Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/757

Rh of Edward III. (1335), among the extraordinary means taken to prevent the importation of money of foreign coinage from abroad, may be mentioned that of obliging innkeepers to be sworn to search their guests for the detection of such money. Exchanges were established at Dover, London, Yarmouth, Boston, Kingston, and Hull, for furnishing to travellers going abroad foreign money. This monarch, having by 1344 exhausted his exchequer, and embarrassed himself with debts, in his unsuccessful attempts to conquer France, ordered that in future 266 pennies should be made from the pound sterling. Two years subsequently he increased the number to 270 pennies. In 1394 it was decreed that no silver money should be melted for the manufacture of plate or for any similar purpose. Counterfeiting of English money would seem to have been a very common practice in those days; and in 1416 parliament passed an act declaring it treason to counterfeit the money of the kingdom, and providing for the punishment by the judges of importers of base coin. Five years later the currency was in so bad a state that a law was passed by parliament providing that all gold money should be passed only by weight, and that all light and vitiated coins should be taken to the tower to be recoined. In consideration of the loss sustained by the holders, the king remitted the usual charge for coinage. In the reign of Henry VII. (1504) a law was passed against either taking English money into Ireland, or bringing Irish money into England. The following year a trifling number of shilling pieces were coined, being the earliest known to have been made. Under Henry VIII. enactments against the exportation of money, plate, and jewels were again passed; and in this reign (1523) silver farthings were coined for the last time. In the reign of Edward VI. (1551) the currency reached its worst condition of depreciation, and was “in such a state of confusion and fluctuation, that the sellers scarcely ever knew what value they were to receive for their goods,” when the king applied active and vigorous measures for correcting the evil by raising the standard. Queen Elizabeth signalized the beginning of her reign by raising the silver coin to a higher standard of purity than had been known since the accession of Henry VIII. In 1601 she caused to be coined for Ireland shillings, sixpences, and threepences of a baser kind, and established offices for exchange bet ween the two countries. For many years the tradesmen of London had made and issued leaden tokens, which circulated instead of copper coins. This circulation was to a great extent stopped about the beginning of the 17th century by the government, and the more general use of regular coins gradually took their place. James I. in 1613 debased a portion of the coin, having coins in circulation of two qualities of fineness. In 1627 Charles I. issued a proclamation, saying in effect that the buying, selling, and exchanging of all manner of coins and bullion were prerogatives of the crown, which from that time forth he intended to exercise; he interdicted the goldsmiths from pursuing the business in any of its branches, and appointed Lord Holland and his deputies to have “the office of our changes, exchanges, and outchanges whatsoever in England, Wales, and Ireland.” In 1632 he granted permission to the East India company to export to Persia and India £40,000 in foreign gold bullion; and being desirous of cultivating friendly relations with Philip IV. of Spain, he authorized under certain restrictions the export of the precious metals to the Spanish Netherlands. According to Davenant, the entire gold and silver coinage of England for 100 years, from 1558 to 1659, was: of gold £3,723,000, and of silver £16,109,476, making in all £19,832,476. By the same authority it is estimated that in the year 1600 the total amount of gold and silver currency in England did not exceed £4,000,000, and that in 1711 it did not exceed £12,000,000. In 1676, Charles II. being then on the throne, the money coined during the commonwealth and protectorate was called in and recoined. This amounted to £800,000; and by estimating that coinage at one seventh, and giving an allowance for money hoarded, writers of that day put the total currency of the country at £6,000,000. The first copper coinage of England since the conquest was in 1672, during this reign. James II. (1685-'8) issued coins of tin, and authorized those of gun metal and of pewter. The first sovereigns were coined in 1489, under Henry VII.; half, quarter, and eighth sovereigns by Henry VIII. in 1544; and the first guinea by Charles II. in 1675.—It may be instructive here to examine into the circumstances under which Great Britain was led to adopt the gold standard, after for a century having the double standard of both gold and silver. Owing to the over-valuation of silver in France before the commencement of the 18th century, the heavy silver coins rapidly disappeared from circulation in Great Britain, only the light and worn ones remaining, often 25 per cent. below the standard. The evil became so great that it brought on a discussion during the reign of William and Mary, in which the philosopher John Locke and William Lowndes, master of the mint, took decided and antagonistic parts. The result was that the government undertook to recoin the entire remaining and worn silver currency, and to make it full weight without raising its value. This only facilitated its export and rendered it more difficult to maintain this part of the circulation, a difficulty which lasted throughout the century, the real value of the coins being so uncertain that the guinea fluctuated in price, as measured by silver, from 21s. 6d. to 30s. It was therefore in 1774 declared that silver should no longer be a tender, except by weight, beyond £25. In the words of Mr. J. R. McCulloch, “from 1717 to 1816,