First,All forrein coins both Gold and Silver,except Pistollets and Doublons of Spain were upon great penalties forbidden to be brought in otherwise then as Bullion,and made incurrent.Then there were very severe Prohibitions made that no man should afterwards make Contracts of payment in livres or any other abstracted sums,but only in the solid species of Crowns:
And to the end that payment might be made as well in Silver as Gold,there were in Silver coined quarter-Crowns,and half quarter-Crowns,and the other species of Silver already extant were valued proportionable to them,only sixty sols were made equal to a Crown,which held no proportion with a Crown either in name or in intrinsical value,by reason,that in the sols and other base Money,the Copper with which they are allayed is valued,and there is a much greater charge laid on the coinage of them than of other Moneys:yet notwithstanding it is very strange,how well this Edict did keep the people of France in order for three or four and twenty years,so as in all that time,the value of the Gold nor Silver was never raised.
But by degrees they did find that the Kingdom grew drained of that great quantity of gold and silver with which it formerly abounded,and their commerce and Trade did visibly decay;they found themselves full of forrein Manufactures,but their own Manufactures had ill vent,and at length the people,notwithstanding the Prohibition,began to take Forrein coins as current,and received both them and their coins,at a higher value than the King's edict did admit,so as in the year 1602their complaint grew as loud and as sharp as in the year 1577,though of a cleer contrary condition,and there grew new consultations and enquiries into the Remedies of these Inconveniences.
Many who were very much taken with the former Edict of 1577,did advise that the same Edict should be more rigidly maintained,and that all forrein coins should be absolutely banished,and that the former Edict might be now reformed in that only point,which was deficient (viz.)That the Sols might either be coined of purer Silver,or if they did remain of the former Allay,that the King would so dispose of the charge of the Allay and coinage as they might answer in their Intrinsical value to the gold and the Silver;and that for the remedy of the Penury of Money,strict sumptuary Laws might be put in practice against Forrein Manufactures,and superfluous Commodities.
But against this it was objected,That now they found by experience the effect of the former Edict of 1577,and this addition of sumptuary Laws would give little help,because the licence of the times and difficulties in the thing it self were such as they would never be put in execution.,In conclusion a new Edict was set forth in Anno 1602by which the Contracts in the solid species in Crowns were abolished and the Contracts in Livres again authorised.The Crown in Gold was value at three Livres again authorised.The Crown in gold was valued at three Libres and four sols,and all forrein coins were made current in a proportionable rate:and upon it ensued that the people did every day raise the price of all Gold both forrein and domestick higher and higher by degrees,so as in the year 1614,the King by his Edict was enforced to make good the raising of the people,and to set a value upon the French Crown,of 3Livres and 15sols,which is seven shillings and six pence sterling,and yet still the people raised it higher,and all other Gold in proportion,which hath yet this further Inconvenience with it,That being raised by degrees,they cannot raise the Silver together with it,so as in time it will breed so great a Disproportion between the Silver and the Gold as they will have little Silver left;and that such as through the exceeding lightness cannot with profit be made away.
I shall not now need to speak any more of the Inconveniences which may grow by ordaining of solid payments because they have been sufficiently expressed in the relation of these proceedings in France.But I will only add this,that there is not true soliditie in payments,but to contract for so much in weight and so much in fineness,for if you should ordain all payments to be made in such or such species of Money,it is true that the raising of those species of Money could breed no alteration in your payments:but suppose the Prince should coin these species,either baser in Allay or lighter in weight,then should your payment be subject to the same alteration as if you had contracted for abstracted sums.
