altered by the authority of any prince, for if it might have been, it should have been ere this, by some one needy prince or other within 2000 years."
So much in brief for this depreciation of Henry VIII., and for this extraordinary dialogue. The doctor's remedy was a recoinage, such as was later effected. The extent of the knowledge of economic laws displayed by this figure throughout the dialogue is astonishing. The divine was the better merchant, and if he had lived—for Miss Lamond's masterly identification of this character with Latimer hardly admits of question—and ruled in later counsels, he might have shown himself the better legislator.
The recoinage which he advocated was not effectually completed till the second year of Elizabeth's reign, 1559. The basis on which it was then accomplished was that of a ratio of 11.79, as nearly as possible that adopted in the same or the following year, 1560, by France, and slightly higher than that which was established in Germany by the imperial edict of 1559. The coincidence in these rates is remarkable, and it is quite apparent that the action of Elizabeth dictated that of France, as also that this her action secured for England a steady supply of the precious metals during a period in which France was violently agitated by currency crises. Page 130
In the first year of her reign, 1st May, Elizabeth issued a proclamation against