174 CURRENCY 



are calculated in the estimate afforded of the prices of corn, &c. 

 in silver. 



In Mr. Chisholm's report on the Exchequer standards it is 

 said that there still exists among the curiosities of this Office 

 cc an ancient box labelled Grana pro auro containing one 

 " small circular weight, of copper, marked with two dots, as 

 u if serving for two grains^ but weighing less by almost a 

 " quarter of a grain than two grains of the present standard." 

 If it were exactly a quarter of a grain troy short, it would 

 approximate very nearly to the proportion of pure silver in 

 the penny, for : % : : 25 : 1.75 : : 20.5. 



Up to 1300 the penny contains 22.5 troy grains; from 1300 

 to 1344 it contains 2,2, grains, that is, it Buffers a reduction 

 of 2 1 per cent. In 1344, and onwards to 1346, it suffered a 

 further reduction of 1.75 grains, that is, about 10 per cent.; and 

 sustains another reduction of a quarter of a grain after 1346. 

 So that the currency was depreciated by rather more than 10 

 per cent, in the course of the 142 years before us at present. 



It is, I think, possible that the slight diminution implied 

 in the first change of 1300 may have escaped general notice, 

 and that values were not seriously affected by such an altera- 

 tion. But I cannot think that so considerable a depreciation 

 in the nominal amount as is involved in the change of 1344 

 could have been authorized without strong remonstrance, had 

 money in business transactions of any importance been taken 

 by tale. We are told that Henry the Third coined gold in 

 1257, in pieces weighing two pennies, that is, of 45 grains 

 each, and ordered them to pass at 20 pence, that is, in the 

 proportion of one to ten, but that on the remonstrance of 

 the citizens of London, he ordered that on the new gold 

 being carried to the Exchange, it would be taken back in the 

 proportion proclaimed, and silver paid for it on the deduction 

 of 2 i per cent., that is, one halfpenny. Now, in the year 

 1262, vol. ii. p. 530. i., the king himself purchases gold in order 

 that it may be manufactured into plate, at proportions varying 

 from ten to nine to one. If therefore it is admitted that 



