CERTIFICATE RELATING TO THE MINT. 61 



the merchants, that if the coinage were brought 

 from two shillings unto eighteen pence, as it was 

 in queen Elizabeth s time, the king would gain 

 more in the quantity than he should lose in the price : 

 and they aided themselves with that argument, that 

 the king had been pleased to abate his coinage in 

 the other metal, and found good of it : which 

 argument, though it doth admit a difference, because 

 that abatement was coupled with the raising of the 

 price, whereas this is to go alone ; yet nevertheless 

 it seemed the officers of the Mint were not unwilling 

 to give way to some abatement, although they pre 

 sumed it would be of small effect, because that 

 abatement would not be equivalent to that price 

 which Spanish silver bears with the goldsmith ; but 

 yet it may be used as an experiment of state, being 

 recoverable at his majesty s pleasure. 



The third proposition is, concerning the ex 

 portation of silver more than in former times, 

 wherein we fell first upon the trade into the East 

 Indies ; concerning which it was materially in our 

 opinions answered by the merchants of that com 

 pany, that the silver which supplies that trade, 

 being generally Spanish moneys, would not be 

 brought in but for that trade, so that it sucks in as 

 well as it draws forth. And it was added likewise, 

 that as long as the Low Countries maintained that 

 trade in the Indies, it would help little though our 

 trade were dissolved, because that silver which is 

 exported immediately by us to the Indies would be 

 drawn out of this kingdom for the Indies imme- 



