OF THE CUSTOMARY FRAUDS OF TRADE, WHICH HONEST MEN ALLOW THEMSELVES TO
PRACTISE, AND PRETEND TO JUSTIFY


As there are trading lies which honest men tell, so there are frauds in
trade, which tradesmen daily practise, and which, notwithstanding, they
think are consistent with their being honest men.

It is certainly true, that few things in nature are simply unlawful and
dishonest, but that all crime is made so by the addition and concurrence
of circumstances; and of these I am now to speak: and the first I take
notice of, is that of taking and repassing, or putting off, counterfeit
or false money.

It must be confessed, that calling in the old money in the time of the
late King William was an act particularly glorious to that reign, and in
nothing more than this, that it delivered trade from a terrible load,
and tradesmen from a vast accumulated weight of daily crime. There was
scarce a shopkeeper that had not a considerable quantity or bag full of
false and unpassable money; not an apprentice that kept his master's
cash, but had an annual loss, which they sometimes were unable to
support, and sometimes their parents and friends were called upon for
the deficiency.

The consequence was, that every raw youth or unskilful body, that was
sent to receive money, was put upon by the cunning tradesmen, and all
the bad money they had was tendered in payment among the good, that by
ignorance or oversight some might possibly be made to pass; and as these
took it, so they were not wanting again in all the artifice and sleight
of hand they were masters of, to put it off again; so that, in short,