* This agreement is given in extenso by Ruding, vol. ii, p. 447. + Harleian MSS., No. 660, Ms. 31 b and 34.

* Harleian MSS., No. 6364. + Ruding, vol. i, p. 16.

* This year is also notable as the date of the introduction of machinery into the Mint. The practice of clipping the coins had become so frequent as to render it absolutely necessary that their edges should be milled, and the machine known as the ' mill and screw' was first brought into use in 1553, and was introduced into England in 1561.

The moneyers have hitherto appeared as persons employed by the Mint-master as actual operatives in the processes of minting, and as sharing neither in the responsibilities nor in the profits of the coinage; and there seems little doubt that this is a fair definition of their position until the Tudor period. The extraordinary changes introduced by Henry VIII produced a general confusion during which it is difficult, if not impossible, accurately to discover the duties of any of the officers. The 'establishment ' of Elizabeth already quoted renders the provost of the moneyers accountable to the crown, but the assay master is also mentioned, and, if indeed anything can be argued from the restless confusion of this period, the safest hypothesis is perhaps that both these officers, the one for himself, and the other for the body of operatives of whom he was the head and representative, were made responsible under a subcontract with the Mint-master. It is, however, unnecessary to enter further into these speculations; the rise and importance of the company of moneyers virtually dates from the final abolition of the old contract system and the new and abnormal provisions instituted by Charles I in 1626. In many respects this change resembled that made by Henry VIII; both monarchs were actuated by a desire to increase the revenue arising from the Mint, and both attempted to gain this end by putting the master on a salary and appropriating the profits. Yet one cardinal distinction is to be made; Henry VIII undertook the entire management of the Mint; Charles I only became his own contractor for the melting processes, and farmed out the moneying processes to the moneyers. These principles were rendered no less anomalous than unsound by the retention of the framework of the old constitution; the indentures still treated the Mint-master as a responsible contractor; the moneyers still worked nominally under a subcontract with the Mint-master, of whom they were, nevertheless, practically independent; and the state of disorganization thus initiated bequeathed its complications to a very recent period, and was only then terminated at the expense of considerable and prolonged investigation in the face of great opposition. The coinage about this time reached its greatest artistic perfection, when Briot and Simon successively held the office of engraver to the Mint; and in 1662 Blondeau's method of rounding the pieces and lettering and graining the edges was introduced.

Another important change, though of a different nature, took place in 1666. The bullion merchant had hitherto been chargeable with the king's seignorage and with the Mint-master's rates for the expenses of coining; the Act of this year transferred this liability to the sovereign, who was in return permitted to exact a tax or 'coinage duty' on most varieties of imported liquors. The result was obviously to reduce standard bullion and coin to equivalence, and, as will be presently seen, to introduce another difficult and important consideration into the question of the currency. In 1670, the date of the first indenture subsequent to the Act just mentioned, we find the contract for the melting was restored to the Mint-master, who nevertheless continued to receive a salary.

The excessive hammering and clipping of the silver coin led, as already stated, to a general recoinage of the old coins into ' milled ' money, which was extensively conducted in London and at several temporary local Mints. This unusual strain upon the Mint seems to have led to a discovery of the faultiness of the existing system; in 1696 an Act was passed empowering the master to employ other persons in the event of neglect or other misconduct on the part of the moneyers; and in 1697 a committee of the House of Commons reported on " the miscarriages of the officers of the Mint/"* The report gives in detail the various pretences by which the moneyers attempted to prove their existence as a corporation, and recommends that both moneyers and officers should be salaried by the king, as a change at once cheaper for the king and better for the Mint and the coinage. No important alterations, however, appear to have been effected.

* Many of the complaints in this Report are rather amusing. After mentioning the opportunities of peculation afforded to the assay-master in complicity with the melter, the Report goes on to say :-"The committee doth observe that the present assay-master and the present melter of the Tower have married two sisters; and that notwithstanding the last melter, Mr.

In 1702 the charge for reducing ingots to standard fineness was abolished. This expense, in addition to those remitted to the merchant in 1666, has since been borne by the country, the coinage thus becoming absolutely free.

Towards the close of the 18th century most of the coins in circulation had become excessively worn and disfigured. In the year 1774, therefore, all deficient gold coins were called in, the holders being compensated within certain limits, and it was enacted that the new gold coins should henceforth be regulated by weight as well as by tale. As this measure was really the first of a series of monetary reforms suggested by Lord Liverpool, it is here advisable to direct attention to the difficulties attendant upon the issue of the coinage as stated by him, for the better understanding of the steps by which it has been attempted to meet and, so far as is possible, to overcome them. We shall take the definition of money given by Lord Liverpool in 1805 and by many earlier writers. He says :-"The money or coin of a country is the standard measure by which the value of all things, bought and sold, is regulated and ascertained; and it is, at the same time, Sheldon, gave up his place of melter as not able to melt the silver at 4d. per lb. weight and bear all the hurt and loss, yet Mr. Ambrose, the present melter, hath got a great estate by this place and keeps his coach." Further on it is reported that the Is. 2d. allowed for melting, milling, and edging the silver coin, is thus distributed :