A CERTIFICATE TO THE LORDS OF THE 



COUNCIL, UPON INFORMATION GIVEN 

 TOUCHING THE SCARCITY OF SILVER AT THE MINT, 

 AND REFERENCE TO THE TWO CHANCELLORS, 

 AND THE KING S SOLICITOR. 



IT MAY PLEASE YOUR LORDSHIPS, 



ACCORDING unto your lordships letters unto us di 

 rected, grounded upon the information which his 

 majesty hath received concerning the scarcity of sil 

 ver at the Mint, we have called before us as well the 

 officers of the Mint, as some principal merchants, 

 and spent two whole afternoons in the examination 

 of the business ; wherein we kept this order, first 

 to examine the fact, then the causes, with the re 

 medies. 



And for the fact, we directed the officers of the 

 Mint to give unto us a distinguished account how 

 much gold and silver hath yearly been brought into 

 the Mint, by the space of six whole years last past, 

 more especially for the last three months succeeding 

 the last proclamation touching the price of gold ; to 

 the end we might by the suddenness of the fall dis 

 cern, whether that proclamation might be thought 

 the efficient cause of the present scarcity. Upon 

 which account it appears to us, that during the 



