CHAP. xv. GOLD COINS IN ENGLAND. 13 



amount, and most certainly to a much larger one 

 in foreign than in English coin. The riches of 

 the kingdom increased during the reign of Henry 

 VII. 



It is, indeed, true that the greater part of this 

 metallic treasure did not remain in the hands of 

 his subjects sufficiently long to become as pro- 

 ductive as it might have been made, but was 

 extorted from them by the monarch by a variety 

 of legal and illegal oppressions, and served to fill 

 that treasury which was found amply stored at 

 his death. The exact amount of that treasure it 

 is difficult to determine: Coke states it at upwards 

 of five millions, Sir Robert Cotton at four millions 

 and a half; but the more probable estimate is that 

 of Bacon, which Hume has adopted, one million 

 eight hundred thousand pounds, being equivalent 

 to near three millions of our present money; a 

 sum probably much greater than that in the pos- 

 session of all his subjects, and yet no more than 

 his son and successor was enabled to dissipate in 

 a few years; till at length he was compelled by 

 his extravagance to have recourse to the plunder 

 of the church, and to the debasement of the coin, 

 to defray the expenses of his government. 



