Two issues were of particular interest to Locke. One involved government censorship. In 1695, the Licensing Act expired; Locke and the College were active (and successful) in preventing its renewal.¹ The other area in which Locke was active was trade and financial policy. Two somewhat related issues were being raised: the legal rate of interest and the sorry state of the English coinage. On the first Locke had already formulated his views in 1668, in a memorandum to Shaftesbury arguing against Sir Josiah Child’s suggestion that the legal rate of interest be lowered (published in 1963; see Locke #965). In the early 1690’s, Child was still urging his case and the London merchants were supporting him. At the same time, there was concern about the value of English coins. In the seventeenth century, this was a matter of private enterprise, for anyone with the proper tools could “clip” gold or silver from coins. English coins were is such a poor state that they were no longer accepted at face value, but only by weight. The government desired to replace these old coins with new, milled ones and needed to determine standard values (how much precious metal should be used).

Locke had strong feelings on both issues. He felt that interest rates could not effectively be fixed by law, but must be determined by the market. Likewise, the value of money could not be set at a value above the market value of their metal content. When bills to alter the rate of interest and the standard value of the coinage were introduced in 1691, Locke revised his 1668 memorandum and published it as Some consideration of the consequences of the lowering of interest and raising the value of money. In a letter to a Member of Parliament [Somers]. The monetary crisis continued. A lively pamphlet debate took place,² and there were more proposals for revaluation. Locke wrote his “Short observations on a printed paper” (1695) in response to one of them. In November 1695, a particularly influential proposal appeared, written by William Lowndes, Secretary to the Treasury, and published by order of the Treasury Commission. Somers urged Locke to reply in haste, before Lowndes’ recommendations could be accepted by the government. Locke’s Further considerations concerning raising the value of money appeared before the end of the year, with a signed dedication to Somers. The book shows the effects of haste; no less than eight variant states embodying numerous corrections have been identified.³ The debate continued. Locke’s views were attacked in print but he did not reply. In the end, his views prevailed; in 1696 the coinage was recalled and new coins were issued at the old standard value. As a member of the new Board of Trade, Locke played a major role in the decision.⁴

¹ Locke’s memoranda on the subject have been published as an appendix to v. 5 of his correspondence [Locke #847]; the events are described by R. Asbury, “The renewal of the Licensing Act in 1693 and its lapse in 1695” (1978)

² Described by K. Horsefield, British monetary experiments 1650-1710 (1960). – Includes a bibliography of contemporary works.

³ For a description of these variants, see P. Kelly, “A note on Locke’s pamphlets on money” (1969)

⁴ P. Laslett, “John Locke, the Great Recoinage, and the origins of the Board of Trade, 1695-1698” (1957). – For Locke’s work on the Board of Trade, see below.