The Causes of the Want of Moneys in England.
This Assertion we shall now bring to the hammer, the Anvel and the Touchstone, namely to firme Reason, by his owne first Argument of the immediate Cause of the want of money in England, alleaged by him to bee the undervaluation of his Majesties Coyne, where he saith by way of interrogation:
Who will procure licence in Spaine to bring Realls into England, to sell them here at Tenne in the hundred Gaine, which is lesse then the exchange from thence will yeeld, when he may have for the same, five and twenty in the hundred in Holland?
Here in an obscure manner, he observeth the exchange from Spayne to be Sixe pence the Reall, as value for value, or the Par in exchange, whereby it is less (as hee saith:) and hee doth account the price of 8. Reals at 51 Stivers in Holland, and the Rate of exchange at 22 shillings 4 pence Flemish to answer our 20shillings Starlin as at Par pro Pari for those parts, howbeit that 42 shillings 6 pence Flemish payde there for the 5 Realls of 8 make 25 shillings 6 pence Starlin according to that Computation; howsoever wee see that this is grounded upon the exchange, which is the efficient Cause thereof, otherwise the 15in the hundreth to be gotten in Holland more than in England: is altogether imaginary and not Reall. For example let five of these Realls of 8 be bought here for 22 shillings Starlin, and bee transported into Holland, and there buy commodities with the same, according as the price of them, is inhaunced there; no man maketh any doubt, but that the said Commodities are also raised in price, according to the money inhaunced. So that the gayne becommeth uncertaine, for the Commodities may be sold to losse.
But the merchants trading in Spaine, which cause their Realls to be sent from Spaine thither, or doe transporte them from the Downes: Rely wholy upon the lowe exchange, whereby they are inabled to deliver their money there, by exchange at an undervalue, in giving there but 33 shillings 4 pence and under, to have 20 shillings Starlin payed by Bill of exchange in England, whereby the kingdome maketh good unto them the said 15upon the hundreth. For this Reall of 8 was valued but at 42Stivers, when the Par of exchange was made to be 33 shillings 4pence, in the yeare 1586, when Robert Dudley, Earle of Leycester, went to take the government of those Countries; And shal we now receive in exchange the said price of 8 Reals for 51 Stivers, which is about five shillings and one peny Starlin, because they have inhaunced the same to their advantage, and continue the Par of exchange at 33 shilling 4 pence by which Computation the said 42 Stivers make but four shillings two pence half penny or thereabouts in true value? Absit ignorantia. Whereas, if our merchants of Spaine should give the saide price there in exchange for 42 Stivers, as they did formerly, (and may be done by order of exchange:) They shall not finde thereby Ten in the hundreth gaine, which they can make here more certaine and commodiously, whereby this money will be imported, without inhauncing of our Coyne. This is so plaine in the understanding of Merchants, that there needeth no other explanation, for it demonstrateth manifestly, that if the lowe exchange were not, This Gayne would proove to be Imaginary, as we have noted. And this causeth these Realls of Spayne to be diverted from us, and might els be imported to the said Merchants or others, which doe practice upon the Benefite of moneys to bee made betweene the exchange and moneys.