THE RESTORATION OF THE CURRENCY was due to Montague, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Up to the time of Charles II. silver money was made by simply cutting the metal with shears, and shaping and stamping it with a hammer. It was thus quite easy to clip or shear the coins again without being detected, and then pass them off to an unsuspecting person for their full nominal value. So the coins became smaller and smaller, and people often found on presenting them at a bank or elsewhere that they were only worth half their nominal value. At first, under Charles II., it was thought sufficient to issue new coins with a ribbed or “milled” edge, but the only result of this was that the good coin was melted or exported and (as is always the case) the inferior money remained at home. It was then seen, by Montague and Sir Isaac Newton (the Master of the Mint), that the only way was to _call in_ the old coinage and issue an entirely new and true milled currency. The expenses of this re-coinage, which cost some two and a half millions, were defrayed by a tax on window-panes. (Cf. Rogers’ _Economic Interpretation of History_, p. 200.) THE EAST INDIA COMPANY’S NEW CHARTER was granted on October 7th, 1693, by William III., and restored all the former powers and privileges of the Company. This Company’s monopoly of trade with India had been frequently infringed by private traders, and it was generally regarded with such great hostility that the House of Commons in 1692 requested the King to dissolve the Company upon the ground of mismanagement and conduct injurious to national interests. However, the enemies of the Company failed, and all its privileges were confirmed by the Charter of 1693. Its monopoly was nevertheless still often disregarded, and {249} the validity of it denied by Parliament in spite of the King’s favour. A New Company was even formed in 1698, but after a few years the two rival Companies were amalgamated (1708). 15. EXPORT OF BULLION (p. 169)--“In form the prohibition on the export of gold and silver coin continued to 1816. People were allowed to export gold in bars, foreign coin, and bullion the produce of foreign coin; and an oath had to be taken that exported bars were of this character. People were hired to swear that they were so, and sworn-off gold, as it was called, was worth 1⁠½_d._ an ounce more than other gold was. Three-halfpence an ounce was the bullion-dealer’s payment for perjury” (Rogers’ _Economic Interpretation of History_, p. 187).