The Standard of Value. 



27-1 



were, for the most part, of too serious a nature to admit of tampering 

 with the currency. 



But, as the century drew toward its close, the circulating coin of 

 the realm was found to be in very dilapidated condition, through the 

 clippings of the dishonest, and the wear of long use. William of 

 Orange had just been established on the throne and something of 

 stable government seemed to be dawning on the horizon. The condi- 

 tion of the coins attracted the attention of the Parliament and people. 

 Lowndes, the Secretary of the Treasury, was called on for a plan of 

 care. He replied by a report to the Lords of the Treasury recommend- 

 ing re-coinage, raising the value of silver twenty-five per cent, citing 

 the history of the previous coinages in which similar action had been 

 taken, and claiming further justification in the exigency of the ex- 

 treme depreciation in weight and real value of the silver coins in cir- 

 culation. The actual depreciation of the circulating coins as proven 

 by the weighing £221.418, in the condition they were received at the 

 Exchequer was shown to be more than forty-two per cent. Mr. Lowndes' 

 proposal was that the expense of the restoration of the coinage should 

 be, in the manner he suggests, shared between the present owners and 

 the Treasury. Through the influence of Locke and Newton, the 

 scheme of Lowndes was defeated, and it was decided that the coinage 

 should be restored to its full legal weight, at the public expense. A 

 decision based in justice, and prompted by wisdom and sound economy! 

 Mr. Locke published several essays on the subject which have come 

 down to us. The result is a triumph of sound reason and sound 

 economy, over that short-sighted financiering, which expects to make 

 rtself rich, as Macaulay says, " by calling ninepence a shilling.'* 



This re-coinage of the English currency under William and Mary 

 in 1696-9 marks an important era in the evolution of the standard of 

 value. Sir Isaac Newton, after making the greatest scientific dis- 

 covery of all the ages, was made warden of the mint, and, thereafter, 

 something of scientific system is to govern the coinage of money in 

 England. From this date credit becomes an important factor in the 

 affairs of civilization, and its use adds in many fold degree to the im- 

 portance of a stable standard of value. It is, too, the era of the incep- 

 h on of national debts, which since have grown to such towering 

 If nportance in their magnitude. 



Prior to about this period the commerce of the world had consisted 

 almost wholly of the exchange of products for payment at once in 

 ot her products, or for their equivalent in money. Money — the stand- 

 ar< l of value — has, up to this time, served but little purpose other than 

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