CRISES racked the institution to which Newton moved in the spring of 1696. Indeed, the Mint was an institution within an institution within an institution, all three of which faced crises. The recoinage engaged every pinch of energy at the Mint. The Treasury, of which the Mint was a relatively minor department, devoted equal energy to devising temporary expedients and new machinery to cope with overwhelming financial needs. The English state and the revolutionary settlement it embodied balanced precariously on the outcome of the Treasury's efforts. In proclaiming William of Orange as its king in 1689, England had perforce embraced his foreign policy of resistance to French expansion. Although the ensuing war was known as King William's war, England would have found it impossible to stand aloof in any case, for the France of Louis XIV threatened its security only less than the security of William's native Netherlands. On a scale that exceeded previous wars, with a large English army in permanent operation on the Continent in addition to the naval operations England preferred, the war placed financial demands far beyond any precedent on the state. In 1696, it was not clear that the demands would be met. If they were not, if national bankruptcy ensued, the revolutionary settlement would undoubtedly collapse before a second Stuart restoration. In the larger crises of the government and its finances Newton was not involved beyond his concern as an Englishman committed to the revolution.