第4章 Chapter 3(1)

Of the Forms of the Money anciently and now in use It follows in the next place to be Considered,by what degrees Gold and Silver came into these forms of Money,which are now in use.And for that purpose it is most manifest that the most proper measure in nature for mettals is weight;and the notice of Antiquity doth confirm it that it was so in practice;for when the use of money hath excited the industry of men to search for these rich metals and by study and practice to discover their natures,it was easily found out that there was no measure so fit to them as weight:But it was speedily found out and discovered that weight alone was not a sufficient measure for them,by reason that they are subject to mixture,and therefore there was an examination made of the pureness of them,and a mark impressed upon them to shew that they were approved;which was of no other nature,but as the Assaymaster in the West Indies doth mark the wedges of Silver to shew that they were approved of such a fineness,and as the Corporation of Gold smiths in London,and other Cities,do mark the Bullion which is melted as a Testimony of fineness,but not to make it Current at any Price,because the mark hath no relation to the weight but onely the fineness.The most ancient and most undoubted Testimonies whereof are in Scripture:as that of Abraham,when he had bought the field of Ephron for the burial of Sarah,for which it is not said that he paid,but weighed four hundred shekels of silver,approved among Merchants;which denoteth the fineness.And it is said that the sons of Jacob brought back their silver in the same weight that they carried into Egypt;and Tobit lent unto Gabael the weight of ten Talents:By which it is manifest they did not count their Moneys in pieces,as they did in succeeding ages,or by imaginary,or abstracted sums,as we do make their valuation,but by weight,the fineness only is approved of by the mark.It were tedious to search the proofs of Antiquity in this kind,but it is manifest that almost all the Names of Moneys,both among the Hebrews and Greeks,were not properly the names of any species of Money,but of several sorts of weight.As of Sicle,Mina,Talent and Drachma;so likewise the Original Moneys,both of the Romans,the Francks,and of the Monarchy of England,were the As,the Livre,the Pound and the Mark;and amongst the Romans,the ancient Receivers were not called numeratores,but libripendes;the names of Moneys being originally only the proportions of weight,and the mark serving only for a proof of the pureness of the Metal: