284 THE HISTORY Book I, CHAP. IX. I. THE whole extended commerce of the Belgtc and the in- terior Britons was carried on without the afliftance of money and in the courfe of a regular exchange* Such was ce$- tainly the firft commerce of the ifland; that which the Phoeni- cians opened with the fouth-weftern extremities of k Such was certainly the much recenter commerce which wis profecuted with fb uncommon a vigour, and was diffufed to fo great an extent, during the* reigns of Auguftua and Tiberius And fuch muft therefore have beeln equally the commerce betwixt the Belgic and the aboriginal Britons. Hence neither of them pof- feflbd any minted money at the period of Oefar's defcent; upon the ifland. And the Btitifh 'attempts ata coinage had then r lien no higher than to pieces of brafs and iron bullion,, unfhaped, uhftamped, arid rated by the weight *+ But, during the ex- tended ftatc of the Britifh commerce in the reigns of Auguftus and Tiberius, the advantages of a coinage mutt have appeared to be very confiderable abroad, and the facility of engaging coiners muft have been a confiderable inducement to begin it at home. A mint-mafter was invited over from the continent. He came ; he brought all his implements with him ; and a mint, the firft that ever appeared in the ifland, was erefted in the fouth. And Cunobeline, the fucceflbr of the famous Caflivelaun in the monarchy of the Caffii, and now equally the fovereign of them and the Trinovantes, was the firft monarch in the ifland that minted money 4 . ' The firft mint was pretty certainly fet up, one mint was un- "doubtedly ere&ed, at his royal town of Camulodunum or Col- chefter.
