The Hartlib Papers

  Mr P. seemes to insist to much upon the enquiry what is meant by the Intrinsick value of Gold & Silver, & rejects seuerall supposed acceptations of those words; some, if not most of which, will hardly be found to agree (as I conceive) with any mans meaning that uses them. Value (as the word itselfe denotes) is the opinion for the present, presently held of a thing or Commodity, compared with that held of other Commodities, or with money the common measure or standard of them: The nature of which Value is alterable, & subject to rise & fall upon seuerall occasions; & proceeds from seuerall Causes, as the usefulnes, scarcity, rarity, lustre, beauty, pleasingnes (apparent in Medicaments, pretious stones, curious peeces of worke, &c:) & such like; & sometimes from meere fancy, of which no account can well bee given, as in Fashions &c:

  By the intrinsick Value of Gold & Silver (or rather Gold & Silver Coynes, the words beeing seldome used without some such adjunct:) I conceive is meant the Common opinion (&c.) at present held of the Mettalls of the said Coynes, as Mettalls, & abstracted from their beeing Coyned, or in such or such a forme[altered]; yet Considered as Capable of being made into Coyne, Plate, or the like. Whereupon what hee sayes (If by intrinsick value they may meane the present price, it is cleere a Commodity may beare a great price at present, that may suddenly be worth litle) Will signifie as litle against the intrinsick value of Gold & Silver, as it would against that of Corne or any other most usefull Commodity: & likewise that where hee sayes; The true intrinsick value of Coyne is, not according to the rate it beares when Currant; & the reason hee brings for it (That Brasse or Leather Coyne will usually yield the price they are taken for whilst Currant) is not true; when Brasse farthings were in use, the weight of 20 farthings perhaps was not worth a penny; & for Leather Coyne because it is not cut out into bills which cannot bee reunited (as mettalls by melting,) is scarce worth any thing when it ceases to bee currant.

  For what hee sayes concerning the Vertues & usefulness of Gold & Silver; I grant that many other things exceed them therein: A Clod of Earth, though looked upon as a most contemptible thing; yet by reason of that facultie to become as a Wombe unto, & bring forth seeds, Plants, Flowers &c: to multiply them & preserue their beeings, were it as scarce as any Gold, it <doubtles> would bee more Courted, as it ought in reason to bee much preferred before it, having a far higher naturall dignity. And upon the same account, amongst mettalls themselues though Iron[altered], which is the most Common; bee alsoe esteemed the vilest of them all) I cannot but looke upon it as the most excellent: being (as whoeuer will but thinke well upon it may easily apprehend) of such vaste & universall use, that I conceive I could rationally make out (though perhaps it may appeare at first sight a strange & absurd Paradox) that the maine & originall difference betwixt that we call Civility of the Europeans & Barbarisme of the Americans arose chiefly from this, that the former had the use of Iron; which the latter either had not at all, or else it lay too deepe in the bowells of the Earth for them to come at; Which Notion might perhaps bee worth the while to be carried on a little further

  Nevertheles I cannot by any meanes allow what hee sayes, That if Bullion (i.e. Gold & Silver) should cease to bee used as Coyne, it would scarce bee worth any thing; I shall not urge the constant opinion & esteeme all Nations almost, haue had of these two Mettalls, from beyond the memory of all History downe to the present times; makeing them still their standard for the value of all other Commodities; though an argument drawne from such antiquity & Vniversall Consent, whatsoeuer the subject bee, was neuer yet reputed a sleight one. I shall alsoe forbeare to insiste upon what the Chymists (to whose undefatigable industry wee are obliged for the discouery of many Medicaments of Soveraign use, noe lesse then for much of our best naturall Philosophy) hold as unquestionable about the Perfection of Mettals: Much lesse will I make use of that Common opinion defended by soe great a Cloud of Physitians & other Learned men, of the Cordialnes & other supposed Mediall[altered from Cordiall] vertues of Gold, solidly confuted by Dr Browne as a vulgar Error. But setting aside all these; I must still upon the account of their naturall Excellency & usefulnese in relation to artificials[altered], award them the next place after Iron in the Classe of Metalls: Considering that they both, but especially Gold (which argues the puritie of their natures, are free & exempt from rust as Gold from Soyle, & likewise from ill smales, which alsoe makes them more Convenient, for seuerall vessells & other purposes which the rest of metalls are not soe fit for. Considering againe that Gold, by reason of the finenesse & exact mixture of its parts, is ductile almost, if not altogether, in infinitum; which appeares not soe much by leafe Gold, though of a strange thinnes, as by this Experiment; With the same leafe Gold gild a short round Cylindricall peece of silver, & draw it out into wire (according to the usuall way) of the greatest length and smalnes you can, euery part of that wire shall continue gilt. Considering further, that a powder is made of Gold, called Aurum fulminans, which has the force of an hundred times as much Gun-powder, & the like Powder, though not so strong, some say may bee made of Silver. [catchword: And]

  And lastly, though I might reckon up many other Properties & advantages of these two Metalls conducing to seuerall purposes, as the heavines of Gold, beyond the all things else & its softenes, the moderate hardnes of Silver, rendring it capable to retaine any impression as well as the smallest Lines, which its finenesse alsoe admitts:) Considering their beautifull Aspects, the glistering of Gold & brightnes of Silver (not to bee perfectly matct, but by themselues) & these are of no small use too, at least for ornament & splendor. These Excellencies, though I allow Iron the first place among metalls, in right of its Vniversall usefulnes, must needs yet deseruedly challenge the next place for Gold & Silver; though they should cease to be any longer used as Coyne: & there is noe metall soe uselesse, nor ever will bee, soe long as there is Civility among men, of which it may be said; that it is scarce worth any thing. Besides there are somethings which are not Coyne, & perhaps if throughly examined will bee found to have noe other reall vertue, but to looke on as Perles, Diamonds &c; & yet by reason of their lustre & scarcity, are & euer were valued aboue Gold. And though it were possible to imagine Silver as plentifull as stones, yet Gold, as beeing seldome found in Mines, will alwayes be scarce, though it should cease to bee used any longer as Coyne.

  Hee goes about to prove that, The giving over the use of Bullion, is in diverse Nations alreddy in great part begun; First; from their makeing much use of Brasse & Copper Coynes; Which effect, I should think rather ought to be laid at the dore of two other Causes; The one of which is this: It beeing necessary for the people to haue small money for change, wherby smaller Trades is much encreased & quickened, & consequently greater also which improve the Customes &c: The Magistrate makes yet a further benefit therof to himselfe, by uttering Brasse or Copper Coyne, much above the intrinsick value of those Metalls; The other Cause is, that all States looke upon it as their Interest to preserue their Bullion (which is Currant euery where) as much as they can, makeing Lawes to prohibite the exportation therof: Now small money is most subject to bee worne, wasted & lost[altered]; & if were made of Bullion & ad valorem, it must needs bee in very litle peeces, & soe more apt to bee worne & lost: & to bee lost is in this worse then to bee exported, because it procures noe Commodity in exchange.

  His second Argument to prove, that the giving over the use of Bullion is in diverse Nations already in great part begun; is drawne from the Venetian and Holland Bancks (pretending much use of money) & the assigning of Bills from one to another in Flanders: Which I conceive is not (as hee would haue it) out of any endevour of theirs to haue as litle use of Bullion for Coyne as is possible; but is rather an handsome (then an hard) shift, to manage their great Trade; beeing by their naturall situation fitted for, & as it were invited to traffick, as all places are that lye on one side upon the Sea, affording safe & Commodious harbours to their Ships, or on some good navigable River; & haue beyond them on the other side, a great & populous continent, whose nearest or at least most commodious passage to & from the Sea, for the receiving those Commodities they want, noe lesse then the uttering those their plenty can spare, is by such Places; farther then which Ships cannot conveniently passe up into the Land.

  And that it is not any endevour to haue as litle use of Bullion for Coyne as is possible, that puts the inhabitants of these places, upon those hee calls hardshifts; appeares farther in this; that most merchants doe commonly trade for many times more then they are worth? Which perhaps is expedient, that they who haue a genious that way, & who are noe great number in comparison of the rest of Mankind, should soe doe; partly that the poore may bee employed in Manufactures to keepe them from idlenes & fill their bellies, partly that the Magistrat may bee enriched with the Customes; and Lastly that the whole Nation may bee the better furnished with all Conveniencies for life, not only by such things as are made within themselues, but alsoe by such Commodities as are procured from abroad by the barter of their Superfluities.

  He sayes, it is a grievous mischiefe for the Coyne of a People to be lyeable to bee Counterfeited; But the Counterfeiting of Coyne made of Bullion, if done by Subjects within the Commonwealth, is really no mischief (farther then by encreasing the quantity of the Coyne of a Nation, it makes an abatement [catchword: though]

  For first, it is not unlikely that much of the forreign Bullion wee now possesse was procured in exchange of our Superfluities, or such Commodities as wee could well spare: perhaps we got Silver & Gold for our Lead & Tinne wherof wee had such store; & the Later of which was not found heretofore (though of late it has beene) in any other part of the world besides Britan, which therupon as the Learned Bockhart ingeniously conjectures, tooke its name from Barat-anac, by which the Phenicians signified the Land of Tin or Trade: They onley formerly sayled without the Mediterranean Sea, & to engross that Tin Trade to themselues, concealed from others as Strabo writes, that navigation, telling the Greeks such a tale as this that they fetched their Tin from certain Islands, I know not where in the Atlantick Ocean, which the Greeks upon that narration; from Cassiteran which signifies Tin, called Cassiterides    Secondly the Generality of the knowne world making their Coyne of Bullion (which before the discouerie of America as it was more equally & indifferently found in seuerall Countries & our owne Islands not without some veines at least of Silver) our forefathers finding by experience the necessary use of money to traffick abroad, no lesse then among themselues, had much reason, not apprehending any better kind of money, to procure & make use of such as the rest of the world did. And farther to evince that there was noe such losse in the first procuring of Bullion for to bee made into money may appeare from hence, That Money according to the present rate of interest at 6 per Cent: for the use therof, amounts in 11 or 12 yeares to double its principall, as it did in 9 yeares at 8 per 100, & formerly in 7 yeares, when money beeing more scarce was at 10 in the 100; So that it would at the end of the said times respectively, procure as much commodity as the value of the money was at first, besides the principall stocke it selfe, & consequently if that kinde of money had continued noe longer Currant then onely till the time of doubling as aforesaid, there would haue beene noe losse to him that first procured it; But since it has lasted soe many doublings, which must be reckoned according to Geometricall Progression thus

{yeares    7, 14, 21, 28 35, 42, 49. 56, 63, 72,} &c

{money's 1, 2, 4 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024

at 10 per Cent:) how vast & almost beyond the power of Arithmetick must the profit therof bee? Which may also serve for Answer to what hee sayes afterward about laying aside the use of Bullion, first; That soe long as a Nation keepes any store of Bullion amongst them, they are out of soe much of their stock in Commodity as was sold to procure it, which hee will have to bee far more then 6 or 8 per Cent; Nor doth the reason hee brings to enforce it seeme cogent, where hee sayes; For the generality of a Nation having but a small stock, could hardly live by 30 per Cent: Not only hee that employes a stock; but the poore also that are employed therin & their families are maintained out of the same; Which considered there cannot be lesse then 50 per Cent: lost yearely by all the Bullion that any people keepe in their hands. In which arguing, in my opinion hee mistakes; For the poore &c: to speake properly are not maintained out of the Stock, but out of their owne Labour & industry, though employed upon the Commodities procured by the stock, & after the same manner are the working Beasts also maintained; Soe that though the stock serue to set them all on worke, who could not soe well bee euery one employed without it, yet it is not to bee valued in it selfe at aboue the usuall rate of 6 or 8 per Cent: Nor to speake rigidly is there any reason why it should bee valued so high, but for that influence it has beeing in Coniunction with other Causes, as the labour, industry, sagacity &c: of those that employ it, or are employed about it.

  The second reason hee brings for laying aside the use of Bullion, viz: that it is too much esteeme among the vulgar to bee a fit material for Coyne, seemes also very infirme: For Coyne, whateuer it is made of, provided it be good & Currant, must needs, by reason of that faculty it will haue to procure any Commodity in exchange for it, bee in great esteeme, not only among the vulgar, & those that haue had a sense of want, but [catchword: with]

  I will not deny, but the inconvenience hee afterwards urges, from Bullion's beeing subject to bee stollen &c: is materiall: beeing the same our Saviour brings against laying up riches where theeves breake through & steale.

  But his 3^d reason drawn from this, that the scarcity of Bullion occasions much trading upon Credit (which hee insists more upon in one or two places afterwards) will appeare alsoe invalid: For first, if money were generally more plentifull; this would alsoe follow, that the price of Commodity would rise proportionably; as wee find by experience it has done, since the bringing soe much Plate out of the West Indies, which began to bee considerable in our Henry the 8^ths time; & having continued ever since; the rates of Commodities haue by degrees alsoe risen.) And soe Merchants dealing for a like quantity of Commodity as formerly they did (& I proued before that it was Convenient their Trade should bee kept up & encouraged) must still goe upon Credit to prevent greater mischiefs to the Commonwealth in generall, which I touched before, then those occasioned by this trusting, which hee sayes would deserue a large discourse by it selfe to enumerate.

  All or most that followes of what has beene already sent, is nothing else but the Consequence of his yet concealed Hypothesis for new money; which if I should goe about to make objections against before hee has declared himselfe; I might bee looked upon as fighting with my owne shaddow; And therefore I shall conclude all I haue now to say, with this Commendation on behalfe of Bullion Coyne; That obtayning as it does soe high a value almost in all Nations; it has thereby this Priviledge, that it cannot bee abased, by the power of one or a few Commonwealths, to the preiudice of those that haue it: which no other Money (& Money, as hee sayes well is nothing else but security) can, as I conceive; undertake for, because subject at least to the change of Lawes, if not Government, of whatsoeuer Nation it is made Currant in, have the prerogative to afford the like security

      Dec: 1st. 58 R. W.