CURRENCY. 191 



3^. 8d., 304! ozs. gilt at 4^. lod. Parcel-gilt plate varies from 

 3.$-. 8d. to 3^. 9^., and is sold to the dealer at from 3^-. 3^. 

 to 35. ^d. 



Gold plate is at about the same value as before, 40^., but 

 Crown gold is even cheaper, ranging from 33.$-. ^d. to 36.9. 8d. 

 On Dec. 27, however, Crown gold rises to 41^. 4^. The cost 

 of manufacture has also risen, being now $s. the ounce. 



Gilt plate after December is also dearer. Wolsey buys 

 1498 ozs. at $s. 8d., 377i ozs. at 6s. 



On Jan. i, 19 Hen. VIII (1528), Crown gold is again at 

 4is. 4d. In the same year, Oct. 20, sterling silver varies from 

 $s. 6d. to 3^. lod. In the same year, July 9, Wolsey buys plate 

 for his college at Ipswich, 310 ozs. gilt at 5^-., 130 ozs. parcel- 

 gilt bowls at 4^., 240! ozs. of altar plate at 4^. ^d. ; a gilt 

 cross=257 ozs. at 6s. 8d., and a gilt silver pi liar =78! ozs. at 

 6s. It is to be noticed that on some occasions these purchases 

 of plate are made in money. 



In the first of these estimates of sterling silver the value 

 assigned to this article is undoubtedly forty pence the 480 

 grains, and this corresponds exactly to the amount of silver 

 in the penny sterling from 4 Edward IV to 18 Henry VIII, 

 while the price at which the same article stands in 20 Hen. VIII 

 should give 11-43 g rams nearly to the penny, the amount, ac- 

 cording to Ruding, which the penny contained at this date 

 being loj grains only. 



But though raw silver is bought at or at about the mint 

 price of coin, the price of silver and gilt plate does not so 

 closely correspond to these prices, unless we are to conclude 

 that the cost of manufacture was exceedingly low. After 

 Elizabeth's reform, however, the relation of silver and silver- 

 gilt plate to money in tale is immediate and close. Old plate 

 sells at a little less than the mint rate, and new at the rate, 

 plus the cost of workmanship. 



3. In the preamble to Elizabeth's first proclamation on the 

 currency, the loss of the base money is said to fall principally 

 on pensioners, soldiers and all hired servants, and other mean 



