British Royal Proclamations Relating to America, 1603-1783

1704, June 18.

Great Britain. Sovereign

[Rates of Foreign Coins in Plantations.]

BY THE QUEEN.

A PROCLAMATION

For Settling and Ascertaining the Current Rates of Foreign Coins in Her Majesties Colonies and Plantations in America.

Anne R.

We having had under Our Consideration the different Rates at which the same Species of Foreign Coins do Pass in Our several Colonies and Plantations in America,[1] and the Inconveniencies thereof, by the indirect Practice of Drawing the Money from one Plantation to another, to the great Prejudice of the Trade of Our Subjects; And being Sensible, That the same cannot be otherwise Remedied, than by Reducing of all Foreign Coins to the same Current Rate within all our Dominions in America; And the Principal Officers of Our Mint having laid before Us a Table of the Value of the several Foreign Coins which usually Pass in Payments in Our said Plantations, according to their Weight, and the Assays made of them in Our Mint, thereby shewing the just Proportion which each Coin ought to have to the other, which is as followeth, viz. Sevill Pieces of Eight, Old Plate, Seventeen Peny-weight Twelve Grains, Four Shillings and Six Pence; Sevill Pieces of Eight, New Plate, Fourteen Peny-weight, Three Shillings Seven Pence One Farthing; Mexico Pieces of Eight, Seventeen Peny-weight Twelve Grains, Four Shillings and Six Pence; Pillar Pieces of Eight, Seventeen Peny-weight Twelve Grains, Four Shillings and Six Pence Three Farthings; Peru Pieces of Eight, Old Plate, Seventeen Peny-weight Twelve Grains, Four Shillings and Five Pence, or thereabouts; Cross Dollars, Eighteen Peny-weight, Four Shillings and Four Pence Three Farthings; Duccatoons of Flanders, Twenty Peny-weight and Twenty one Grains, Five Shillings and Six Pence; Ecu's of France, or Silver Lewis, Seventeen Peny-weight Twelve Grains, Four Shillings and Six Pence, Crusadoes of Portugal, Eleven Peny-weight Four Grains, Two Shillings and Ten Pence One Farthing; Three Gilder Pieces of Holland, Twenty Peny-weight and Seven Grains, Five Shillings and Two Pence One Farthing; Old Rix Dollars of the Empire, Eighteen Peny-weight and Ten Grains, Four Shillings and Six Pence; The Half, Quarters and other parts in Proportion to their Denominations, and Light Pieces in Proportion to their Weight: We have therefore thought fit for Remedying the said Inconveniencies, by the Advice of Our Council, to Publish and Declare, That from and after the First Day of January next ensuing the Date hereof, no Sevill, Pillar, or Mexico Pieces of Eight, though of the full Weight of Seventeen Peny-weight and an half, shall be Accounted, Received, Taken, or Paid within any of Our said Colonies or Plantations, as well those under Proprietors and Charters, as under Our immediate Commission and Government, at above the Rate of Six Shillings per Piece Current Money, for the Discharge of any Contracts or Bargains to be made after the said First Day of January next, the Halfs, Quarters, and other lesser Pieces of the same Coins to be Accounted, Received, Taken, or Paid in the same Proportion: And the Currency of all Pieces of Eight of Peru, Dollars, and other Foreign Species of Silver Coins, whether of the same or Baser Alloy, shall, after the said First Day of January next, stand Regulated, according to their Weight and Fineness, according and in Proportion to the Rate before Limited and Set for the Pieces of Eight of Sevill, Pillar, and Mexico; So that no Foreign Silver Coin of any sort be permitted to Exceed the same Proportion upon any Account whatsoever. And We do hereby Require and Command all Our Governours, Lieutenant-Governours, Magistrates, Officers, and all other Our good Subjects, within Our said Colonies and Plantations, to Observe and Obey our Directions herein, as they Tender our Displeasure.

Given at Our Castle at Windsor, the Eighteenth Day of June, 1704. In the Third Year of Our Reign.

God save the Queen.

London, Printed by Charles Bill, and the Executrix of Thomas Newcomb, deceas'd; Printers to the Queens most Excellent Majesty. 1704.

1 p. folio. Copies in Antiq., B. M., Crawf., Dalk., P. C., P. R. O., and in N. Y. Historical Society. Entered in Privy Council Register, Anne, vol. 2, p. 132. Printed in "London Gazette," June 22, 1704; also in Boston News-Letter, Dec. 11, 1704.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The attention of the Council of Trade had been frequently called to the disorder in the currency in the Plantations (see Cal. State Papers, Colonial, 1700, pp. 108, 393; and Chalmers' History of Currency in the British Colonies, pp. 11-15). On November 18, 1703, the Privy Council referred to the Lord Treasurer a representation from the Board of Trade for settling the rates of foreign coins in America, upon which the Lord Treasurer, May 18, 1704, submitted a report from the Officers of the Mint with a table of the weights and values of foreign coins then current in the Plantations (Acts of Privy Council, ii, 452). The proclamation which followed was little observed, however, and after several reports on the subject had been rendered, an Act of Parliament was passed April 1, 1708, entitled "An Act for ascertaining the Rates of Foreign Coins in Her Majesty's Plantations in America." (Statutes of the Realm, viii, 792. See also Lords Journals, xviii, 486, 566; Commons Journals, xv, 635; Acts of Privy Council, ii, 452). For the action of Massachusetts upon this proclamation, see Acts and Resolves of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, viii, 471.

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