Response to a further proposal by the Irish Chancellor for a Dublin Mint

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To the Rt Honourable the Lords Commissioners of his Majestys Treasury.

May it please your Lordships

In obedience to your Lordships Order of Reference signified to us by Mr Lowndes we have considered the Memorial of the Chancellour of Ireland about erecting a Mint in that kingdom & the other Papers accompanying it, & finding upon enquiry into the state of the coyn of Ireland that the forreign coyns which make a great part of their silver monies are generally in great pieces which are inconvenient for change in marketings & other small expences & that by the want of smaller silver monies the coyning of greate quantities of Copper monies for change hath been so much encouraged as to be complained of: we are humbly of opinion that this inconvenience may deserve to be remedied by recoyning the said forreign monies or some part thereof into smaller monies of the same weight allay species & impression with the monies of England, adding only such a mark of distinction as his Majesty shall think fit. And we believe it cheapest & best for Ireland & safest for England to have this coynage dispatcht at once by erecting a Mint in Ireland for some short time (as eighteen months or two years) under the same laws & rules with this in the Tower but with less salaries & fewer Officers & by lowering the value of the forreign monies to bring them into this Mint we are ready to promote such a designe & particularly to supply that Mint with standard weights, Tryal pieces, Dyes & Coyning Tools & to try their money.

The reasons by which the former Officers of the Mint in some of the Papers referred to our consideration, opposed the coyning by different standards are so much of force against a difference in the Denomination or extrinsick value of the same pieces of money & in the proportion of Gold to silver, that we are of opinion (with most humble submission) that the agreeing of Ireland with England therein may deserve the consideration of the Government as a Preliminary to a Mint whenever they shall provide for the charge of erecting one.

The Directions in the Warrant of 14 Car. II referred to our consideration being applied & restrained to the present way of coyning by the Mill & Press without a Seigniorage & without fine & ransome upon two penny weight remedy in the single pieces we approve of.

If a standing Mint be desired for coyning from time to time the Bullion of Merchants & others we beleive it may put Ireland to a greater charge then to coyne such Bullion in London & how it may in time affect the trade or government of England we do not know. Such a Mint may have been often & much desired but has either not been granted or not suffered to continue. For <215r> to use the words of our Predecessors in one of the Papers referred to our consideration, "It hath been the policy & caution of Kings & Queens of England to stock their Realm of Ireland with moneys (both for quantity & quality) coyned in their Mint in the Tower of London whereof one part yet retains the name of the Irish Mint; and King James (of happy memory) by his Indenture of the Mint caused his monies stampt for Ireland to be charged with an Harp crowned for distinctions sake whose Reasons and Examples (as we submissively conceive) may well admit your Lordships first consideration"

If the Government of Ireland shall think fit to discourage the exportation of English money from thence by setting a value something lower upon the forreign so that when Merchants or others have occasion to export Gold or Silver they may chuse rather to export the forreign monies then the English, there will be but little occasion for a Mint in Ireland hereafter. A difference of one or two per cent in the value of the monies may be sufficient for this purpose & will mend their Exchange without hindring the importation of the monies of Spain or Flanders into Ireland by Trade.

All which &c