"Roman History" (I., xxxii., c. 2), where it is mentioned that the quæstors showed the silver paid by the Carthaginians as tribute to be impure, and on the application of the fire test it was found to be deficient in value by .

Even in the time of the prophet Malachi we read (c. iii. v. 2, 3)—" For he is like a refiner's fire He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall purify . . . and purge them as gold and silver."

Nowhere do we meet with any intimation that the State undertook the supervision of the manufacture of precious metal wares, either for the purpose of drawing financial profit from such a supervision, or in order to protect the purchasing public.

The fact that the necessity for State control of this kind was nowhere manifested has the greater claim to attention, because at that time chemical and physical knowledge was by no means so widely spread as now, and because there were fewer people from whom information could be derived as to the value of objects in gold and silver.

Summing up the question of standards in the Roman law, Mr. Charles Roscher, in his work

upon the "Legal Regulations of the Manufactures of Gold and Silver," calls attention to the following:-"Whoever bought brass for gold, or lead or any other silvery-looking body for silver; whoever bought a table plated with silver for massive silver, might, according to the Pandects, regard the purchase as void, because he had not received that for which he stipulated. Whoever, on the contrary, bought alloyed gold, which he erroneously considered to be of higher standard than it was, was compelled, if he bought the object merely as 'gold,' without any condition of a definite standard, to consider the bargain valid against himself."

This principle applied even to the case of a person purchasing at a high price an old bracelet, which in all its parts was valued as gold, whereas the greater part of it subsequently proved to be copper, and only a little gold mixed with it. 66 'For," says Ulpian, “it did truly con

tain gold."

"This is in strict accordance," writes Puebla, "with the principle that the character of a bargain does not depend upon the just proportion of the price paid. On the contrary, the demand for such a just proportion would disturb com

merce." A maxim which in Roman law was expressly intended to provide that no unfair opposition should be offered to trade.

The development of the Guilds, having for their apparent object the protection of the public, but in reality intended to prevent competition, led at first to restrictions on the working of precious metals. The oldest regulation of the kind in England seems to have been issued in the year 1238.

Since, as will be seen later, the legal regulation of the standard of precious metal wares has, in all States, been subject to very frequent changes, and since it may be safely predicted that further changes will occur in most of them, we judged that it would be useful to add to this work a collection, as comprehensive as possible, of all the old stipulations and laws relating to the regulation of the standard of gold and silver ware. We applied, therefore, to every government, not only for information as to the various laws and regulations at present in force, but also for brief reports of the discussions which preceded the several legal changes effected by the various representative assemblies.

PART II.

THE LAWS OF ALL COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD CONCERNING THE STANDARD OF GOLD AND SILVER WARES.

GREAT BRITAIN.

IT is more than six centuries since the first decrees concerning the legal regulation of the standard of gold and silver wares were made in England. These date from the year 1238, in the reign of Henry III.; when, in consequence of fraud, it apparently was necessary to direct the gold and silversmiths that no one should manufacture gold of less value than one hundred shillings per mark, or silver of a lower standard than that of the silver coinage.

The transfer to the London Goldsmiths' Company of the privilege (which holds good to the present day) of testing ware made of the precious metals took place in the year 1300, the reign of Edward I.

in

This act forbade the manufacture of any

gold ware of lower standard than that of Paris; and by it the silver ware was required to be, at the lowest, of the standard of the silver coinage, and to be stamped with a leopard's head. Before any piece of work in the precious metals left the workshop, it had to be tested by the inspector specially appointed for the purpose. All wares in the precious metals which were not so rich as the legally fixed standard, were to be forfeited to the king; the offenders being threatened with punishment or fine at the king's pleasure.

These regulations at first only applied to London, but they were afterwards extended to the provinces.

In the year 1327, the first of Edward III.'s reign, the Goldsmiths' Company was charged to punish those who so cleverly overlaid tin with silver that their goods were taken for, and sold as, fine silver.

An ordinance of the Goldsmiths' Company in the year 1336 revoked the provisions of the law of the year 1300, and appointed that the manufacturer shall stamp his wares of precious metals. A law of 1363 confirmed the last part of this ordinance.