CHAP. XVIII. GOLD A

ND SILVER IN ENGLAND.

67

cester and Derby, who displayed their magni-ficence in their several entertainments to QueenElizabeth. It appears that Burleigh possessed alarge quantity of plate. It is doubtful if it was°f the value of fourteen thousand pounds sterling,or fourteen thousand pounds weight, which wouldhave been worth forty-two thousand pounds ster-ling ; but the probability is in favour of the largersum 1 . Such stores would, however, be in thepossession of a very few individuals, and the wholecould not produce a very great effect on the massof gold and silver which had been afforded by themines of America in the century.

Whatever it may have amounted to, it musthave frequently passed from the form of utensilsto that of coin; for as there was no tax on thesilver goods, and as the fashion was of little cost,it would be worth no more than its weight asbullion; and it appears by the will of Burleigh,that in the bequests of the plate to his family hes pecifies only the number of ounces to be givent° the legatees, and appoints a goldsmith to seeJt weighed out to them, without making any di-stinction of the pieces.

During the period we are now viewing, a courseof events commenced in the commerce of thew °i’ld which had a great influence on the precious

1 See Hume’s History of England, where in the Appendix ,No - 3, and in note 00 to the fifth volume, this matter is dis-cussed and apparently settled.

F %