thirds was alloy; June.on the 18th of June they issued a further 40,000l. worth in a coin of which three-quarters was alloy. Possibly, or rather probably, it was put out subject to the partial depreciation of the first fall; but every creditor of the Court, artisan, or labourer, servant, tradesman, farmer, or soldier was forced to receive that money at a fictitious value, although the council knew that a further depreciation was immediately and necessarily imminent.[1]
This was the last grasp at the departing prey, and perhaps it transpired to the world: for so profound and so wide was the public distrust, July.that when the first fall took effect on the 9th of July, prices everywhere rather rose than declined, even allowing for the difference of denomination. In vain the
- ↑ The numerous entries in Edward's Journal on this dry subject are curious. The King appears to have been keeping his eyes upon the council, and seeking information on the subject without their knowledge. William Thomas, Clerk of the Council, whose name has been more than once mentioned, was one of his secret advisers; and, I sometimes think, may have assisted him in the composition of his Journal. 'Upon Friday last,' Thomas writes, in an undated letter to the King, 'Mr Throgmorton declared your Majesty's pleasure unto me, and delivered me withal the notes of certain discourses, which, according to your Highness's commandment, I shall most gladly apply, to send you one every week, if it be possible for me in so little time to compass it—as indeed it were more than easy, if the daily service of mine office required not the great travail and diligence that it doth. And because he told me your Majesty would first hear mine opinion touching the reformation of the coin, albeit that I think myself both unmeet and unable to give any judgment in so great and Aveighty a matter without the advice of others; yet, since it is your Highness's pleasure to have it secret, which I do much commend, I therefore am the bolder to enterprise the declaration of my fantasy, trusting that, upon this ground, better devices and better effects may ensue than my head alone can contrive.'—
