IN THE EAST AND WEST INDIES.                                  67
pf fo drag from the bowels of the earth the treafures book
they had concealed there.                                                 IV-   t
When thefe infatiable leeches had devoured the
fubftanee of the whole ftate, they were made to dif-
gorge their plunder, and then exiled. In order to
get leave to renew their depredations, they facrificed
part of the treafure they had faved from the general
wreck, and made ufe of the reft in regaining ftill
more than had been taken from them.
Though the barons had more or lefs a Share in the
vexations with which the Jews were oppreffed, yet
the fovereigns, upon whom this perverfe race more
particularly depended, always derived the principal
advantages from them. It was by means of this fatal
and odious refource that they fupported for fome time
a feeble and contested authority. In after-times,
the debafing of the coin furnished them wfith frelh
affiftance.
, The ancient governments were very far from mak-
ing any advantage of their coin. The coinage was al-
ways carried on at the expence of the ftate ; and it is a
matter of uncertainty Which were the people who firft
laid a tax upon this univerfal objed of exchange. If
this fatal example was given by France, the kings of
the firft and fécond race muft bave derived little ad-
vantage from this pernicious innovation ; becaufe the
payments were made, as among the Romans, with
metals given by the weight ; and becaufe tbe ufe of
fpecie was adopted only in the details of commerce.
This cuftom became afterwards confiderably lefs pre-
valent ; and the fovereigns were ftill more inclined
to increafe a tax, which was every day becoming
more advantageous to them. In a little time they went
much further, and did not fcruple to commit the
moft flagrant ad of dilhonefty, in altering the value
of the coin, at pleafure, or according to their necef-
fities. The fpecie was continually undergoing a
frelh melting, and was always mixed with very bafe
alloy.
It was with thefe odious fuccours ; with the reve-
Eij