Elementary arithmetic, with brief notices of its history... by Robert Potts.

16

MONEY.

the barons and others. One of the barons, however, John, Earl of
Warren, responded to the king's demand, that he held his lands by the
sword, and would so hold them as long as he lived until his death.
Soon after his accession he applied himself, in 1274, to reform the
abuses which had accumulated during his father's unquiet reign;
one of them was the debasement of the money, which was carried to
a height unknown before in the kingdom. The regulated produce
of his mints was clipped' and otherwise reduced to less than half its
legal weight, insomuch, that foreign merchants would not bring over
their commodities, and every article of commerce became dearer.
No ordinances respecting the standard of the coins have been preserved between the Norman Conquest and the 8th year of Edward I.
According to Stow (fol. 1633, p. 45), Gregorie Rokesley, Mayor of
London, being chief master of the king's exchange or mints, a new coinage was ordered, that the pound of easterling money should contain
12 ounces, of which, fine silver, such as was then made into foil,
and was commonly called silver of Guthuron's Lane,2 11 ounces,
2 easterlings, and 1 ferling, and the other 17 pence halfpenny to be
alloy. Also the pound of money ought to weigh 20 shillings and 3 pence
by account; so that no pound ought to be over 20 shillings and 4 pence;
nor less than 20 shillings and 2 pence by account. The ounce to weigh
20 pence; the penny 24 grains, which 24 by weight then appointed,
were as much as the former 32 grains of wheat.
It was ordained, that the money should be received and paid by
the weight of five shillings in amount and five shillings in value by
the tumbril, which was to be delivered by the warden of the exchange,
being marked by the king's stamp as the measures were.
From the Conquest to 28 Edward I., the penny weighed 24 grains,
Tower weight, or one pennyweight, so that a pound of silver was a
pound both in weight and tale. But now the first variation from
this rule took place, and the penny was reduced to 23-7073 grains
Tower weight. This appears from an indenture in Lowndes' Reports,
p. 34, which recites, that an indented trial piece of the goodness of
old sterling was lodged in the exchequer, and every pound weight of
such silver was to be shorn at 23 shillings and 3 pence.
In this year 1300, goldsmiths were restrained by statute from
using any gold worse than the touch of Paris, or any silver
inferior to the alloy of sterling. And no vessel of silver was to be
delivered from the hands of the workman until it had been assayed
1 The clipping of the coin was not confined to the laity or lower orders, but
was practised by ecclesiastics of the highest ranks. Guy, the Prior of Montacute,
was convicted of clipping, but pardoned by the King on payment of a fine of 60
marks in that year. He was a second time convicted of clipping and counter.
feiting in the 13th year of the reign, and was again pardoned, but paid a fine
of 200 marks, doubtless claiming the privilege of clergy (Rymner's Foedera. Ed.
1816, vol. i, p. 510. Clause Edw. I. m. 7).
The Chronicle of the Priory of Dunstable has recorded, that many Christians
were accused by the Jews of having consented to the clipping of the coins, and
these were chiefly of the nobility in London. In the month of July, in the
same year, 1278, the King's Justices met at Bedford, to inquire who were the
clippers of the money, and who had given consent and assistance to the Jews
in that matter.
2 So called from a former owner. It was a small lane leading out of Cheapside,
east of Foster Lane, and was anciently inhabited by goldbeaters.-Fuller's
IVorthies, p. 20 1.
By 11 ounces, 2 easterlings, and 1 ferling Tmust be understood, eleven ounces,
two pennyweights and a quarter.-Stow's Survey of Lotndon, 1633, p. 45.