A Relation of the Grand Seignor's Se r aglio. i 7 



difpleafing to the lurks. Had they contented themfelves, in that Trade, with twenty 

 rive upon the hundred, it rriight havecontinu'd, and the profit would have been con- 

 flderable : but by little and little, the thing came to fo great an èxcefs, till, at laft, 

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



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

 for a Crown, of Which abufe the great Merchants of Confiantinqple, Aleppo, Smyrna, 

 and other Cities of Trade, made à 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 Merchandises 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 into Prr- 

 fia, is prefently convey'd to the Mints, upon the Frontiers, to be melted down, and af- 

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

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

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

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

 beft Standard to be coin'd without admitting the leaft alloy. 



The Gemufe Merchants, perceiving that the French Had, at the beginning been fortu- The jideupi of 

 hate in their Commerce, would needs imitate them in other forts of Money, and got *bf oth " M*r~ 

 two or three hundred thoufand Ducats coin'd, which they carried into Turkey. hut chants ' 

 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 Veffel, wereinfome 

 trouble about it, and the pcrfons concern'd therein, fav'd what they could of that 

 diftafter. 



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

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

 the Black^Sea, With other their Merchandizes, molt whereof confifted in the counter- 

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

 border upon the Euxine Sea, they carried a quantity of Roups, ox qmxtex-Ryals, of the 

 coinage of Poland, which were pleafant 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 afham'd, that the Germans lhould be more mccefsful than they upon that 

 occafion, fmce that both Nations came lhort in point of fubtilty, to deceive the lurks. 



But to return to the French, the firft concern'd in this Hiftory, to which it is time to 

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

 with them,they thought it not enough,to carry away the richeft Merchandhes,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 far, 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 Regukr-Books of the Farmers of the Cuftomes, that the fum of what had been 

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

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

 Perfons might have conccal'd. 



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

 having exclaim'd againft that diforder, and renew'd their complaints to the Grand Vi- 

 zir ; the Turks at laft open'd their eyes, and that principal Minifter, having compre- 

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

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

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

 thofe, who durft do any thing contrary thereto, 



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

 the Souldiers, who ferv'd in Candia } out of love with thole little piece?, the beauty 

 whereof they were fo much taken withal. Notwithftanding all the Remonftrances 



that 



