

CURRENCY. 187 



rrency was tampered with a year before the English was 

 debased, and remained a debased currency, with rare exceptions, 

 from 33 Henry VIII to 10 Charles I, when it was restored to 

 the standard of the English. 



The first lessening of the unit was effected in the last year 

 of the thirteenth century. It is noteworthy that in 1299, 

 a considerable currency of foreign origin was circulated in 

 England 1 , and was demonetized. The new money stood to 

 the old in the proportion of 2-871 to 3. In 1344 it was 

 lowered to the proportion of 2^622. Two years later, in 1346, 

 to that of 2-583; in 1353 it stood at 2-325; in 1412 at~j 

 1-937; in 1464 at 1-55; in 1527 at 1-378 ; in 1543 at 1-163; ; 

 in 1560 at 1-033; i n I ^ I at r - I* w ^ be remembered that 

 the Troy pound stood to the Tower or moneyer's pound in the- 

 proportion of 24 to 22*5. 



The meaning of these figures is interpreted to be that, at 

 various periods of English history, the English monarchs 

 lessened the amount of the money which expressed an obliga- 

 tion or a power of purchase, ordering, for example, in 1412 

 that a landowner who had ,500 to receive in fee farm or 

 fixed rents, and who had inherited say from his grandfather a 

 sum equal to five hundred Tower pounds of silver coin, should 

 be content to acquiesce without murmur in accepting about 

 two-thirds of .the amount. If we suppose that the change was 

 understood, and was effective, it is difficult to understand why 

 all commodities should not have risen in money value to the 

 whole of the amount, unless we accept not only the hypothesis 

 of Adam Smith, that the relative value of silver was constantly 

 increasing during the fifteenth and the earlier part of the 

 sixteenth century, but that the increase corresponded with 

 chronological precision to the several changes which were 

 made by the indentures of the mint. 



I am quite aware, when the currency of any country is 

 employed almost entirely in domestic exchanges, that it is 



1 See vol. i. p. 193, &c. 



