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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow CHAP. VII.: Notwithstanding the idleness of the Mint, the Money and the Bullion are increas'd. - A Select Collection of Early English Tracts on Commerce from the Originals of Mun, Roberts, North, and Others

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CHAP. VII.: Notwithstanding the idleness of the Mint, the Money and the Bullion are increas’d. - John Ramsay McCulloch, A Select Collection of Early English Tracts on Commerce from the Originals of Mun, Roberts, North, and Others [1856]

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A Select Collection of Early English Tracts on Commerce from the Originals of Mun, Roberts, North, and Others, with a Preface and Index (London: Printed for the Political Economy Club, 1856).

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CHAP. VII.

Notwithstanding the idleness of the Mint, the Money and the Bullion are increas’d.

AGain,An Objection that neither Money nor Bullion is increas’d because the Mint stands still. That the East-India Trade may not have the credit of having increas’d our Bullion, ’tis deny’d that this is increas’d. If our Bullion were increas’d (say some) there wou’d be a greater plenty of Money. The whole Increase of Bullion wou’d not be manufactur’d into Plate; some wou’d be carried to the Mint; this has had no business but to recoin the Old Money, otherwise it has stood still for many Years; wherefore the Money is not increas’d, nor by consequence the Bullion.

Yet notwithstanding the idleness of the Mint,The same is answer’d. Money is increas’d; and tho’ this were not, the Bullion is increas’d. Foreign Money becomes every day more and more current, French Pistoles at Par with so much English Gold, are as plenty every where as Guineas; Spanish Silver is easie to be had on payment of the Difference. A plenty of Foreign Money very easily supplies the want of English Coin; tho’ our own Mint stands still, with a sufficient plenty of Foreign Money we can never be in want; and thus notwithstanding the idleness of the Mint, the Money is increas’d.

And yet, tho’ it were not, it cou’d be no Argument against the Increase of Bullion. The Increase of which does not prove that any of it must be carry’d to the Mint. Bullion by being coin’d, is made current only here in England; ’tis restrain’d from going into any other Country; before, when ’twas current over all the World, ’twas more valuable than now, when ’tis confin’d to only England, so that ’tis made less valuable by being coin’d. It is not likely therefore that any Man will coin his Bullion, that it may become less valuable than ’twas before; wherefore the increase of the same is no necessary Argument, that any of it must be coin’d, consequently, notwithstanding the idleness of the Mint, the Bullion may be increas’d.

Tho’ the Mint has stood still for many Years, the Money is increas’d, and if it were not, yet the Bullion is; the former Arguments are not shaken by this Objection.