An introduction to Mr. James Anderson's Diplomata Scotiæ. To which is [sic] added notes, taken from various authors, and original manuscripts / By Thomas Ruddiman.

Thomas Ruddiman

Date:: 1773

Credit: An introduction to Mr. James Anderson's Diplomata Scotiæ. To which is [sic] added notes, taken from various authors, and original manuscripts / By Thomas Ruddiman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$3 | [ 227 ] to divide the fractions of carrats into four grains,’ nor, as the French, into one half, one fourth, and one eighth, &c. but ufed to follow the cuftoms of the Germans, by dividing the carrat into twelve grains. ad, note, The Scottifh mint ats and accounts being loft, we have no other rule to follow in de- fining the prices of the gold coins, and the pro- portion they bore to the filver under Robert If. and III. and fometimes under other kings, except anglogy, that is, than the proportion or rate ,tlfefe coins bore to each other, either among the ““Englith, or, at other times, among us in Scot- * Jand; and thus, we hope, we have not gone be- yond the bounds of truth. 2d, note, Fleetwood differs in a few things from our computation, who fays, in his Chronicen Pre=. tiofum, p. 26. That the fame proportion was” kept, in England, betwixt the goldand filver, from the time of Edward III. to his time, that is, the proportion as fifteen to one. But, with fubmif- fion to fo accurate a man, he is miftaken in this, that he does not apply thefe to his own time, nor has any regard to the allay mixed with the one or other metal; for, if he had compared the pure gold with the pure filver, which he ought to have done, he would have found out, that things were quite otherwife than he relates; for, by this means, according to his, and Lownde’s calcula- tions, (to illuftrate this by a few examples) the pound of gold, azno 27 Edward Ill. equalled in Beene? value$