can never be naturally |73| more than the Land and Watercarriage of Money between the two Kingdoms, and the ensurance of the same upon the way, if the Money be alike in both places.
But Men that have not had the faculty of making these Transmissions with dexterity, have chose rather to give 15. per Cent. Exchange, as aforesaid, than to put themselves upon the hazard of such undertakings, and the mischief of being disappointed.
Now the extraordinary decrease of Gold and Silver, put Men, whose Affairs were much disturbed, thereby upon[1] extraordinary Conceits, and some very absurd ones for Remedy, as namely the raising of Spanish pieces of Eight, called Cobs in Ireland, from 4s. 9d. to 5 or 6 Shillings, which were before about 5d. above the Value of English, that is 4s. 4d. English Money weighed the same with a Cob called 4s. 9d. For these distracted People thought, that calling their Money by a better Name, did encrease its value[2].
2. They thought that no Man would carry Cobs of 5s. out of Ireland into England, where they were called but 4s. 4d. altho he was necessitated to pay 4s. 4d. in |74| England, and had no other effects to do it with. They thought that
- ↑ S, 'disturbed thereby, upon.'
- ↑ Ruding says that in 1667 cobs were bought in England for 4s. 3d. and sold in Ireland for 5s., which led to attempts to change their value. Annals, ii. 13—16, also Fabian Philipps's "Expedient to pay the Forces," 4 July, 1667, in Archaeologia, xiii. 185, 191. The proposition to raise foreign coin was for some time opposed in London (Carte, ii. 342), but on the 31 August, 1672, the royal consent was obtained for raising Portuguese crusadoes to 3s. 10d. for full weight coins. On 12 May, 1673, Essex wrote to Arlington, "we have had severall debates in Councell about ye raising ye value of Spanish money here. There has bin great difference of opinion amongst men of all sorts." State Papers, Ireland, Charles II., 333. For his own part, Essex could not see how calling money more will induce men to take it above its intrinsic value, nor how a kingdom can be made to abound with silver save by a favourable balance of trade. Nevertheless he issued proclamations raising coin on the 28 July and the 17 October, 1673, and finally, 26 July, 1675, a proclamation was issued forbiding the exportation of coin. Simon, Essay, 52—53, 133—137; Capel Letters, 74, 83—89, and Essex's unprinted letters at the Record Office, S. P. Irel., Charles II., 333—334. Cf. also Sir W. Temple, Advancement of Trade in Ireland, 22 July, 1673, in his Works (1770), iii. 9.
