JOURNAL OF JOHN LAUDER

xlvi

Privy Council, and bodies with commercial interests like the
Convention of Burrowis.' In 1631 the Privy Council
issued a proclamation 1 considering the greit skarsitie of His
Majestie's proper coynes occasioned by the frequent
transport theirof and importing of dollours in place of the
same,' prohibiting the receipt of any dollars for coal or salt
after lst November next to corne. That in the mean tyme
the maisters and owners of the coalhewes and saltpans may
give tymous advertisement to the strangers trading with
them for coal and salt that they bring no dollours with them
for the pryce of the salt and coal,' and that merchants
exporting bestial or other commodities to England are to
make return of the pryces not in dollars, but either in
H.M. proper coin or in the following foreign coins, the value
and weight of which is fixed by the proclamation Spanish
pistolet, French crown, rose noble, half rose noble, quartis-
diskue, single ryall. The proper method of dealing with the
difficulty was matter of great controversy.

ln 1633 George Foulis, master coiner, says in a memorial,
In the first it is to be considerit that the mvst pairt of the
moneJs presently in Scotland is onlJ dollouria.

Secondlie, these dollouris are not all alike in wecht, some
wheirof are 15 drops wecht, some 141 and many others
lesser in wecht.

'Thirdlie, they are different in fineness, some 10, some 10l,
others baser. The best 15 droh and 10~ fineness will not
answer to the King's money in wecht or fynness to 54s. Scots.'
The best of these dollars was the Rex or Rix Dollar
(Reichsthaler, dalle impl!riale), In the reign of Charles l,
the baser dollars which gave most trouble to the authorities
were the dog dollars and the cross dollars. In the reign of
Charles Il, we hear more of the leg dollar, which approachecl
the rex dollar ia value, and had got a pretty strong fo~ting,
On l4th January 1670, the Privy Council issued n. pro-