The worth of a penny Author:Henry Peacham Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE WORTH OF A PENNY, 4 Caution to keep Money. The Ambassador of Mulley Hamet Sheck King of Morocco, when he was in England about four or five years sin... more »ce, said on a time sitting at dinner at his House at Woodstreet, he thought verily that Algiers was four times as rich as London : An English Merchant replied, that he thought not so, but that London was far richer than that, and for plenty London might compare with Jerusalem in the peaceful days of Solomon. For my part, I believed neither, especially the Merchant; for in the time of Solomon, Silver was as plentiful in Jerusalem, as stones in the street; but with us stones are in far more abundance; when in every street in London, you may walk over five thousand Load oje you will find a single penny. Again the general complaint and murmur throughout the Kingdome, of the scarcity and want of money argues, that we fall far short of that plenty, which the Merchant imagined. And one time, I began to bethink my self, and to look into the causes of our want; and this general scarcity, and I found them manifold. First, some men, who by their wits and industry (or both) have scrued and wound themselves into vast Estates, and gathered thousands, like the Griffons of Bactria, when they have met with a goldMine, so brood over, and watch it day and night, ffiai it is impossible for Charity to be regarded, Vertue rewarded, or Necessity relieved': and this we know to have- been the ruin, not only of such private persons themselves,- but of whole Estates and Kingdoms, That I may instance- one for many, Conetuniinople was taken by the Turk, when the Citizens, abounding with wealth and money, would not part with a penny in the common necessity; no, not for the repair of their battered Walls, or the levying of souldiers to defend them. ...« less