CHAP. XV. 



OF GOLD AND SILVER. 11 



This seniorage upon the coin must have operated 

 as an impediment to its general, and consequently 

 its extensive, circulation; but a greater impediment 

 still must have been encountered from the un- 

 certainty of the amount of that seniorage, which 

 varied, and that to a great extent, in a short 

 space of time. It has been before stated that in 

 one of the years of the reign of Edward IV, the 

 seniorage on gold coins amounted to thirteen per 

 cent. ; in the next year, it amounted to six per 

 cent. ; and three years later, to only four per cent. 

 In the thirty-seventh year of Henry VIII. the 

 seniorage was more than sixteen per cent. ; in the 

 thirty-sixth year of the same reign, it was only 

 eight per cent.; and in the thirty-fourth year, not 

 more than three per cent. As the pieces of the 

 same reign bore the same stamp, they would cir- 

 culate among those of the inferior, but not the 

 lowest, class of traders before their difference in 

 value would be detected; but if presented to the 

 goldsmiths or the Lombards, the discovery of the 

 inferior value would be made, and the loss fall on 

 those least prepared to bear it. 



The great traders in money had modes of making 

 their payments and settling their balances among 

 themselves without reference to the legal value of 

 the coins, but according to their value in their weight 

 in pure gold or silver. If they paid or received the 

 English coin at less than its legal value, they were 

 liable to heavy penalties ; and they unwillingly, 



