Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/32

12 was alloy; on the 18th of June they issued a further 40,000l. worth in a coin of which three-quarters was alloy. Possibly, or rather probably, it was put out subject to the partial depreciation of the first fall; but every creditor of the Court, artisan, or labourer, servant, tradesman, farmer, or soldier was forced to receive that money at a fictitious value, although the council knew that a further depreciation was immediately and necessarily imminent.

This was the last grasp at the departing prey, and perhaps it transpired to the world: for so profound and so wide was the public distrust, that when the first fall took effect on the 9th of July, prices everywhere rather rose than declined, even allowing for the difference of denomination. In vain the