others of less goodness, enriching themselves thus with the blood and misery of the people....
"The remedy is to lower the rate of the monies.... The écus ought to come down to 50 sols., but for the present we would consent to it being put at 60, awaiting a further reduction. The currency of all foreign coins ought to be prohibited as the chief cause of these evils. For although by all your ordinances they have been valued according to the price of the écu, yet the people have always increased Page 87 them more than they have your own monies, so that the écu at this moment, to be in accordance, ought to pass for 78 sols. This arises from the craft of the foreigner, and the only exceptions of importance are the reals and pistoles of Spain, which are of known goodness and profit to the melter. They have never brought us harm, but, on the other hand, they are being melted down all over France, and at the present rate the foreigner gets a profit of about 7 livres on the mark of them, so that we advise prohibition of their circulation. Finally, we advise to do away with the old reckoning by livres and sols, and substitute for it the reckoning by écus."
The States-General, adopting in part the weakest suggestion of this remarkable paper, fixed the écus at 65 sols.