3G2

SMALL PRODUCE OF MINES

CHAP. XIV.

their weight in gold and silver, not havingvery considerably varied. The small quantityof gold and silver in existence during the periodin question may be inferred from the verysmall portion of coined money which was issuedfrom the several mints after the operations ofcoining were performed exclusively by the chiefsof the several kingdoms, or by those to whomthat privilege was specially granted.

There are in the records at the Tower, theexchequer, and the mint, some accounts of thelatter department in England from a very earlyperiod, when our kings exercised the businessof coining. The sources from which the sup-plies of the precious metals were drawn arehowever by no means accurately indicated. Inthe reign of Edward II . the silver which wasbrought to the mint was classed into that whichwas produced from the royal mines, and intothat of foreign countries ; and the latter wasdivided into three other classes, distinguished asargentum cismarinum , argentum transmarinum ,and bullion 1 .

We have found no accounts by which anycalculation can be formed of the proportionwhich these several descriptions of silver bore '

1 This distribution was preserved in the next reign ; afterwhich no traces of it are to be found in the mint accounts atthe exchequer. See vol. i. p. 126, of Ruding on coins.