Of Money and Exchange§ 105. Establishment of money.§ 106. Duty of the nation or prince with respect to the coin.§ 107. Their rights in this respect§ 108. How one nation may injure another in the article of coin.§ 109. Of exchange, and the laws of commerce. 1. In Boizard's Treatise on Coin, we find the following observations: "It is worthy of remark, that, when our kings debased the coin, they kept the circumstance a secret from the people: — witness the ordinance of Philip de Valois in 1350, by which he ordered Tournois Doubles to be coined 2d 5 1/3 gr. fine, which was, in fact, a debasement of the coin. In that ordinance, addressing the officers of the mint, he says — Upon the oath by which you are bound to the king, keep this affair as secret as you possibly can, that neither the bankers nor others may, by your means, acquire any knowledge of it; for if, through you, it comes to be known, you shall be punished for the offence in such manner as shall serve as an example to others." — The same author quotes other similar ordinances of the same king, and one issued by the Dauphin, who governed the kingdom as regent during the captivity of King John, dated June 27, 1360, by virtue of which the mint-masters, directing the officers engaged in the coinage to coin white Deniers 1d. 12 gr. fine, at the same time expressly command them to keep this order secret, and, "if any persons should make inquiry respecting their standard, to maintain that they were 2d. fine." Chap. xxix.
The kings had recourse to this strange expedient in cases of urgent necessity; but they saw its injustice. — The same author, speaking of the debasement of coin, or the various modes of reducing its intrinsic value, says — "These expedients are but rarely resorted
to, because they give occasion to the exportation or melting down of the good specie, and to the introduction and circulation of foreign coin — raise the price of every thing — impoverish individuals — diminish the revenue, which is paid in specie of inferior value — and sometimes put a total stop to commerce. This truth has been so well understood in all ages, that those princes who had recourse to one or other of these modes of debasing the coin in difficult times, ceased to practice it the moment the necessity ceased to exist." We have, on this subject, an ordinance of Philip the Fair, issued in May, 1295, which announces, that, "The king having reduced the coin both in fineness and weight, and expecting to be obliged to make a further reduction in order to retrieve his affairs, — but knowing himself to be, in conscience, responsible for the injury caused to the state by such reduction, — pledges himself to the people of his kingdom, by solemn charter, that, as soon as his affairs are retrieved, he will restore the coin to its proper standard and value, at his own private cost and expense, and will himself bear all the loss and waste. And, in addition to this engagement, Dame Joan, Queen of France and Navarre, pledges her revenues and dower for the same purpose."
2. In his Republic, book i, chap. x. This is a sound principle, which ought to be extended so as to deny effect to any fraud upon a foreign nation or its subjects. But in England a narrow and immoral policy prevails of not noticing frauds upon the revenue of a foreign state. Roach v. Edie, 6 Term Rep. 425; Boucher v. Lawrence, R.T. Hardw. 198; Holman v. Johnson, Cowp. 343; James v, Catherwood, 3 Dowl. & Ryl. 190, {Cambiooso's Ex. v. Maffet's Assignees, 2 Wash, C.C. Rep. 99.} And so far has this narrow doctrine been carried, in disgrace of this country, that, in Smith v. Marconnay, 2 Peake's Rep. 81, it was held, that the maker of paper in England, knowingly made by him for the purpose of forging assignats upon the same, to be exported to France in order to commit frauds there on other persons, might recover damages for not accepting such paper pursuant to contract. So a master of an English ship was even allowed to recover salvage for bringing home his captured vessel, by deceptively inducing the enemy to release the vessel on his giving a ransom bill, payment of which he look care to countermand in London. 2 Dodson's R. 74.
