The Regulating Silver Coin, Made Practicable and Easie, to the Government and Subject — John Shaqi
The Regulating Silver Coin, Made Practicable and Easie, to the Government and SubjectPratt, Samuel
History
The Regulating Silver Coin, Made Practicable and Easie, to the Government and Subject
Pratt, Samuel
Coinage -- Great Britain -- Early works to 1800; Great Britain. Parliament -- Early works to 1800
Now, as to the Hoarded Money, the Mill’d and Hammered Money of Full
Weight, I humbly am of the Opinion, That no Notice at all be taken of it
by the Government; and my Reasons are: That it will have an uncertain
Value, according to Peoples Opinion; and, that Uncertainty of
Estimation, as well as the Intrinsick Value, will cause it, without any
Edict or Precept, to be melted down.
For, a great deal of it is now kept up, only to see what things will
come to; and what Advantage can be made of it: But when People see the
Parliament has Conquer’d the Difficulty, and that there is a great
Plenty of Money stirring about again, they will be baulk’d of their
Expectations, and take Advantage of the First of the Market; this will
conduce to the Cheapness of Bullion, and cause a Plenty: And if any
continue still hoarded, it will be by People only who have an
irremediable Humour that way; and ’tis better they should hoard that for
which the Government pays no Interest, than to keep Unemploy’d Money by
’em at the expence of the Publick.
And as to the Paying of our Armies Abroad, I humbly propose, That the
_Parliament_ may always give His Majesty such an Allowance for that Use,
as His Majesty may be enabled to Export so much Uncoin’d Silver as is
necessary to the carrying on of so Glorious a War.
Which Uncoin’d Silver will for the most part find its way back again,
because the carrying over so much every Year will glut that place to
which ’tis carryed; so that Silver will become Cheap there, and they
must disgorge at the best Market; which _England_, in all probability,
will be. And the effect of that Over-ballance which Forreigners must, as
cases now stand, get by us; cannot be carryed out of the Nation, but in
other Commodities besides Silver.
For Silver Uncoin’d they Sell, and Silver Coin’d they cannot afford to
carry away; So that our own Commodities are like to be bartered for
Silver, and that conduces to bring the ballance of Trade even.
And here I go no farther, but leave the Question to better
Understandings.
Quest. _Whether Silver bearing an higher Price here than elsewhere, and
coming to a Quicker Market, will not naturally and easily force an
Exportation of our own Commodities, when it shall become altogether
impracticable to Export our Coin?_
Corol. I.
=Note=, That the Price of Silver Bullion being subject to Vary, the
difference between the _Intrinsick_, and the _Real_ Value, ought to be
Considerable; Because, if they should be too near one another, the
Additional Value would be so Small, that when Silver Rises, the
Goldsmiths would be Tempted to Melt down the New Coin, when they can get
almost as Much by that Practice, as they can do by receiving Interest,
or by passing it away for Principal.
Nor must the Two several Values be too far Different one from the other,
lest Foreigners be Tempted to Counterfeit our Coin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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