From 1638 to 1657, the coinage amounted to seven millions seven hundred and thirty-three thousand five hundred and twenty-one pounds.[v] * Journal, 7th April, 1659.
** Strafford's Letters, vol.i.p.

421, 423, 430, 467.
*** Clarendon.
**** Lewis Roberts's Treasure of Traffick.
v Happy Future State of England Dr.Davenant has told us, from the registers of the mint, that, between 1558 and 1659, there had been coined nineteen millions eight hundred and thirty-two thousand four hundred and seventy-six pounds in gold and silver.
The first mention of tea, coffee, and chocolate, is about 1660.[*] Asparagus, artichokes, cauliflower, and a variety of salads, were about the same time introduced into England.[**] The colony of New England increased by means of the Puritans, who fled thither in order to free themselves from the constraint which Laud and the church party had imposed upon them; and, before the commencement of the civil wars, it is supposed to have contained twenty-five thousand souls.[***] For a like reason, the Catholics, afterwards, who found themselves exposed to many hardships, and dreaded still worse treatment went over to America in great numbers, and settled the colony of Maryland.
Before the civil wars, learning and the fine arts were favored at court, and a good taste began to prevail in the nation.

The king loved pictures, sometimes handled the pencil himself, and was a good judge of the art.

The pieces of foreign masters were bought up at a vast price; and the value of pictures doubled in Europe by the emulation between Charles and Philip IV.

of Spain, who were touched with the same elegant passion.