Drapier's Letters - Background

Background

In 1722, hardware manufacturer William Wood was granted a letters patent to produce copper coinage of up to £108,000 (approximately £15,209,500 as of 2012) for use in Ireland. The patent was secured by a bribe of £10,000 (approximately £1,408,300 as of 2012) to the Duchess of Kendal, mistress to King George I. Although Wood produced copper coins, assays showed his coins to be significantly underweight, undersized, and made from inferior materials. Despite this, they were approved by the British Parliament for use in Ireland.

The Irish complaint against Wood was not that they had enough copper coins, but that this would introduce too many coins of inferior quality into the Irish economy. These coins would remove valuable silver and gold coins from circulation in the Irish economy, and since the new copper coins would not be minted under Irish authority, there was no way for the Irish to control the quality and amount. Also, Wood's coin was only one example of unfavourable economic practices that hurt Ireland; the Irish wanted to have their own national bank and authority to mint their own coinage, and Wood's coin became a way to express their economic-nationalist desires.

The patent issue soon became a struggle between Prime Minister Robert Walpole (with the authority of the British Parliament) and the leaders of Ireland. All attempts by the Irish Privy Council and the Church of Ireland to prevent the release of the coinage proved fruitless. It was soon thought by many that William Conolly’s Commissioners of the Revenue might pay the soldiers stationed in Ireland with the new coin; if the soldiers were paid with the coin, then the merchants of Ireland would be forced to accept the coin from the soldiers or risk military reprisal or a loss of business. This worried the leadership of Ireland and they requested help in challenging Wood's patent and leading a boycott of the coin. Swift was asked by Archbishop King and Lord Chancellor Midleton to contribute to a pamphleteering campaign against Wood's coin.

During this time, Lord Carteret, the British Secretary of State whose remit included Ireland, publicly pushed Walpole into defending Wood's patent. However, Carteret privately attempted to destroy the patent in order to damage Walpole's reputation. Thus, Carteret appeared to the British as a defender of the patent because he seemingly tried to prevent an Irish uprising against British rule (especially by finding the "Drapier"), but he was really furthering his anti-Walpole agenda and aiding the Irish cause.