Chapter 15

Examinations of the Reasons for the raising of Money.

    The first Reason for the raising of Money, is the practise of
Antiquity: it is true, as I have shewed before, that the Grecians
and the Romans did successively raise the values of their Moneys,
but it was not to draw thereby the materials of Money from other
States unto theirs; but to supply the State, by that means on
great and desperate Necessities, of the Wages thereof; and of the
advantage, or disadvantage growing thereby to the Common wealth,
I intend to speak hereafter.
    But this invention of raising of Money to draw a quantity of
gold and silver from your Neighbours, or to preserve our own from
being exhausted, is a conceit unknown to the ancient world, and
introduced long since the decay of the Roman Empire; when as
those Monarchies that are now settled in Europe, by succession
from those Northern Nations, which did over-throw the antient
Roman Empire, having together with many other necesary Arts, lost
the knowledge and orders of the Mint, were fain to use the
Subtilty and Industry of the Jews, and those of Genoa and Lucca
(who did succeed the Jews in this Trade) for the coining of their
Moneys, who for their own Advantage did (by subtil and specious
Reasons many times by a seeming and not considerable Profit as
Projectors use to do) allure Princes to make unnecessary
alterations in their Moneys, from whence this Art of robbing Gold
and Silver from one state to another is grown.
    And therefore I will speak no more concerning the practise of
Antiquity, but will examine the other Reasons: as for the second
Reason, which is the Observation, that since King James raised
the Gold so much as he did, Gold is grown much more plentiful in
the Kingdom that it was before, but Silver having not been raised
in Proportion is grown much more scant and rare: --
    It is confessed that the Observation is true in this, that
whensoever you raise the Material of (one sort of) Money, that
material will encrease, and the other will grow scanty in
Proportion. And what doth the Commonwealth gain by that, if there
be more Gold now than heretofore, if there be less Silver in
Proportion? But it is denied, That if you raise equally both the
materials of Money, that then either of them will ever a whit the
more abound; and this reason is given for it, Whatsoever the
value of Money be in other Countreys, they will spend no more of
your Commodities than they have use for: if so, the over-value of
your (exported) Commodities must of necessity be returned to you
either in Gold or Silver, whatsoever the value of them be, high
or low: or suppose that, by reason of the low value of Gold and
Silver in respect of their price in other parts, the Merchants do
forbear the return of the over-values of your Commodities in
those Materials, and do choose rather to return Forrein
Commodities more than you can vent; this may fall out thus for
one year, but two or three or more years, it is impossible it can
hold, for that the Merchant should have these Forrein Commodities
which are not consumed perish in his hands. And this Reason doth
likewise answer.
    The third Argument made for the raising of Money which is,
That if you do not raise your Money to a parity with your
Neighbours, the Merchant, who always seeks his profit, wil carry
his materials of Gold and Silver, where he may have most for
them; for if this reason stand good, the Merchant shall be
constrained to bring his Gold and Silver hither, what price
soever they bear.
    But because this reason seems so evident and unanswerable in
the Judgment of many, and that if it stand good, it doth
absolutely confute the practise of all the States of Europe, who
have continued many years raising of the values of their Moneys,
upon this ground, to attract thereby greater quantities of Gold and Silver.
    I intend to make a more strict Examination of this Reason. 
    And first for a most clear understanding of the Case, Let us
suppose that al the commodities, any way exported out of this
Kingdom in one year, be worth one Million of pounds sterling, and
that the Commodities imported, be worth but 900,000 pound, and
that this Proportion, or near thereabouts, be constant; then of
necessity, it follows, That an hundred thousand pounds must be
brought in in gold and silver, what price soever Money bear.
    But if it shall appear that the Low values of our Money doth
cause the Kingdom to vent more forrein Commodities than otherwise
it would vent; and, that where otherwise it would vent 900,000
pound, the Low values of Money cause it to vent a Million or
more: then is the force of this argument lost; and it follows,
That the low values are the cause why the Materials of Gold and
Silver, or less of them than otherwise would do, come not in.
    Now when this may come to pass several ways, First, If the
value of your Moneys be so low as the Merchant shall lose by
bringing you gold and silver, he will rather return you forrein
Commodities, though he sell them as cheap as he bought them, and
so gain nothing by them, than bring you Gold and Silver by which
he shall loose.
    As for Example, the Merchant trading into Muscovia, will
rather return his Cloth in Furr, or in Silk of Persia, though he
sell them as cheap as he bought them there, than in Silver and
Gold, by which he shall loose the fourth part. Now the cheapness
of forrein Commodities makes the greater quantity of them to be
spent, as we see of Calico's, of which few or none were
heretofore vented in this Kingdom, the cheapness of them making
greater Quantities of them to be spent.
    And again, the Lowness of the values of Money may cause a
greater Proportion of Forrein Commodities to be consumed, though
not in quantity, yet in value.
    As for Example, Though the Lowness of the value of Money
should not make a greater quantity of Silver to be spent in
England, than otherwise would be, yet it would make a greater
Proportion in value to be spent, by reason that the Merchant, who
in the return of his Commodities brings such a quantity of Silk
as he judgeth may be vented here, if he find an over value of his
Commodities exported, to those he doth import, he will rather,
instead of raw Silks, return Silks by which he shall loose. As if
our Gold were as our Silver in prices, by which the Turkey
Merchant shall loose as much by bringing Gold from thence, as he
should if he brought Silver, is it not manifest, that instead of
Gold, which he now brings with his raw Silk, in return of his
Commodities, he would carry both Gold and Silk into Italy, and
imploy them in manufactured Silks, though he should sell them
here almost as cheap as he bought them, rather than return the
overvalue in Gold, by which he should loose? And so though the
same Proportion in quantity were vented here in Silk, yet a
greater Proportion in value would be vented.
    At the same time may be said of divers other Commodities: and
for confirmation of this, it is to be observed, That from Italy,
France and the Low Countries, and the East Indies, in all which
places the values of Money are as high or higher than with us, we
draw hardly any Commodities but fully manufactured, and they
receive none of our Commodities but either not manufactured at
all, or, but so much manufactured as the Severity and Penalty of
the Laws do otherwise prohibit to be exported: But in Spain where
the Moneys are yet of a lower value than with us, it is clean contrary.
    And although it may be Objected that this Observation doth
not hold in Turkey and Muscovie, though in Turky the Silver, and
in Muscovie both Gold and Silver be much higher valued than here in England;
    To that it may be answered, That these barbarous Countries
receive our Manufactures by Necessity, because they afford none
of their own.