Page:Craik History of British Commerce Vol 1.djvu/269

Rh substance and strength which oft-times they appeared to have, besides being one of the chief causes of the transportation of gold and silver out of the realm.

The legal interest of money in Scotland was fixed in 1586 at ten per cent., or at five bolls of victual for 100l. by the year. The average price of five bolls of victual, that is, probably, oats, was therefore 10l or about 25s. sterling. In other words, oats at this time sold in Scotland for about 5s. per boll, which would be about 6s. 8d. per quarter.

The history of the Coinage in England for the greater part of the present period exhibits a continuation of the process of depreciation which had been going on throughout the preceding century, with the introduction of a new mode of debasement still more ruinous.

Henry VII. preserved the same standard which had been fixed by Edward IV. in 1464 and adhered to by Richard III., the pound of silver being still coined into 450 pennies, or thirty-seven nominal shillings and six-pence. Shillings, which had hitherto been only money of account, were first struck by this king in 1504; they were at first called, also, large groats, and afterwards testoons, the latter name (from the French teste or tête, a head) being given to them from the royal image being stamped upon them in the unusual form of a profile instead of a full face. "This silver money of Henry VII. with the half face," says Leake, "differs therein from all his predecessors after King Stephen; and in this his successors followed his example, for we have none afterwards with the full face but the bad money of Henry VIII. and the good of Edward VI. He was the first, likewise, except Henry III., that added the number to his name to distinguish his money from the former Henries. He also left off the old Rose, as it is called, about the head, and, instead of the pellets and place of mintage on the reverse, he placed the arms, which is the first time we see it upon the English silver money." A new gold coin appears in the reign of Henry VII.,