A Relation of the Grand Seignor's Seraglio. 



difpleafmg to the Tttrks* Had they contented themfelves, in that Trade, with twenty 

 rive upon the hundred, it might have continued, and the profit would have been con- 

 fiderable: but by little and little, the thing came to fo great an excefs, till, atlaft, 

 there was not one penny-worth of good Silver in every piece. 

 ♦ 

 The French, to make them pafs the better, gave eighteen, and fometimes twenty 

 for a Crown, of which abulc the great Merchants of Conftantinople, Aleppo, Smyrna* 

 and other Cities of Trade, made a good hand, they giving but twelve or thirteen for 

 the worth of a Crown, in the payments they made to the petty Merchants of the Pro- 

 vinces of the Empire, for the Merchandizes they brought out of Turkey, there was 

 none of that counterfeit Money difpers'd, and the Armenians were far enough from 

 burthening themfelves with it, in regard that all the Money, which is carried intoPer- 

 fia, is prefently convcy'd to the Mints, upon the Frontiers, to be melted down, and a£ 

 wards coin'd into Abajfis, whereof they give the Merchant an account, anfwerably to 

 the Standard of his Money, after it has been examin'd i and by that means there can 

 be no fraud committed. The fame courfe is taken over all the Great MogoPs Empire i 

 and of all, the Princes in the World, he caufes all the Species of Gold and Silver of the 

 belt Standard to be coin'd without admitting the Jealt alloy. 



The Genuefi Merchants, perceiving that the French had, at the beginning been fortu- tte jtal»ufu4 

 nate in their. Commerce, would needs imitate them in other forts of Money, and got tbeothtrMtr- 

 two or three hundred thouiand Ducats coin'd, which they carried into Turkey. But ( ^ MtSt 

 they had not the fuccefs they expe&ed , the Gold was fo counterfeit, that the cheat 

 was immediately difcover'd, theConful, and the Captain of the Veifel, were in fbme 

 trouble about it, and the perfons concem'd therein > fav'd what they could of that 

 diftafter.- • 



The Germans alfo would needs come in for a (bare, taking another courfe all along 

 the Vannow, .quite to the mouth of it, from whence they got to Conftantinople, through 

 the Blacky Sea. With other their Merchandizes molt whereof confined in the counter- 

 feit Copper-wares of the City of Nuremberg, things fit enough thole Nations, which 

 border upon the Euxine Sea, they carried a quantity of Roups, or quarter-ivy^//, of the 

 coinage of Poland? which were pkafant to the eye, and might have been commodious 

 •enough for the Merchants,if the adulteration had been moderate.But the Italians need 

 not be much alham'd, that the Germans ihould be more fuccefsful than they upon that 

 occafion, force that both Nations came Ihortin point of fubtilty, to deceive the Tar^r. 



But to return to the French, the firft concem'd in this Hiitoryy to which it is time to 

 pur a period. In the heat of their Commerce, and while all things were very well 

 with thcm,thcy thought it not enough,to carry away the richeli Merchandizes,but they 

 alfo bought up all forts of good Money they could meet withal, and brought it into 

 France, to carry on and continue the coinage of their counterfeit pieces. This Trade 

 was carry' d on fo for, through the whole extent of that vaft Empire, and there was fo • 

 prodigious a quantity of that counterfeit Money fpread abroad, that it was found by 

 the Regi tier-Books of the Fanners of the Cuitomes, that the fum of what had been 

 difpers'd of it amounted to a hundred and fourlcore millions [ of Livers] not account- 

 ing what had never come to their knowledge, and what Seamen, and other private 

 , Perfons might have conceal'd. 



The other Merchants and Traders of Europe, who brought none but good Money, 

 having exclaim'dagainit that diforder, and renew'd their complaints to the Grand V'tr 

 zir ■•> the Turks at lalt open'd their eyes, and that principal Miniiter, having compre- 

 hended, that if the thing continu'd, in a (hort time, in ftead of Silver, there would 

 be nothing but Copper in the Empire, prohibited the bringing in of any more of thofe 

 pieces of five Sols, upon pain of confiication, and great penalties to be inflidted on 

 thofe, who durit do any thing contrary thereto, 



» 



Yefc could not. that crying of them down, and the Grand Vizir's prohibition make 

 the Souldicrs, who ferv'd in Candia, out of love with thofe little piece;, the beauty 

 whereof they were fo much taken withal. Notwithitanding all the RemoniVrances 



that 



