J28 CURRENCY. 



For during these thirty-five years the average issue of new 

 silver is 134,9 19, and of gold 123,765, or 258,684 together, 

 very little in excess of the yearly issue in the time of James I. 



In Justice's book on the foreign exchanges 1 we are informed 

 that, even after the recoinage of 1696-9, moneys of the English 

 sovereigns of centuries past were in circulation, and even some 

 of the base moneys of Henry VIII and Edward VI. It is 

 probable that the amount of these old coins was not large, 

 but they must have been numerous enough to warrant the 

 author of the work referred to, published nine years after the 

 recoinage was completed, in describing and valuing them. 

 Besides coins of English origin, there was a considerable 

 number of foreign moneys at all times in circulation ; and 

 if the rumours of the age are at all founded on fact, not a 

 little French gold found its way into England from the French 

 king's treasury. There are not however, and there cannot 

 be, any means of knowing what proportion these foreign 

 currencies bore to English mintages. 



There is of course only one way in which a country possess- 

 ing but little mineral wealth of its own, particularly one in 

 which the search for such minerals was greatly discouraged by 

 the claims of the Crown to all gold and silver mines, can pro- 

 cure supplies of these metals. This is by the foreign ex- 

 changes ; and by what is called by economists ' the balance 

 of the bargains ' being on the side of the trading country. Now 

 it is quite certain that the foreign trade of England was very 

 insignificant in Elizabeth's reign. For centuries England had 

 received this balance from Flanders by the sale of wool, and 

 for centuries a large part of this balance had been disbursed in 

 the cost of foreign wars and the exactions of the Papal Court. 

 But almost simultaneously with the cessation of the papal 

 tribute came the ruin of the Netherlands in the wars of 

 religion, the emigration on a large scale of Flemish artisans to 

 England, and the improvement in the home manufacture 

 of woollen fabrics. 



1 A General Treatise of Money and Exchanges; London, 1707. 



