the monies of gold and silver beyond the seas were more feeble than the monies of England, on which account the merchants could not bring bullion into England for their profit nor for the King's advantage. But if any manner of bullion of gold were brought into the kingdom, by persons travelling, it was sold to those who conveyed it out of England, to their great gain and to the injury of the whole realm. 2. That the silver of England which [i.e. when it] was found to be good and heavy, was taken into Scotland, because the money of that country was so light.