Draft of MINT00270 (Mint 19/2/139)

<143r>

To the Rt Honble the Lords Commers of his Majts Treary

May it please yor Lordps

The great value put upon French & Spanish Pistoles in England has made them of late flow plentifully hither above all other sorts of Gold especially the French Pistoles wch are better sized & coyned & less liable to be counterfeited & by consequence of more credit then the Spanish. For Pistoles pass amongst us for 17s 6d a piece whereas one with another they are worth but abiut 17s 0$\frac{\mathrm{1}}{\mathrm{2}}$d or 17s. 1d at the rate that Guineas of due weight & allay are worth 21s. 6d. And theif allowance be made for the lightness of oer silver monies by the melting down of the heaviest pieces & wearing of the rest, yet Pistoles will be worth between 17s 2d & 17s. 3d.

About four years ago by the English putting too great a value upon Scotch money the Northern borders of England were filled with that money & Scotland was filled with oers the Scots making about 8 or 9 pr cent profit by the exchange untill yor Lordps were pleased to put a stop to the mischief. The case being now the same (but of moreuch dangerousgreater consequence) in the reputed pPar of ye Exchange between oerEnglish money & Pistoles, whuch runs 3d or 4d in a Pistole too high to ye nations loss in the course of {illeg} Exchange; we therefore thought it oer duty to humbly to represent it to your Lordps in order to such a remedy as yor Lordps shall think fit, [so that when ye exchange between us & forreign nations runs on oer side as at present we may not lose oer advantage by it & when it runs against us we may not lose more by it then is necessary.

We presume also to lay before yor Lordps that by reason of the great demand of silver for exportation in Trade, the price of Bullion exceeds that of silver monies by 3d or 4d and sometimes by 6d or 7d pr ounce, whereas the monies ought to be of as great or greater value then Bullion by reason of the workmanship & certainty of ye standard. And this high price of Bullion has not only put an end to ye coynage of silver is yea great temptation to theoccasion of melting down and exporting what ahas been already coyned. A mischief of such consequence as may deserve yor Lops consideration of a remedy All wch is most humbly submitted &c to yor Lordps consideration & great wisdome.