'Coppy of the Paper delivered to Mr Auditor ffoley relating to the Accompts of the Mint with respect to the £3500.- per annum allowed by Parliament'

<86r>

Coppy of the Papers delivered to Mr. Auditor Foley relating to the Accompts of the Mint with respect to the £3500. per Annum allowed by Parliament.

<86v>

State of the Mint Accounts for the year ending at Xmas. 1712
Sallarys payable by the Master and Worker	£	1595.	–.	–
Sallarys payable by the Warden		1435.	–.	–.
Imprested to the Warden for repaires of houses offices and Buildings &c	}	400.	15.	6
Imprested more to him for Incidents payable by him		168.	13.	6.
		3599.	9.	–.
Mr. Auditor Harley complaining that these par ticulars made an excess of £99. 9. –. which was occasioned by the Article of Incidents payable by the Warden (which was never reckoned before to make part of the Allowance by Parliament, as my be seen by the Accounts that have been made up and declared for thirty years before) to make the thing easy we took back a bill of the Bricklayer's out of the Wardens account amounting to	}	130.	–.	–.
which reduced the Accounts to		3469.	9.	–.
Being £30. 11s. less then he would have allowed in the said Accounts had we found vouchers to maje it just so.

if you be pleased to peruse and cast us the particulars of the two declared Accounts you have now by you, you will find that they are made up so as it is here expressed.

<87r>

State of the Mint Accounts for the year ending at Xmass. 1713
Sallarys payable by the Master and Worker					£	1579.	19.	11
Sallarys payable by the Warden						1435.	–.	–.
Imprested to the Warden for repaires of houses offices and Buildings &c					}	240.	2.	6.
Imprested more to him for Incidents.	£	140.	18.	3.	}	232.	17.	6.
and by Warrant of the Right Honorable the Lord high Treasurer for the Pix diner	}	91.	19.	3.
						3847.	19.	11.

By the Act of 18 Car. 2. and a subsequent Act of the 4th. of Q. Anne, Entituled An Act for encouragement of Coynage, the sallarys of the Officers of the Mint, and the charges towards providing, maintaining, & repairing of the houses, Offices, and buildings, and other necessaries for assaying, melting down and coyning are limited to 3500li. to prevent extravagancys

and the overplus of the money arising by those Acts is appropriated for and towards the expence, wast and charge opf Assaying, melting down and Coynage &c.

The necessarys in the first part of the clause are called the charge & expence of the Mint; and the Overplus is called the charge or expence of Assaying, melting down & Coyning.

By the first are understood such necessaries for coyning as may be limited without discouraging the coynage; or such necessaries as are requisite to keep up a standing Mint wither there is any coynage or no; is being to be supposed that the Mint is always ready fitted up, when any coynage ofters.

By the 2d. part of the Clause are understood the necessaries that cannot be limitted without danger of discouraging the coynage, that is to say such as are occasioned by a coynage and increase or decrease therewith.

The Act of Parliament reckons the houses, offices & buildings amongst the necessaries, and the Indenture of the Mint made upon that foot, settling the sallaries of each respective officer leaves only £400. for the buildings, diet, and other necessary provisions whereby the master may be enabled to carry on the Coynage.

By the Indenture of the Mint ( is a contract between the Crown and the Master & Worker) some Officers of the Mint act in behalf of the Crown as checks upon the Master, to see that he performes his contract duly and endeavours that the money be well coyned, and others act under him for performing that contract.

<87v>

By this Indenture the Warden pays the sallaries of the former as also the charges of the dyet, and other necessarys employed in and about the repairing the houses offices & buildings that are requisite to carry on that service.

These are the necessarys within the 3500li. per annum. Out of the overplus are defrayed the charges of coyning the Gold and silver monys, I mean the allowances made by Indenture of 6s 6d per pound weight for Gold, and 17s. $\frac{\mathrm{1}}{\mathrm{2}}$ per pound weight for silver monies

as also the wooden work of the Mills, presses & cutters and the nealing and blanching furnaces and the furnaces in the Melting houses which are always repaired by the direction of the master and the charges thereof placed to his account according to the course of the Mint: as are also the charges of Assaying (viz charcoale aqua fortis, water silver, lead, cuppells, furnaces &c) and those of reducing the Gold and Silver to standard by refining and allay. those of Assaying by virtue of the Clause in the Coynage acts and those of refining by a Clause in the Indenture.

These charges are placed in the master's account according to the course of the Mint, while the charges of repairing the buildings are placed in the Wardens account; and the reasons of this distinction seems to be that the master may be enabled to dispatch the coynage & make delivery with all convenient speed according to is covenants without staying for the consent or order of the other Officers or being restricted by the want of money, while the sallaries of the officers and the charges of providing & repairing the buildings and other necessaries in the Warden's account are limited to £3000 for preventing extravagance.