In Obedience to yoryour LordpsLordships Order of Reference upon the annexed memo proposal of Mr Williams we have considered the same & are humbly of opinion that it amounts to the same thing as if your LordpLordship should ab raise the price of all the from 3lb 16s. to 4li per Ccwt & give the the advantaceg differs of the price to the Pewterers. For if the Tin were at 3li 16s upon the wharf & at 4li in the store houses, the Pewterers would attend the wharf & buy there at 3li 16s when the ships come in & the Merchants who do not attend the Wharf would afterwards be obliged to buy & buy of yethe Petwterers at 4li. And further when the Pewterers have sold their stick, they would deferdeferr buingbuying till the next ships come in, wchwhich wouldmight be as much a disadvantage to the sale of the Tin as their buying beforehand would be an advantage. All wchwhich being considered we are humbly of opinion that if the price of yethe Tin be raised to 4li prper Ccwt upon the Wharf it be also raised to 4li prper Ccwt in the storehouses so that yethe advantage of raising it may go to her MajtyMajesty & not to yethe Pewterers bBut we do not think it advisable to raise the price at all.

In the second year of this her MatsMajesty's present contract for Tin we had For the sale of the Tin in the two first years of the present contract being very slow, we had it then under consideration at that time whether the slowness of the sale might not be in some measure recompenced by raising the price. For it was represented to us with great confidence that [it might be done wthout danger from] the East Indian Tin :[that Tin] beingwasit might be done without danger of stocking the Market forreign markets with East Indian Tin by the Dutch, that Tin being of of a bad sort of little in quantity so that the Dutch could not bring much more of it from India into Europe then they did already, there not being sufficien enough for yethe uses of the Indies. Hereupon we made made And this representation was backt with a better intended to be writ by a Dutch East India Merchant, who who having been concerned in East Indian Tin was better able to give us an account of it then our own Merchants could do who trade not in that commodity. Vpon wchwhich we took time but upon making to enquire into the nature & quantity of East Indian Tin & findingwe found that some of it was very bright & goodgood & bright & fitter for some uses then our own we wereTin & that yethe Dutch might have it in as great a quantyquantity as they pleased, & thereupon we came to a resolution that yethe Tin it was not advisable to raise the price of her MajtsMajestys Tin, & we have since met with no reasons to change orour opinion.

In the beginning of the present contract for Tin the Merchants had stored the Markets abroad & the Pewterers had p provided a stock of their own wthwith wchwhich they supplied the Merchants at home above a year & a quarter longer. And these things made her MajtiesMajesties Tin sell very slowly during the two first years of the contract, so that at Christmas in the end of those two years there remained in the Tower Tunns of Tin stannary weight. In the end of the third year there remained in the Tower Tunns. In yethe end of the fourth year wchwhich was last Christmas, there remained Tuns. And at present there is remains about Tunns remaining in the Tower whereof we expect that about or Tunns will be shop of for the Straits within a few days. And when the war wth France sh so that the consumption has been continually upon the improvement & the quantity remaining in the Tower has increased but little during the two last years. And when the present war with France ceases we exprest that the quantity remaining in the Tower will decrease provided the Merchants be not amused & dissatisfied by raisingaltering the price

All wchwhich is most humbly submitted