678 A. D. 1696. 



therefor the diminution of the old hammered money dayly increafed fo 

 far, that, it is faid, many fliillings fcarcely contained more than three- 

 pence in {liver, the condition of the nation became very alarming ; 

 which gave the greateft joy to the difaffeded at home, who hoped there- 

 by for a total overthrov/ of Khig William's government. The French 

 king alfo had great expectations from this calamity, fo far as to fay, that 

 King William would never be able to furmount the difficulty ; and his 

 being afterwards undeceived therein, as alio of his hopes from the dif- 

 affeded in England, of being able to reftore the abdicated king, have 

 been ufually alTigned as one main reafon for bringing him into the 

 peace of Ryfwick, in the year following. 



The great queftion then in parliament, was, whether it was now ab- 

 folutely neceflitry to call in and recoin the old and diminifhed filver mo- 

 ney ? It was plaufibly laid by the anti-minifterial men, that calling it 

 all in would bring great diflrefs upon commerce, more efpecially in the 

 time of an expenfive war. Yet the miniflry, and particularly Mr. Mont- 

 ague, chancellor of the exchequer, argued, with greater reafon, that 

 the longer it remained unremedied, the more fatal it would prove, till by 

 farther diminilhing it, commerce would iuffer an entire ftagnation ; that 

 it had already done very great mifchief, by our exchange with foreign 

 Hates being brought fo much to our difadvantage, and by occafioning 

 fo much difficulty and difadvantage in raifmg the fupplies, for which 

 the government were forced to allow exorbitant premiums and interefl ; it 

 dayly more and more depreffed the market price of tallies, and other pub- 

 lic fecurities: and it had made guineas to be run up to thirty fliiUings, and 

 foreip^n gold in proportion, whereby much gold was run in upon us from 

 beyond Tea, to our great detriment, being over-loaded with gold, while 

 we had fo great a fcarcity of fiver : for, in return for guineas and foreign 

 gold, they carried away all our weighty filver coin, as well as our bul- 

 lion ; iiifomuch, that at length we fhould be in the utmoft difirefs for 

 fmalier fums, fo much wanted in dayly bufinefs. That though Qtieen 

 Elizabeth had coined no lefs than 114,632,93.-2 : ^ : 2j;, in filver, yet all 

 her crowns, half-crowns, groats, and quarter-lliillings, half-groats, three- 

 halfpenny pieces, three-farthing pieces, and haltpence, were wholely 

 funk ; and moft of her fliillings and fixpences were either melted down or 

 lofi:. That in the reign of King James I there was coined Li ,700,000 in 

 filver; and in that of King Charles I L8,7 76,544 : 10 : 3 in filver; yet 

 the crowns, groats, twopences, pence, and halfpence, of thole two reigns 

 were quite gone ; fo that there might not be now in being above one 

 third part of the filver coinage of all the above three reigns, or about 

 L5,036,492. To which adding the unmelted and undiminiflied 

 coins (L563,5o8) of King Charles II and James II, and thofe of the 

 prefent reign, all the filver money now in the kingdom might amount 

 to about L5,6oo,ooo, of which there were about four millions of clip- 



