It may very well be suppos’d that a Dragooner may proffer to a Corn-Chandler 2 _s._ for a Bushel of Oats, and that the Corn-Chandler seeing that there is not Three Peny _wt._ or 9 Peny worth of Silver in both the Shillings, should not like the Bargain, what’s now to be done? Should There be a Law with Penalty for refusing clipp’d Coin, as there is for crack’d Six-pences, this would encourage Clippers to leave nothing remaining in a Shilling but the Figure XII. Should the Law prohibit the passing of all Silver clipp’d within the Ring, than two Thirds of the present Money of _England_ would be immediately cry’d down: Then the Loss of clipp’d as well as counterfeit Money would be very hard upon the Proprietors, and we should have two Thirds less Money for carrying on our Trade: And now we have two Thirds less than we should have, and if that two Thirds, which is cry’d down at the Owner’s Loss, should be carry’d to the Mint, and new coin’d, it would scarce yield a twelfth Part of what we should then want. If the Law should put down all Silver Money but of such a Weight, then certainly all Money above that Weight would be clipp’d down to it, and every Man must carry a pair of Scales in his Pocket, and we are still subject to the Consequence of the former Paragraph, as that former Paragraph would be to the first Conclusion of this, _viz._ _That all Money would be soon clipp’d down to the publick Standard._ Let the matter be canvas’d never so much, it must at last come to this Conclusion. _We cannot subsist either in War or Peace if the Coin of_ England _be not speedily regulated_. CHAP. II. _Of the present_ Scarcity _of Silver Coin in_ England. Now let us consider, that if all the current Silver Coin of _England_ were passable and unalterable, yet we have vastly too little in Tale for carrying on the Trade of the Nation. And this will appear several Ways, but chiefly by the high Price or Guineas and the Causes thereof. Guineas have risen from 21 _s._ 6 _d._ to 30 _s._ either because the intrinsic Value of Gold hath risen near in Proportion to the Diminution of the intrinsic Value of Silver Coin, or by reason of the Scarcity of the Silver Coin, or the Uncertainty of it, or partly by Reason of one, and partly t’other, which I believe is the Truth, that the Badness and Scarcity of Silver Coin hath occasioned an extravagant Rise of Gold. Now if so much as concerns the Scarcity of Silver be granted me, then I have nothing to do upon this Article, but shew that the present high Price of Gold is dangerous to the Nation, and more dangerous will a farther Advance of the Price thereof be.