Draft of MINT00493 (Mint 19/2/214-15)

<220r>

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 with the Report of the late Warden & Master & Worker & the other Papers accompanying them And by those papers we find that the Officers of the Mint have long been cautious in this matter. For in a Report made by them about 39 years ago they use these words. It hath been, say they, the policy & caution of &c – First consideration.

We understand also that the late Warden & Master in their Report upon the above mentioned Memorial were the more cautious by reason of a designe then set on foot of perswading the people of Ireland that their Parliament & government ought not to be subordinate to that of England

And we do not see but that the Government of England has even been cautious in this matter For tho a Mint in Ireland may have been upon several occasions much desired yet it has either not been granted or not suffered to continue. Among the Papers above mentioned we find a Warrant for erecting such a Mint soon after the restauration of King Charles II but the designe is not yet put in execution.

But if it shall be his Majestys pleasure that a Mint be erected in that Kingdom (for the determination depends upon some for increasing considerations which we reccon above us) we are humbly of opinion in consideration {illeg} in the papers communicated to us that the monies coyned there should be of the same weight allay species & stamp or impression with the monies of England, adding only such a mark of distinction as his Majesty shall think fit, & that the Mint be under the same rules & laws with this in the Tower but with such retrenchment of salaries & Officers as may conveniently be made & that the same valuation of the money & same proportion of Gold to silver be observed in both nations. And we are ready to promote the setting up such a Mint after the best manner & particularly to supply them with Standard weight, Trial pieces, Dyes & Coyning Tools & to try their money & instruct their Officers at their first setting out. But if a standing Mint be desired for coyning from time to time the Bullion of Merchants & others (as the words of the Memorial <221r> may import) we believe it may put Ireland to a greater charge then to coyn such Bullion in London

Vpon inquiring into the state of the Coyn in Ireland we understand that the forreign coyns which make a great part of their silver monies are generally in great pieces (as Ducatoons & pieces of eight) which are inconvenient for change and that by the want of small silver monies the coyning of great quantities of Copper monies for change hath been so much incouraged as to be complained of, & if for remedying this inconvenience a Mint is be desired to coyn the forreign moneys or any part of them int small English money (shillings & sixpences) we believe it may be 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) & by lowering the values of the forreign monies to bring them into that Mint. But we humbly lay before your Lordships that the late Country Mints were in disorder & left their Accounts are full of difficulties & that the breaking up of such a Mint may increase the number of fals coyners And we heare that the English money is now grown much more plentifull in Ireland in proportion to the forreign then it was a few years ago so that the want of change is in good measure vanished & is still decreasing.

If the Government of Ireland shall think fit to discourage the exportation of English money 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, it will much promote the increase of the English money in Ireland. A difference of one or two per cent in the value of the monies may be sufficient for this purpose & will mend the exchange to these profits of Ireland without hindring the importation of the monies of Spain & Flanders into that kingdom by trade. And if the exportation of English money were prohibited by the same laws in Ireland as in England, it would still conduce to the same end.

Also if shillings & sixpences were for a while raised a farthing in the shilling without raising the greater money it would sufficiently increase those smaller species of money at a less charge then a Mint would do.

But if a new Mint be added the fittest expedient for furnishing Ireland with small moneys we believe the Directions in the Warrant of 14 Car II amongst the Papers referred to us, may be propoer for such a purpose if applied & restrained to the present way of coyning by the Mill & Press without a Seigniorage & without the penalty of fine & ransome upon two penny weight remedy in the single pieces, & with the trial of their Pix by the Assaymaster & Weigher & Teller of his Majestys Mint in the Tower in the presence of the Warden Master & Comptroller of the same Mint.

There are many Mints in France & have been divers in England & if his Majesty should think fir to set up a new one any where in England (as at Bristol or Chester) for furnishing Ireland & the Plantations with money of the English standard without any dependence on the Mint in the Tower except for the triall <221v> of their moneys & the stamps, it might put an end to the Projects which are dayly on foot for making great advantage by the coyning money for the Plantations of the other standards then the English & without due intrinsic value.

Yet such a Mint for coyning English money there may tend to encrease the species if care by first taken by due laws (as in England) to prevent the melting it down for the Indies or otherwise exporting it. For if his Majesty upon the reasons on both sides (some of which are about our judgment) shall please that a Mint be erected in Ireland, we are humbly of opinion that the monies coyned there

A new Mint being a thing of a public concern I could be glad to wave any private advantage I may have by the Coynage to oblige the Gentlemen of Ireland And if his Majesty shall think fit to order one I am ready to contribute what I can to the best manner of setting up it, as by supplying them with Dyes &c I am satisfied that the Memorial of my Lord Chancellour of Ireland was well intended, & perceiving now that a mint for two or three years to coyn the forreign money now iin Ireland into shillings & sixpences is only desired, I do not see that such a coynage (if it stop there) would prejudice the Trade of England or the Mint in the Tower, but the Question whether a new Mint shall be erected tho but for a year or two depends upon some considerations reccon above their judgment