Draft of MINT00287 (Mint 19/2/602-3)

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Proposals for encreasing the Coyn of this Kingdome.

The use of Gold & Silver in Cloaths Coaches and Houshold furniture was forbid in France last March. If such a law here should be thought too general it might suffice to forbid the use of gold & silver in lace and fringes & the guilding upon leather wood plaister or any other material then standard silver or silver finer then standard, except such pieces of work of any material as cost not above      a piece for guilding.

All persons going to sea are allowed without any restraint to carry on board what place they please for their own use, by which means our money being run down into plate may be freely exported and Luxury is encouraged in the Royal Navy, it growing into fashion for the Officers to have great quantities of Plate on board. The working Goldsmiths have been busy in making small Vessels & Vtensils ever since the recoynage of the hammered money. Their material is the remainder of that money which still flows out of the country & it may be suspected that a good part of their work has been exported, even without the allowance of the Commissioners of the Customes by an Act of an 9 or 10 of his present Majestys are empowerd to license the exportation of Plate. There wants a law to restrain this mischief, & to prohibit the exportation of Plate whose workmanship is of small value in proportion to that of the metal, it being more profitable to export such plate to the Indies then to any place in Europe.

In France the laws for a long time have forbidden certain Vessels & Vtensils to be made of gold & silver & others to be made of those metals of above certain weights. Particularly Vessels for the use of the Table must not be of gold & other vessels of gold must not exceed an ounce in weight. Also Ballisters, Cabinets Tables, Bureaus, Looking-glasses, Andirons, Grates, Ornaments of the fire or Chimney, Candlesticks with branches &c must not be of silver. Basins of silver must not exceed the weight of twelve Marks, Platters not of eight, trencher plates not of 24 marks the douzen &c. Such limitations here for manufactured gold & silver would encrease our money.

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The like limitations for China earthen ware would save the Nation much money and so would a prohibition of importing Cabinets & other laquered wooden ware from Iapan & other parts of the Indies. For These things serves for nothing but an useless & expensive sort of luxury maintained by the exportation of our gold & silver to the Indies.

The increase of our coyn is principally hindred by the East Indian Company's buying up the imported Bullion & sending it to the Indies without being obliged to export a proportional quantity of English Commodities. The old Company is obliged by Patent to export 100'000li per annum in Commodities but the Obligation is expiring and perhaps was never well observed & the Cargo in Gold & Silver is unlimited in proportion to that in goods. If the Companies were obliged to export one third part or rather half as much in Commodities as in gold and silver it would conduce very much to the exportation of our own manufactures & native product and cheque the exportation of gold & silver & thereby bring down the high price of Bullion which occasions the melting down of our money. Such a law might put the East India Merchants to some difficulties for a while but in a short time would force their trade into better channels. For Merchants would soon find out new ways of vending their goods in China & other places whereby their trade would become much more profitable to the nation. and tho it might not be so profitable to the Merchant as at present yet it would be more creditable & secure. For the vast exportation of silver to the Indies hath brought the Company into such an ill repute as may end in their ruin if it be not remedied. I would therefore propose that in lading any Merchant ship no gold or silver be put on board till she hath her lading of other commodities & then on a day appointed by the Commissioners of the Customes, twice as much gold & silver in value may be put on board as the Bill of lading in those other Commodities amounts unto. And if any ship bound to the Indies want of her lading in Gold & Silver the defect or remainder may be carried on board the next ship or ships of the same Merchant or Company provided it be done within          months after the lading of the former ship. But no ship should exceed her just lading in Gold & Silver except in making up the defect of a former ship. No ship bound to the Indies should take in any gold or silver after her lading at the Port of London.

The importing of stained Callicoes is prohibited in England & France and the staining of them is prohibited in France but not yet in England.