Note 378 — Chapter L
Reading edition
The proclamation is in Morrin’s Patent Rolls, 1601, of which several original printed copies are extant, bearing date May 20, 1601. The whole story may be read in Carew, 1601-3, and in the first vol. of Russell and Prendergast’s Calendar. See also Camden and Moryson. In Feb. 1603 Mountjoy wrote: ‘the alteration of the coin, and taking away of the exchange, in such measure as it was first promised, hath bred a general grievance unto men of all qualities, and so many incommodities to all sorts, that it is beyond the judgment of any that I can hear to prevent a confusion in this estate by the continuance thereof.’
Moryson says the pretence was that the rebels would be impoverished, whereas the Queen’s servants were the real sufferers—‘we served in discomfort and came home beggars, so that only the treasurers and paymasters had cause to bless the authors of this invention.’