10 SENIORAGE ON COINS CHAP. XV. 



Edward III. to the fourth of Edward VI. the 

 seniorage, with a few high exceptions, seems to 

 have amounted to between three and four per 

 eent. 



The seniorage on silver never seems to have 

 attained the monstrous height to which that on 

 gold had been carried in some few instances. It 

 was, however, raised or lowered according to the 

 state of the monarch's finances, or of his appetite 

 or power for grasping the wealth of his subjects. 



It is remarked by a noble writer, that " the 

 profits of the seniorage were so much considered 

 by our monarchs as a certain branch of their 

 revenue, that they were occasionally granted in 

 whole or in part, either to corporate bodies for 

 their advantage, or for defraying certain charges 

 expressed in the grant itself. They were some- 

 times granted to individuals by way of pension. 

 And when the right of seniorage was extinguished 

 in this kingdom, by act 18 Charles II. cap. 5, 

 there was a pension, payable out of the profits 

 derived from it, granted under the great seal for 

 twenty-one years to dame Barbara Villiers of two- 

 pence by tale out of every pound weight of silver 

 coin made at the English mint ; which the 

 legislature, out of a principle of justice, ordered 

 to be continued out of the coinage duties imposed 

 by that act 1 ." 



1 Lord Liverpool's letter to the king, p. 104. 



