272 



The Standard of Value. 



one-seventieth its weight, as not quite creditable to her monetary system, 

 and so changed its name to that of franc* 



The latest of England's tampering with her standard of value was 

 under Queen Elizabeth about 1601. England was then just entering 

 what proved to be the stormiest century of her history — the century 

 also of some the brightest minds of her sons — of Bacon and Shakes- 

 peare, of Cromwell and Hampden, of John Milton and of Locke and 

 Newton, in the lists of fame ; and of Strafford and Laud and the Star 

 Chamber Court, on the rolls of infamy. The questions to be settled 



* Delmar (History of Money in Ancient Countries, London, 1885, pp. 302, 203), 

 says: " As for the notion that the coin or sum livre of France ever weighed a 

 livre weight, or the coins or sum pound sterling of England ever weighed a 

 pound weight, there is no warrant for it in fact." And Delmar goes into con- 

 siderable length of explanation of the reason of the above assertion. 



On the other hand Lowndes (Report for the Amendment of the Silver Coins, 

 London, 1695) quotes from the " Black Book written by Gervaise of Tilbury in the 

 time of Henry II," which he calls " a book of great authority, remaining in 

 the exchequer," in speaking of the orders of King William I for the paying 

 of his warriours, that they "should not only be paid " (I quote from Lowndes), 

 " ad Scalem, but also ad Pensam, which latter was the paying as much money 

 for a pound sterling, as weighed twelve ounces Troy." 



Lowndes at this time (1695) was secretary of the treasury, and ought to know 

 whereof he affirms. Later on in his report Lowndes quotes from the indentures 

 of the mint after this fashion which I copy, (date 28 Edward I, A. D. 1300.) 

 "An Indented Tryal -piece of the goodness of Old Sterling was lodged in the 

 Exchequer, and every Pound weight Troy of such silver was to be shorne at 

 Twenty Shillings Three Pence, according to which the value of the silver in the 

 Coin, was One Shilling Eight Pence Farthing an ounce." This is stated as the 

 first debasement of the English coinage from the former coinage of 240 pence 



down to Edward I. And so Lowndes goes on through all tho successive taniper- 

 ings of the different sovereigns with the standard of value, down to his own 

 time — in each case stating from the mint indentures, that " a pound weight of 

 the old sterling silver" was to be coined into so many (as stated) of the different 

 coins. 



Lord Liverpool also (letter to the king on the coins of the realm, first pub- 

 lished 1805, London, 1880), says: "At the accession of William I to the throne of 

 England, the pound in tale of the silver coins current in his kingdom, was equal 

 to the pound weight of standard silver; that is, the Tower pound before 

 mentioned." The Tower pound before mentioned, he had explained to be the 

 same as the Moneyers pound, and the Rochelle pound, and was lighter than the 

 Troy pound by three-fourths of an ounce Troy. The Troy pound contained 5760 

 grains and the Tower or Rochelle pound 5400 grains. Henry VIII in the 

 eighteenth year of his reign — 1527 — abolished the Tower pound from the mint 

 and established the Troy pound in its stead. This fact needs to be taken into 

 account in all comparison of weights before and after that date. 



