piece of matter, commonly metal, to which public authority has affixed a certain value and weight to serve as a medium in commerce. See Coin, Commerce, Medals, and Bank; also the articles Banking, Coinage, and Exchange, in the Supplement.

Money is usually divided into real or effective, and imaginary or money of account,

I. REAL Money.

1. History of real money. Real money includes all coins, or species of gold, silver, copper, and the like; which have course in common, and do really exist. Such are guineas, pistoles, pieces of eight, ducats, &c.

Real money, civilians observe, has three essential qualities, viz. matter, form, and weight or value.

For the matter, copper is thought to have been first coined; afterwards silver; and lastly gold, as being the most beautiful, scarce, cleanly, divisible, and pure of all metals.

The degrees of goodness are expressed in gold by carats; and in silver by pennyweights, &c. For there are several reasons for not coining them pure and without alloy, viz. the great loss and expense in refining them, the necessity of hardening them to make them more durable, and the scarcity of gold and silver in most countries. See Alloy.

Among the ancient Britons, iron rings, or, as some say, iron plates, were used for money; among the Macedonians, iron bars quenched with vinegar, that they might not serve for any other use. Seneca observes, that there was anciently stamped money of leather, corium forma publica impressum. And the same thing was put in practice by Frederic II. at the siege of Milan; to say nothing of an old tradition among ourselves, that in the confused times of the barons wars the like was done in England; but the Hollanders, we know, coined great quantities of pasteboard in the year 1574.

As to the form of money, it has been more various than the matter. Under this are comprehended the weight, figure, impression, and value.

For the impression, the Jews, though they detested images, yet stamped on the one side of their shekel the golden pot which held the manna, and on the other Aaron's rod. The Dardans stamped two cocks fighting. The Athenians stamped their coins with an owl, or an ox; whence the proverb on bribed lawyers, Bos in lingua. They of Ægina, with a tortoise; whence, that other saying, Virtutem et sapientiam vincunt testudines. Among the Romans, the monetarii sometimes impressed the images of men that had been eminent in their families on the coins; but no living man's head was ever stamped on a Roman coin till after the fall of the commonwealth. From that time they bore the emperor's head on one side. From this time the practice of stamping the prince's image on coins has obtained among all civilized nations; the Turks and other Mahometans alone excepted, who, in detestation of images, inscribe only the prince's name, with the year of the transmigration of their prophet.

As to the figure, it is either round as in Britain; multangular or irregular, as in Spain; square, as in some parts of the Indies; or nearly globular, as in Money, most of the rest.

After the arrival of the Romans in this island, the Britons imitated them, coining both gold and silver with the images of their kings stamped on them. When the Romans had subdued the kings of the Britons, they also suppressed their coins, and brought in their own; which were current here from the time of Claudius to that of Valentinian the Younger, about the space of 500 years.

Mr Camden observes, that the most ancient English coin he had known was that of Ethelbert king of Kent, the first Christian king in the island; in whose time all money accounts begin to pass by the names of pounds, shillings, pence, and mancuses. Pence seems borrowed from the Latin pecunia, or rather from pendu, on account of its just weight, which was about threepence of our money. These were coarsely stamped with the king's image on the one side, and either the mint master's, or the city's where it was coined, on the other. Five of these pence made their schilling, probably so called from scilingus, which the Romans used for the fourth part of an ounce. Forty of these schillings made their pound; and 400 of these pounds were a legacy, or portion for a king's daughter, as appears by the last will of King Alfred. By these names they translated all sums of money in their Old English testament; talents by pandus; Judas's thirty pieces of silver by thirtig scillingas; tribute money, by pennining; the mite by fourthing.

But it must be observed, they had no other real money, but pence only; the rest being imaginary moneys, i.e., names of numbers or weights. Thirty of these pence made a mancus, which some take to be the same with a mark: manca, as appears by an old MS. was quintae pars unciae. These mancuses or mancuses were reckoned both in gold and silver. For in the year 680 we read that Ina king of the West Saxons obliged the Kentishmen to buy their peace at the price of 30,000 mancuses of gold. In the notes on King Canute's laws, we find this distinction, that mancusa was as much as a mark of silver, and manca, a square piece of gold, valued at 30 pence.

The Danes introduced a way of reckoning money by ores, per ores, mentioned in Domesday book; but whether they were a several coin, or a certain sum, does not plainly appear. This, however, may be gathered from the Abbey book of Burton, that 20 ores were equivalent to two marks. They had also a gold coin called byzantine, or bizant, as being coined at Constantinople, then called Byzantium. The value of which coin is not only now lost, but was so entirely forgot even in the time of King Edward III. that whereas the bishop of Norwich was fined a byzantine of gold to be paid the abbot of St Edmund's Bury for infringing his liberties (as it had been enacted by parliament in the time of the Conqueror), no man then living could tell how much it was; so it was referred to the king to rate how much he should pay. Which is the more unaccountable, because but 100 years before, 200,000 bezants were exacted by the soldan for the ransom of St Louis of France: which were then valued at 100,000 livres.

Though the coining of money be a special prerogative... tive of the king, yet the ancient Saxon princes communicated it to their subjects; insomuch that in every good town there was at least one mint; but at London eight; at Canterbury four for the king, two for the archbishop, one for the abbot at Winchester, six at Rochester, at Hastings two, &c.

The Norman kings continued the same custom of coining only pence, with the prince's image on one side, and on the other the name of the city where it was coined, with a cross so deeply impressed, that it might be easily parted and broke into two halves, which, so broken, they called halfpence; or into four parts, which they called fourthings or farthings.

In the time of King Richard I., money coined in the east parts of Germany came in special request in England on account of its purity, and was called Easterling money, as all the inhabitants of those parts were called Easterlings. And shortly after, some of those people skilled in coining were sent for hither, to bring the coin to perfection; which since has been called sterling for Easterling. See STERLING.

King Edward I., who first adjusted the measure of an ell by the length of his arm, herein imitating Charles the Great, was the first also who established a certain standard for the coin, which is expressed to this effect by Greg. Rockley, mayor of London, and mint master.—"A pound of money containeth twelve ounces: in a pound there ought to be eleven ounces, two Easterlings, and one farthing; the rest alloy. The said pound ought to weigh twenty shillings and three pence in account and weight. The ounce ought to weigh twenty pence, and a penny twenty-four grains and a half. Note, That eleven ounces two pence sterling ought to be of pure silver, called leaf silver; and the minter must add of other weight seventeen pence half-penny farthing, if the silver be so pure."

About the year 1320, the states of Europe first began to coin gold; and among the rest, our King Edward III. The first pieces he coined were called florences, as being coined by Florentines: afterwards he coined nobles; then rose-nobles, current at 6s. 8d. half nobles called half pennies, at 3s. 4d. of gold; and quarters at 2od. called farthings of gold. The succeeding kings coined rose-nobles, and double rose-nobles, great sovereigns, and half Henry nobles, angels, and shillings.

King James I. coined units, double crowns, Britain crowns: then crowns, half-crowns, &c.

2. Comparative value of Money and Commodities at different periods. The English money, though the same names do by no means correspond with the same quantity of precious metal as formerly, has not changed so much as the money of most other countries. From the time of William the Conqueror, the proportion between the pound, the shilling, and the penny, seems to have been uniformly the same as at present.

Edward III., as already mentioned, was the first of our kings that coined any gold; and no copper was coined by authority before James I. These pieces were not called farthings, but farthing tokens, and all people were at liberty to take or refuse them. Before the time of Edward III. gold was exchanged, like any other commodity, by its weight; and before the time of James I. copper was stamped by any one person who chose to do it.

In the years 712 and 727, a ewe and lamb were rated at 1s. Saxon money till a fortnight after Easter. Between the years 900 and 1000, two hydes of land, each containing about 120 acres, were sold for 100 shillings. In 1000, by King Ethelred's laws, a horse was rated at 30s., a mare or a colt of a year old, at 20s.; a mule or young ass, at 12s.; an ox at 30s.; a cow at 24s.; a swine at 8d.; a sheep at 1s. In 1043, a quarter of wheat was sold for 6d. Hence it is computed, that in the Saxon times there was ten times less money, in proportion to commodities, than at present. Their nominal specie, therefore, being about three times higher than ours, the price of every thing, according to our present language, must be reckoned thirty times cheaper than it is now.

In the reign of William the Conqueror, commodities were ten times cheaper than they are at present; from which we cannot help forming a very high idea of the wealth and power of that king: for his revenue was 400,000l. per annum, every pound being equal to that weight of silver, consequently the whole may be estimated at 1,200,000l. of the present computation; a sum which, considering the different value of money between that period and the present, was equivalent to 12,000,000l. of modern estimation.

The most necessary commodities do not seem to have advanced their price from William the Conqueror to Richard I.

The price of corn in the reign of Henry III. was near half the mean price in our times. Bishop Fleetwood has shown, that in the year 1240, which was in this reign, 4l. 13s. 9d. was worth about 50l. of our present money. About the latter end of this reign, Robert de Hay, rector of Souldern, agreed to receive 100s. to purchase to himself and successor the annual rents of 5s. in full compensation of an acre of corn.

Butchers meat, in the time of the great scarcity in the reign of Edward II. was, by a parliamentary ordinance, sold three times cheaper than our mean price at present; poultry somewhat lower, because being now considered as a delicacy, it has risen beyond its proportion. The mean price of corn at this period was half the present value, and the mean price of cattle one-eighth.

In the next reign, which was that of Edward III., the most necessary commodities were in general about three or four times cheaper than they are at present.

In these times, knights, who served on horseback in the army, had 2s. a-day, and a foot archer 6d. which last would now be equal to a crown a-day. This pay has continued nearly the same nominally (only that in the time of the commonwealth the pay of the horse was advanced to 2s. 6d. and that of the foot 1s., though it was reduced again at the Restoration), but soldiers were proportionably of a better rank formerly.

In the time of Henry VI., corn was about half its present value, other commodities much cheaper. Bishop Fleetwood has determined, from a most accurate consideration of every circumstance, that 3l. in this reign was equivalent to 28l. or 30l. now.

In the time of Henry VII., many commodities were three times as cheap here, and in all Europe, as they are at present, there having been a great increase of gold and silver in Europe since his time occasioned by the discovery of America.

The commodities whose price has risen the most since before the time of Henry VII. are butchers meat, fowls, fowls, and fish, especially the latter. And the reason why corn was always much dearer in proportion to other eatables, according to their prices at present, is, that in early times agriculture was little understood. It required more labour and expense, and was more precarious than it is at present. Indeed, notwithstanding the high price of corn in the times we are speaking of, the raising of it so little answered the expense, that agriculture was almost universally quitted for grazing; which was more profitable, notwithstanding the low price of butchers meat. So that there was constant occasion for statutes to restrain grazing, and to promote agriculture; and no effectual remedy was found till the bounty upon the exportation of corn; since which, above ten times more corn has been raised in this country than before.

The price of corn in the time of James I. and consequently that of other necessaries of life, was not lower, but rather higher, than at present: wool is not two-thirds of the value it was then; the finer manufactures having sunk in price by the progress of art and industry, notwithstanding the increase of money. Butchers meat was higher than at present. Prince Henry made an allowance of near 4d. per pound for all the beef and mutton used in his family. This may be true with respect to London; but the price of butchers meat in the country, which does not even now much exceed this price at a medium, has certainly greatly increased of late years, and particularly in the northern counties.

The prices of commodities are higher in England than in France; besides that the poor people of France live upon much less than the poor in England, and their armies are maintained at less expense. It is computed by Mr Hume, that a British army of 20,000 men is maintained at near as great an expense as 60,000 in France, and that the English fleet, in the war of 1741, required as much money to support it as all the Roman legions in the time of the emperors. However, all that we can conclude from this is, that money is much more plentiful in Europe at present than it was in the Roman empire.

In the 13th century, the common interest which the Jews had for their money, Voltaire says, was 20 per cent. But with regard to this, we must consider the great contempt that nation was always held in, the large contributions they were frequently obliged to pay, the risk they ran of never receiving the principal, the frequent confiscations of all their effects, and the violent persecutions to which they were exposed; in which circumstances it was impossible for them to lend money at all, unless for most extravagant interest, and much disproportioned to its real value. Before the discovery of America, and the plantation of our colonies, the interest of money was generally 12 per cent. all over Europe; and it has been growing gradually less since that time, till it is now generally about four or five.

When sums of money are said to be raised by a whole people, in order to form a just estimate of it, we must take into consideration not only the quantity of the precious metal according to the standard of the coin, and the proportion of the quantity of coin to the commodities, but also the number and riches of the people who raise it; for populous and rich countries will much more easily raise any certain sum of money than one that is thinly inhabited, and chiefly by poor people. This circumstance greatly adds to our surprise at the vast sums of money raised by William the Conqueror, who had a revenue nearly in value equal to 12,000,000l. of our money (allowance being made for the standard of coin and the proportion it bore to the commodities), from a country not near so populous or rich as England is at present. Indeed, the accounts historians give us of the revenues of this prince, and the treasure he left behind him, are barely credible.

II. Imaginary Money, or Money of Account, is that which has never existed, or at least which does not exist in real specie, but is a denomination invented or retained to facilitate the stating of accounts, by keeping them still on a fixed footing, not to be changed, like current coins, which the authority of the sovereign raises or lowers according to the exigencies of the state. Of which kind are pounds, livres, marks, maravedies, &c. See the annexed Table, where the fictitious money is distinguished by a dagger (†).

Money of Account among the Ancients.—The Greeks reckoned their sums of money by drachma, mina, and talenta. The drachma was equal to 7½s. sterling; 100 drachmas made the mina, equal to 3l. 4s. 7½d. sterling; 60 minae made the talent, equal to 193l. 15s. sterling; hence 100 talents amounted to 19,375l. sterling. The mina and talentum, indeed, were different in different provinces; their proportions in Attic drachms are as follow: The Syrian mina contained 25 Attic drachms; the Ptolemaic 33½; the Antiochic and Euboean 100; the Babylonic 116; the greater Attic and Tyrian 133½; the Aeginean and Rhodian 166½. The Syrian talent contained 15 Attic minae; the Ptolemaic 20½; the Antiochic 60; the Euboean 60; the Babylonic 70½; the greater Attic and Tyrian 80½; the Aeginean and Rhodian 100.

2. Roman moneys of account were the sestertius and sesterium. The sestertius was equal to 1d. 3½q. sterling. One thousand of these made the sesterium, equal to 8l. 1s. 5d. 29½. sterling. One thousand of these sestertia made the decies sesterium (the adverb centuries being always understood) equal to 8072l. 18s. 4d. sterling. The decies sesterium they also called decies centena millia nummum. Centies sesterium, or centies HS, were equal to 80,729l. 3s. 4d. Millies centes HS to 807,291l. 13s. 4d. Millies centes HS to 888,000l. 16s. 8d.

Theory of Money.

1. Of Artificial or Material Money.

I. As far back as our accounts of the transactions of mankind reach, we find they had adopted the precious metals, that is, silver and gold, as the common measure of value, and as the adequate equivalent for every thing alienable.

The metals are admirably adapted for this purpose: they are perfectly homogeneous: when pure, their masses, or bulks, are exactly in proportion to their weights; no physical difference can be found between two pounds of gold, or silver, let them be the production of the mines of Europe, Asia, Africa, or America: they are perfectly malleable, fusible, and suffer Money.

the most exact division which human art is capable to give them: they are capable of being mixed with one another, as well as with metals of a baser, that is, of a less homogeneous nature, such as copper: by this mixture they spread themselves uniformly through the whole mass of the composted lump, so that every atom of it becomes proportionally possessed of a share of this noble mixture; by which means the subdivision of the precious metals is rendered very extensive.

Their physical qualities are invariable: they lose nothing by keeping; they are solid and durable; and though their parts are separated by friction, like every other thing, yet still they are of the number of those which suffer least by it.

If money, therefore, can be made of any thing, that is, if the proportional value of things vendible can be measured by anything material, it may be measured by the metals.

II. The two metals being pitched upon as the most proper substances for realizing the ideal scale of money, those who undertake the operation of adjusting a standard, must constantly keep in their eye the nature and qualities of a scale, as well as the principles upon which it is formed.

The unit of the scale must constantly be the same, although realized in the metals, or the whole operation fails in the most essential part. This realizing the unit is like adjusting a pair of compasses to a geometrical scale, where the smallest deviation from the exact opening once given must occasion an incorrect measure. The metals, therefore, are to money what a pair of compasses is to a geometrical scale.

This operation of adjusting the metals to the money of account implies an exact and determinate proportion of both metals to the money unit, realized in all the species and denominations of coin, adjusted to that standard.

The smallest particle of either metal added to, or taken away from, any coins, which represent certain determinate parts of the scale, overturns the whole system of material money. And if, notwithstanding such variation, these coins continue to bear the same denominations as before, this will as effectually destroy their usefulness in measuring the value of things, as it would overturn the usefulness of a pair of compasses, to suffer the opening to vary, after it is adjusted to the scale representing feet, toises, miles, or leagues, by which the distances upon the plan are to be measured.

III. Debasing the standard is a good term, because it conveys a clear and distinct idea. It is diminishing the weight of the pure metal contained in that denomination by which a nation reckons, and which we have called the money unit. Raising the standard requires no farther definition, being the direct contrary.

IV. Altering the standard (that is, raising or debasing the value of the money unit) is like altering the national measures or weights. This is best discovered by comparing the thing altered with things of the same nature which have suffered no alteration. Thus, if the foot of measure was altered at once over all England, by adding to it, or taking from it, any proportional part of its standard length, the alteration would be best discovered by comparing the new foot with that of Paris, or of any other country, which had suffered no alteration. Just so, if the pound sterling, which is the English unit, shall be found anyhow changed, and if the variation it has met with be difficult to ascertain because of a complication of circumstances, the best way to discover it, will be to compare the former and the present value of it with the money of other nations which has suffered no variation. This the course of exchange will perform with the greatest exactness.

V. Artists pretend, that the precious metals, when absolutely pure from any mixture, are not of sufficient hardness to constitute a solid and lasting coin. They are found also in the mines mixed with other metals of a baser nature; and the bringing them to a state of perfect purity occasions an unnecessary expense. To avoid, therefore, the inconvenience of employing them in all their purity, people have adopted the expedient of mixing them with a determinate proportion of other metals, which hurts neither their fusibility, malleability, beauty, nor lustre. This metal is called alloy: and, being considered only as a support to the principal metal, is accounted of no value in itself. So that eleven ounces of gold, when mixed with one ounce of silver, acquires by that addition no augmentation of value whatever.

This being the case, we shall, as much as possible, overlook the existence of alloy, in speaking of money, in order to render language less subject to ambiguity.

2. Incapacities of the metals to perform the office of an invariable Measure of Value.

I. Were there but one species of such a substance as we have represented gold and silver to be; were there but one metal possessing the qualities of purity, divisibility, and durability; the inconveniences in the use of it for money would be fewer by far than they are found to be as matters stand.

Such a metal might then, by an unlimited division into parts exactly equal, be made to serve as a tolerably steady and universal measure. But the rivalry between the metals, and the perfect equality which is found between all their physical qualities, so far as regards purity and divisibility, render them so equally well adapted to serve as the common measure of value, that they are universally admitted to pass current as money.

What is the consequence of this? that the one measures the value of the other, as well as that of every other thing. Now the moment any measure begins to be measured by another, whose proportion to it is not physically, perpetually, and invariably the same, all the usefulness of such a measure is lost. An example will make this plain.

A foot of measure is a determinate length. An English foot may be compared with the Paris foot, or with that of the Rhine; that is to say, it may be measured by them: and the proportion between their lengths may be expressed in numbers, which proportion will be the same perpetually. The measuring the one by the other will occasion no uncertainty; and we may speak of length by Paris feet, and be perfectly well understood by others who are used to measure by the English foot, or by the foot of the Rhine.

But suppose that a youth of 12 years old takes it into his head to measure from time to time, as he advances in age, by the length of his own foot, and that he divides this growing foot into inches and decimals: what can be learned from his account of measures? As he increases in years, his foot, inches, and subdivisions, will be gradually lengthening; and were every man to follow his example, and measure by his own foot, then the foot of a measure now established would totally cease to be of any utility.

This is just the case with the two metals. There is no determinate invariable proportion between their value; and the consequence of this is, that when they are both taken for measuring the value of other things, the things to be measured, like lengths to be measured by the young man's foot, without changing their relative proportion between themselves, change, however, with respect to the denominations of both their measures. An example will make this plain.

Let us suppose an ox to be worth 3000 pounds weight of wheat, and the one and the other to be worth an ounce of gold, and an ounce of gold to be worth exactly 15 ounces of silver: if the case should happen, that the proportional value between gold and silver should come to be as 14 is to 1, would not the ox, and consequently the wheat, be estimated at less in silver, and more in gold, than formerly? Farther, Would it be in the power of any state to prevent this variation in the measure of the value of oxen and wheat, without putting into the unit of their money less silver and more gold than formerly?

If therefore any particular state should fix the standard of the unit of their money to one species of the metals, while in fact both the one and the other are actually employed in measuring value; does not such a state resemble the young man who measures all by his growing foot? For, if silver, for example, be retained as the standard, while it is gaining upon gold one-fifteenth additional value: and if gold continue all the while to determine the value of things as well as silver; it is plain, that, to all intents and purposes, this silver measure is lengthening daily like the young man's foot, since the same weight of it must become every day equivalent to more and more of the same commodity; notwithstanding that we suppose the same proportion to subsist, without the least variation, between that commodity and every other species of things alienable.

Buying and selling are purely conventional, and no man is obliged to give his merchandise at what may be supposed to be the proportion of its worth. The use, therefore, of an universal measure, is to mark, not only the relative value of the things to which it is applied as a measure, but to discover in an instant the proportion between the value of those, and of every other commodity valued by a determinate measure in all the countries of the world.

Were pounds sterling, livres, florins, piastres, &c., which are all money of account, invariable in their values, what a facility would it produce in all conversions! what an assistance to trade! But as they are all limited or fixed to coins, and consequently vary from time to time, this example shows the utility of the invariable measure which we have described.

There is another circumstance which incapacitates the metals from performing the office of money; the substance of which the coin is made, is a commodity which rises and sinks in its value with respect to other commodities, according to the wants, competition, and caprices of mankind. The advantage, therefore, found in putting an intrinsic value into that substance which performs the function of money of account, is compensated by the instability of that intrinsic value; and the advantage obtained by the stability of paper, or symbolical money, is compensated by the defect it commonly has of not being at all times susceptible of realization into solid property or intrinsic value.

In order, therefore, to render material money more perfect, this quality of metal, that is, of a commodity, should be taken from it; and in order to render paper money more perfect, it ought to be made to circulate upon metallic or land security.

II. There are several smaller inconveniences accompanying the use of the metals, which we shall here shortly enumerate.

1st. No money made of gold or silver can circulate long, without losing its weight, although it all along preserves the same denomination. This represents the contracting a pair of compasses which had been rightly adjusted to the scale.

2nd. Another inconvenience proceeds from the fabrication of money. Supposing the faith of princes who coin money to be inviolable, and the probity as well as capacity of those to whom they commit the inspection of the business of the metals to be sufficient, it is hardly possible for workmen to render every piece exactly of a proper weight, or to preserve the due proportion between pieces of different denominations, that is to say, to make every ten sixpences exactly of the same weight with every crown piece and every five shillings struck in a coining. In proportion to such inaccuracies, the parts of the scale become unequal.

3rd. Another inconvenience, and far from being inconsiderable, flows from the expense requisite for the coining of money. This expense adds to its value as a manufacture, without adding any thing to its weight.

4th. The last inconvenience is, that by fixing the money of account entirely to the coin, without having any independent common measure, (to mark and control these deviations from mathematical exactness, which are either inseparable from the metals themselves, or from the fabrication of them), the whole measure of value, and all the relative interests of debtors and creditors, become at the disposal not only of workmen in the mint, of Jews who deal in money, of clippers and washers in coin; but they are also entirely at the mercy of princes who have the right of coining, and who have frequently also the right of raising or debasing the standard of the coin, according as they find it most for their present and temporary interest.

3. Methods which may be proposed for lessening the several Inconveniences to which Material Money is liable.

The inconveniences from the variation in the relative value value of the metals to one another, may in some measure be obviated by the following expedients:

1st. By considering one only as the standard, and leaving the other to seek its own value like any other commodity.

2nd. By considering one only as the standard, and fixing the value of the other from time to time by authority, according as the market price of the metals shall vary.

3rd. By fixing the standard of the unit according to the mean proportion of the metals, attaching it to neither; regulating the coin accordingly; and upon every considerable variation in the proportion between them, either to make a new coinage, or to raise the denomination of one of the species, and lower it in the other in order to preserve the unit exactly in the mean proportion between the gold and silver.

4th. To have two units and two standards, one of gold and one of silver, and to allow every body to stipulate in either.

5th. Or last of all, To oblige all debtors to pay one half in gold, and one half in the silver standard.

4. Variations to which the Value of the Money unit is exposed from every Disorder in the Coin.

Let us suppose, at present, the only disorder to consist in a want of the due proportion between the gold and silver in the coin.

This proportion can only be established by the market price of the metals; because an augmentation and rise in the demand for gold or silver has the effect of augmenting the value of the metal demanded. Let us suppose, that to-day one pound of gold may buy fifteen pounds of silver: if to-morrow there be a high demand for silver, a competition among merchants to have silver for gold will ensue: they will contend who shall get the silver at the rate of 15 pounds for one of gold: this will raise the price of it; and in proportion to their views of profit, some will accept of less than the 15 pounds. This is plainly a rise in the silver, more properly than a fall in the gold; because it is the competition for the silver which has occasioned the variation in the former proportion between the metals.

Let us now suppose, that a state, having with great exactness examined the proportion of the metals in the market, and having determined the precise quantity of each for realizing or representing the money unit, shall execute a most exact coinage of gold and silver coin. As long as that proportion continues unvaried in the market, no inconvenience can result from that quarter in making use of metals for money of account.

But let us suppose the proportion to change; that the silver, for example, shall rise in its value with regard to gold: will it not follow, from that moment, that the unit realized in the silver, will become of more value than the unit realized in the gold coin?

But as the law has ordered them to pass as equivalents for one another, and as debtors have always the option of paying in what legal coin they think fit, will they not all choose to pay in gold; and will not then the silver coin be melted down and exported, in order to be sold as bullion, above the value it bears when it circulates in coin? Will not this paying in gold also really diminish the value of the money unit, since upon this variation every thing must sell for more gold than before, as we have already observed.

Consequently, merchandises, which have not varied in their relative value to any other thing but to gold and silver, must be measured by the mean proportion of the metals; and the application of any other measure to them is altering the standard. If they are measured by the gold, the standard is debased; if by silver, it is raised.

If, to prevent the inconvenience of melting down the silver, the state shall give up affixing the value of their unit to both species at once, and shall fix it to one, leaving the other to seek its price as any other commodity; in that case, no doubt, the melting down of the coin will be prevented: but will this ever restore the value of the money unit to its former standard? Would it, for example, in the foregoing supposition, raise the debased value of the money unit in the gold coin, if that species were declared to be the standard? It would, indeed, render silver coin purely a merchandise, and, by allowing it to seek its value, would certainly prevent it from being melted down as before; because the pieces would rise conventionally in their denomination; or an agio, as it is called, would be taken in payments made in silver; but the gold would not; on that account, rise in its value, or begin to purchase any more merchandise than before. Were therefore the standard fixed to the gold, would not this be an arbitrary and a violent revolution in the value of the money unit, and a debasement of the standard?

If, on the other hand, the state should fix the standard to the silver, which we suppose to have risen in its value, would that ever sink the advanced value which the silver coin had gained above the worth of the former standard unit? and would not this be a violent and an arbitrary revolution in the value of the money unit, and a raising of the standard?

The only expedient, therefore, is, in such a case, to fix the numerary unit to neither of the metals, but to contrive a way to make it fluctuate in a mean proportion between them; which is in effect the introduction of a pure ideal money of account.

The regulation of fixing the unit by the mean proportion, ought to take place at the instant the standard unit is fixed with exactness both to the gold and silver. If it be introduced long after the market proportion between the metals has deviated from the proportion established in the coin; and if the new regulation is made to have a retrospect, with regard to the acquitting of permanent contracts entered into while the value of the money unit had attached itself to the lowest currency in consequence of the principle above laid down: then the restoring the money unit to that standard where it ought to have remained (to wit, to the mean proportion) is an injury to all debtors, who have contracted since the time that the proportion of the metals began to vary.

This is clear from the former reasoning. The moment the market price of the metals differs from that in the coin, every one who has payments to make, pays in that species which is the highest rated in the coin; consequently, he who lends, lends in that species. If after the contract, therefore, the unit is car- ried up to the mean proportion, this must be a loss to him who had borrowed.

From this we may perceive, why there is less inconvenience from the varying of the proportion of the metals, where the standard is fixed to one of them, than when it is fixed to both. In the first case, it is at least uncertain whether the standard or the merchandise species is to rise; consequently, it is uncertain whether the debtors or the creditors are to gain by a variation. If the standard species should rise, the creditors will gain; if the merchandise species rises, the debtors will gain; but when the unit is attached to both species, then the creditors never can gain, let the metals vary as they will; if silver rises, then debtors will pay in gold; if gold rises, the debtors will pay in silver. But whether the unit be attached to one or to both species, the infallible consequence of a variation is, that one half of the difference is either gained or lost by debtors and creditors. The invariable unit is constantly the mean proportional between the two measures.

5. How the Variations of the intrinsic value of the Unit of Money must affect all the domestic Interests of a Nation.

If the changing the content of the bushel by which grain is measured, would affect the interest of those who are obliged to pay, or who are entitled to receive, a certain number of bushels of grain for the rent of lands; in the same manner must every variation in the value of the unit of account affect all persons who, in permanent contracts, are obliged to make payments, or who are obliged to receive sums of money stipulated in multiples or in fractions of that money unit.

Every variation, therefore, upon the intrinsic value of the money unit, has the effect of benefiting the class of creditors at the expense of debtors, or vice versa.

This consequence is deduced from an obvious principle. Money is more or less valuable in proportion as it can purchase more or less of every kind of merchandise. Now, without entering anew into the causes of the rise and fall of prices, it is agreed upon all hands, that whether an augmentation of the general mass of money in circulation has the effect of raising prices in general or not, any augmentation of the quantity of the metals appointed to be put into the money unit, must at least affect the value of that money unit, and make it purchase more of any commodity than before: that is to say, 113 grains of fine gold, the present weight of a pound sterling in gold, can buy 113 pounds of flour; were the pound sterling raised to 114 grains of the same metal, it would buy 114 pounds of flour; consequently, were the pound sterling augmented by one grain of gold, every miller who paid a rent of ten pounds a-year, would be obliged to sell 1140 pounds of his flour, in order to procure ten pounds to pay his rent, in place of 1130 pounds of flour, which he sold formerly to procure the same sum; consequently, by this innovation, the miller must lose yearly ten pounds of flour, which his master consequently must gain. From this example, it is plain, that every augmentation of

metals put into the pound sterling, either of silver or gold, must imply an advantage to the whole class of creditors who are paid in pounds sterling, and consequently must be a proportional loss to all debtors who must pay by the same denomination.

6. Of the Disorder in the British Coin, so far as it occasions the melting down or the exporting of the Specie.

The defects in the British coin are three.

1mo. The proportion between the gold and silver in it is found to be as 1 to 15½, whereas the market price may be supposed to be nearly as 1 to 14½.

2do. Great part of the current money is worn and light.

3rd. From the second defect proceeds the third, to wit, that there are several currencies in circulation which pass for the same value, without being of the same weight.

4to. From all these defects results the last and greatest inconvenience, to wit, that some innovation must be made, in order to set matters on a right footing.

The English, besides the unit of their money which they call the pound sterling, have also the unit of their weight for weighing the precious metals.

This is called the pound troy, and consists of 12 ounces, every ounce of 20 pennyweights, and every pennyweight of 24 grains. The pound troy, therefore, consists of 240 pennyweights and 5760 grains.

The fineness of the silver is reckoned by the number of ounces and pennyweights of the pure metal in the pound troy of the composed mass; or, in other words, the pound troy, which contains 5760 grains of standard silver, contains 5328 grains of fine silver, and 432 grains of copper, called alloy.

Thus standard silver is 11 ounces 2 pennyweights of fine silver in the pound troy to 18 pennyweights copper, or 111 parts fine silver to nine parts alloy.

Standard gold is 11 ounces fine to 1 ounce silver or copper employed for alloy, which together make the pound troy; consequently, the pound troy of standard gold contains 5280 grains fine, and 480 grains alloy, which alloy is reckoned of no value.

This pound of standard silver is ordered, by statute of the 43d of Elizabeth, to be coined into 62 shillings, 20 of which make the pound sterling; consequently, the 20 shillings contain 1718.7 grains of fine silver, and 1858.66 standard silver.

The pound troy of standard gold, 11 fine, is ordered, by an act of King Charles II, to be cut into 44½ guineas: that is to say, every guinea contains 129.43 grains of standard gold, and 118.644 of fine gold; and the pound sterling, which is 3½ of the guinea, contains 112.994, which we may state at 113 grains of fine gold.

The coinage in England is entirely defrayed at the expense of the state. The mint price for the metals is the very same with the price of the coin. Whoever carries to the mint an ounce of standard silver, receives for it in silver coin 5s. 2d. or 62d.; whoever carries an ounce of standard gold receives in gold coin 3l. 17s. 10½d., the one and the other making exactly an ounce of the same fineness with the bullion. Coin, therefore, can have no value in the market above bullion; consequently, no loss can be incurred by those who melt it down.

When the guinea was first struck, the government (not inclining to fix the pound sterling to the gold coin of the nation) fixed the guinea at 20 shillings, (which was then below its proportion to the silver), leaving it to seek its own price above that value, according to the course of the market.

By this regulation no harm was done to the English silver standard; because the guinea, or 118.644 grains fine gold, being worth more, at that time, than 20 shillings, or 1718.7 grains fine silver, no debtor would pay with gold at its standard value; and whatever it was received for above that price was purely conventional.

Accordingly guineas sought their own price until the year 1723, that they were fixed anew, not below their value as at first, but at what was then reckoned their exact value, according to the proportion of the metals, viz. at 21 shillings; and at this they were ordered to pass current in all payments.

This operation had the effect of making the gold a standard as well as the silver. Debtors then paid indifferently in gold as well as in silver, because both were supposed to be of the same intrinsic as well as current value; in which case no inconvenience could follow upon this regulation. But in time silver came to be more demanded; the making of plate began to prevail more than formerly, and the exportation of silver to the East Indies increasing yearly, made the demand for it greater, or perhaps brought its quantity to be proportionally less than before. This changed the proportion of the metals; and by slow degrees they have come from that of 1 to 15.2 (the proportion they were supposed to have when the guineas were fixed and made a lawful money at 21 shillings) to that of 14.5, the present supposed proportion.

The consequence of this has been, that the same guinea which was worth 1804.6 grams fine silver, at the time it was fixed at 21s. is now worth no more than 1719.9 grams of fine silver according to the proportion of 14.5 to 1.

Consequently debtors, who have always the option of the legal species in paying their debts, will pay pounds sterling no more in silver but in gold; and as the gold pounds they pay in are not intrinsically worth the silver pounds they paid in formerly according to the statute of Elizabeth, it follows that the pound sterling in silver is really no more the standard, since nobody will pay at that rate, and since nobody can be compelled to do it.

Besides this want of proportion between the metals, the silver coined before the reign of George I. is now become light by circulation; and the guineas coined by all the princes since Charles II. pass by tale, though many of them are considerably diminished in their weight.

Let us now examine what profit the want of proportion and the want of weight in the coin can afford to the money-jobbers in melting it down or exporting it.

Did every body consider coin only as the measure for reckoning value, without attending to its value as a metal, the deviations of gold and silver coin from perfect exactness, either as to proportion or weight, would occasion little inconvenience.

Great numbers, indeed, in every modern society, consider coin in no other light than that of money of account; and have great difficulty to comprehend what difference any one can find between a light shilling and a heavy one, or what inconvenience there can possibly result from a guinea's being some grains of fine gold too light to be worth 21 shillings standard weight. And did every one think in the same way, there would be no occasion for coin of the precious metals at all; neither copper, iron, or paper, would keep the reckoning as well as gold and silver.

But although there be many who look no farther than at the stamp on the coin, there are others whose sole business it is to examine its intrinsic worth as a commodity, and to profit of every irregularity in the weight and proportion of metals.

By the very institution of coinage, it is implied, that every piece of the same metal, and same denomination with regard to the money-unit, shall pass current for the same value.

It is, therefore, the employment of money-jobbers, to examine, with a scrupulous exactness, the precise weight of every piece of coin which comes into their hands.

The first object of their attention is, the price of the metals in the market: a jobber finds, at present, that with 14.5 pounds of fine silver bullion, he can buy one pound of fine gold bullion.

He therefore buys up with gold coin all the new silver as fast as it is coined, of which he can get at the rate of 15.2 pounds for one in gold; these 15.2 pounds silver coin he melts down into bullion, and converts that back into gold bullion, giving at the rate of only 14.5 pounds for one.

By this operation he remains with the value of \( \frac{1}{15} \) of one pound weight of silver bullion clear profit upon the 15.2 pounds he bought; which is \( \frac{1}{15} \) is really lost by the man who inadvertently coined silver at the mint, and gave it to the money-jobber for his gold. Thus the state loses the expense of the coining, and the public the convenience of change for their guineas.

But here it may be asked, Why should the money-jobber melt down the silver coin? can he not buy gold with it as well without melting it down? He cannot; because when it is in coin he cannot avail himself of its being new and weighty. Coin goes by tale, not by weight; therefore, were he to come to market with his new silver coin, gold bullion being sold at the mint price, we shall suppose, viz. at 3l. 17s. 10½d. sterling money per ounce, he would be obliged to pay the price of what he bought with heavy money, which he can do with light.

He therefore melts down the new silver coin, and sells it for bullion, at so many pence an ounce; the price of which bullion is, in the English market, always above the price of silver at the mint, for the reasons now to be given.

When you sell standard silver bullion at the mint, you are to be paid in weighty money; that is, you receive for your bullion the very same weight in standard coin; the coining costs nothing: but when you sell bullion in the market you are paid in worn-out silver, silver, in gold, in bank notes, in short, in every species of lawful current money. Now all these payments have some defect: the silver you are paid with is worn and light; the gold you are paid with is overrated, and perhaps also light; and the bank notes must have the same value with the specie with which the bank pays them; that is, with light silver or overrated gold.

It is for these reasons, that silver bullion, which is bought by the mint at 5s. 2d. per ounce of heavy silver money, may be bought at market at 6s. pence the ounce in light silver, overrated gold, or bank notes, which is the same thing.

Further, we have seen how the imposition of coinage has the effect of raising coin above the value of bullion, by adding a value to it which it had not as a metal.

Just so, when the unit is once affixed to certain determined quantities of both metals, if one of the metals should afterwards rise in value in the market, the coin made of that metal must lose a part of its value as coin, although it retains it as a metal. Consequently, as in the first case it acquired an additional value by being coined, it must now acquire an additional value by being melted down. From this we may conclude that when the standard is affixed to both the metals in the coin, and when the proportion of that value is not made to follow the price of the market, that species which rises in the market is melted down, and the bullion is sold for a price as much exceeding the mint price as the metal has risen in its value.

If, therefore, in England, the price of silver bullion is found to be at 6s. pence the ounce, while at the mint it is rated at 6s.; this proves that silver has risen above the proportion observed in the coin, and that all coin of standard weight may consequently be melted down with a profit of \(\frac{1}{6}\). But as there are several other circumstances to be attended to which regulate and influence the price of bullion, we shall here pass them in review, the better to discover the nature of this disorder in the English coin, and the advantages which money-jobbers may draw from it.

The price of bullion, like that of every other merchandise, is regulated by the value of the money it is paid with.

If bullion, therefore, sells in England for 6s. pence an ounce paid in silver coin, it must sell for 6s. shillings the pound troy; that is to say, the shillings it is commonly paid with do not exceed the weight of \(\frac{1}{6}\) of a pound troy; for if the 6s. shillings with which the pound of bullion is paid weigh more than a pound troy, it will be a shorter and better way for him who wants bullion to melt down the shillings and make use of the metal, than to go to market with them in order to get less.

We may, therefore, be very certain, that no man will buy silver bullion at 6s. pence an ounce, with any shilling which weighs above \(\frac{1}{6}\) of a pound troy.

We have gone upon the supposition that the ordinary price of bullion in the English market is 6s. pence per ounce. This has been done upon the authority of some late writers on this subject: it is now proper to point out the causes which may make it deviate from that value.

I. It may, and certainly will vary, in the price, according as the currency is better or worse. When the expense of a war, or a wrong balance of trade, have carried off a great many heavy guineas, it is natural that bullion should rise; because then it will be paid for more commonly in light gold and silver; that is to say, with pounds sterling, below the value of 113 grains fine gold, the worth of the pound sterling in new guineas.

II. This wrong balance of trade, or a demand for bullion abroad, becoming very great, may occasion a scarcity of the metals in the market, as well as a scarcity of the coin; consequently, an advanced price must be given for it in proportion to the greatness and height of the demand. In this case, both the specie and the bullion must be bought with paper. But the rise in the price of bullion proceeds from the demand for the metals and the competition between merchants to procure them, and not because the paper given as the price is at all of inferior value to the specie. The least discredit of this kind would not tend to diminish the value of the paper; it would annihilate it at once. Therefore, since the metals must be had, and that the paper cannot supply the want of them when they are to be exported, the price rises in proportion to the difficulties in finding metals elsewhere than in the English market.

III. A sudden call for bullion, for the making of plate. A goldsmith can well afford to give 67 pence for an ounce of silver, that is to say, he can afford to give one pound of gold for 14 pounds of silver, and perhaps for less, notwithstanding that what he gives be more than the ordinary proportion between the metals, because he indemnifies himself amply by the price of his workmanship; just as a tavern keeper will pay any price for a fine fish, because, like the goldsmith, he buys for other people.

IV. The mint price has as great an effect in bringing down the price of bullion, as exchange has in raising it. In countries where the metals in the coin are justly proportioned, where all the currencies are of legal weight, and where coinage is imposed, the operations of trade make the price of bullion constantly to fluctuate between the value of the coin and the mint price of the metals.

Now let us suppose that the current price of silver bullion in the market is 6s. pence the ounce, paid in lawful money, no matter of what weight or of what metal. Upon this the money-jobber falls to work. All shillings which are above \(\frac{1}{6}\) of a pound troy, he throws into his melting pot, and sells them as bullion for 6s. per ounce; all those which are below that weight he carries to market, and buys bullion with them at 6s. per ounce.

What is the consequence of this?

That those who sell the bullion, finding the shillings which the money-jobber pays with perhaps not above \(\frac{1}{6}\) of a pound troy, they on their side raise the price of the bullion to 6s. the ounce.

This makes new work for the money-jobber; for he must always gain. He now weighs all shillings as they come to hand; and as formerly he threw into his melting pot those only which were worth more than \(\frac{1}{6}\) of a pound troy, he now throws in all that are in va- He then sells the melted shillings at 66d. the ounce, and buys bullion with the light ones at the same price.

This is the consequence of ever permitting any species of coin to pass by the authority of the stamp, without controlling it at the same time by the weight; and this is the manner in which money-jobbers gain by the currency of light money.

It is no argument against this exposition of the matter to say, that silver bullion is seldom bought with silver coin; because the pence in new guineas are worth no more than the pence of shillings of 6½ in the pound troy; that is to say, that 240 pence contained in ¼ of a new guinea, and 240 pence contained in 28 shillings of 6½ to the pound troy, differ no more in the intrinsic value than 0.83 of a grain of fine silver upon the whole, which is a mere trifle.

Whenever, therefore, shillings come below the weight of 6½ of a pound troy, then there is an advantage in changing them for new guineas; and when that is the case, the new guineas will be melted down, and profit will be found in selling them for bullion, upon the principles we have just been explaining.

We have already given a specimen of the domestic operations of the money-jobbers; but these are not the most prejudicial to national concerns. The jobbers may be supposed to be Englishmen; and in that case the profit they make remains at home; but whenever there is a call for bullion to pay the balance of trade, it is evident that this will be paid in silver coin; never in gold, if heavy silver can be got; and this again carries away the silver coin, and renders it at home so rare, that great inconveniences are found want of the lesser denominations of it. The loss, however, here is confined to an inconvenience; because the balance of trade being a debt which must be paid, we do not consider the exportation of the silver for that purpose as any consequence of the disorder of the coin. But besides this exportation which is necessary, there are others which are arbitrary, and which are made only with a view to profit of the wrong proportion.

When the money-jobbers find difficulty in carrying on the traffic we have described, in the English market, because of the competition among themselves, they carry the silver coin of the country, and sell it abroad for gold, upon the same principles that the East India Company send silver to China in order to purchase gold.

It may be demanded, What hurt this trade can do to Britain, since those who export silver bring back the same value in gold? Were this trade carried on by natives, there would be no loss; because they would bring home gold for the whole intrinsic value of the silver. But if we suppose foreigners sending over gold to be coined at the English mint, and changing the gold into English silver coin, and then carrying off this coin, it is plain that they must gain the difference, as well as the money-jobbers. But it may be answered, That having given gold for silver at the rate of the mint, they have given value for what they have received. Very right; but so did Sir Hans Sloane, when he paid five guineas for an overgrown toad; he got value for his money; but it was value only to himself. Just so, whenever the English government shall be obliged to restore the proportion of the metals (as they must do), this operation will annihilate that imaginary value which they have hitherto set upon gold; which imagination is the only thing which renders the exchange of their silver against the foreign gold equal.

But it is farther objected, that foreigners cannot carry off the heavy silver; because there is none to carry off. Very true; but then they have carried off a great quantity already: or if the English Jews have been too sharp to allow such a profit to fall to strangers, (which may or may not have been the case), then this disorder is an effectual stop to any more coining of silver for circulation.

7. Of the Disorder in the British Coin, so far as it affects the Value of the Pound Sterling Currency.

From what has been said, it is evident, that there must be found in England two legal pounds sterling, of different values; the one worth 113 grains of fine gold, the other worth 1718.7 grains of fine silver. We call them different: because these two portions of the precious metals are of different values all over Europe.

But besides these two different pounds sterling, which the change in the proportion of the metals has created, the other defects of the circulating coin produce similar effects. The guineas coined by all the princes since King Charles II. have been of the same standard weight and fineness, 44½ in a pound troy of standard gold ½ fine; these have been constantly wearing ever since they have been coined; and in proportion to their wearing they are of less value.

If, therefore, the new guineas are below the value of a pound sterling in silver, standard weight, the old must be of less value still. Here then is another currency, that is, another pound sterling; or indeed, more properly speaking, there are as many different pounds sterling as there are guineas of different weights. This is not all; the money-jobbers having carried off all the weighty silver, that which is worn with use, and reduced even below the standard of gold, forms one currency more, and totally destroys all determinate proportion between the money unit and the currencies which are supposed to represent it.

It may be asked, how, at this rate, any silver has remained in England? It is answered, that the few weighty shillings which still remain in circulation, have marvellously escaped the hands of the money-jobbers; and as to the rest, the rubbing and wearing of these pieces has done what the state might have done; that is to say, it has reduced them to their due proportion with the lightest gold.

The disorder, therefore, of the English coin has rendered the standard of a pound sterling quite uncertain. To say that it is 1718.7 grams of fine silver, is quite ideal. Who are paid in such pounds? To say that it is 113 grams of pure gold, may also not be true; because there are many currencies worse than the new guineas.

What then is the consequence of all this disorder? What effect has it upon the current value of a pound sterling? And which way can the value of that be determined?

The operations of trade bring value to an equation, notwithstanding the greatest irregularities possible; and value over all the world by the means of foreign exchange. This is a kind of ideal scale for measuring the British coin, although it has not all the properties of that described above.

Exchange considers the pound sterling as a value determined according to the combination of the values of all the different currencies, in proportion as payments are made in the one or the other; and as debtors generally take care to pay in the worst species they can, it consequently follows, that the value of the pound sterling should fall to that of the lowest currency.

Were there a sufficient quantity of worn gold and silver to acquit all bills of exchange, the pound sterling would come down to the value of them; but if the new gold be also necessary for that purpose, the value of it must be proportionably greater.

All these combinations are liquidated and compensated with one another, by the operations of trade and exchange; and the pound sterling, which is so different in itself, becomes thereby, in the eyes of commerce, a determinate unit; subject, however to variations, from which it never can be exempted.

Exchange, therefore, is one of the best measures for valuing a pound sterling, present currency. Here occurs a question:

Does the great quantity of paper money in England tend to diminish the value of the pound sterling?

We answer in the negative. Paper money is just as good as gold or silver money, and no better. The variation of the standard, as we have already said, must influence the interest of debtors and creditors proportionally everywhere. From this it follows, that all augmentation of the value of the money unit in the specie must hurt the debtors in the paper money; and all diminutions, on the other hand, must hurt the creditors in the paper money as well as everywhere else. The payments, therefore, made in paper money, never can contribute to the regulation of the standard of the pound sterling; it is the specie received in liquidation of that paper money which alone can contribute to mark the value of the British unit; because it is affixed to nothing else.

From this we may draw a principle, "That in countries where the money unit is entirely affixed to the coin, the actual value of it is not according to the legal standard of that coin, but according to the mean proportion of the actual worth of those currencies in which debts are paid.

From this we see the reason why the exchange between England and all other trading towns in Europe has long appeared so unfavourable. People calculate the real par, upon the supposition that a pound sterling is worth 1718.7 grains troy of fine silver, when in fact the currency is not perhaps worth 1638, the value of a new guinea in silver, at the market proportion of 1 to 14.5; that is to say, the currency is but 95.3 per cent. of the silver standard of the 43d of Elizabeth. No wonder then if the exchange be thought unfavourable.

From the principle we have just laid down, we may gather a confirmation of what we advanced concerning the cause of the advanced price of bullion in the English market.

When people buy bullion with current money at a determinate price, that operation, in conjunction with the course of exchange, ought naturally to mark the actual value of the pound sterling with great exactness.

If therefore the price of standard bullion in the English market, when no demand is found for the exportation of the metals, that is to say, when paper is found for paper upon exchange, and when merchants versed in these matters judge exchange (that is remittances) to be at par, if then silver bullion cannot be bought at a lower price than 65 pence the ounce, it is evident that this bullion might be bought with 65 pence in shillings, of which 65 might be coined out of the pound troy English standard silver; since 65 per ounce implies 65 shillings for the 12 ounces or pound troy.

This plainly shows how standard silver bullion should sell for 65 pence the ounce, in a country where the ounce of standard silver in the coin is worth no more than 62; and were the market price of bullion to stand uniformly at 65 pence per ounce, that would show the value of the pound sterling to be tolerably fixed. All the heavy silver coin is now carried off; because it was intrinsically worth more than the gold it passed for in currency. The silver therefore which remains is worn down to the market proportion of the metals, as has been said; that is to say, 20 shillings in silver currency are worth 113 grains of fine gold, at the proportion of 1 to 14.5 between gold and silver.

Now,

as 1 is to 14.5, so is 113 to 1638:

so the 20 shillings current weigh but 1638 grains fine silver, instead of 1718.7, which they ought to do according to the standard.

Now let us speak of standard silver, since we are examining how far the English coin must be worn by use.

The pound troy contains 5760 grains. This, according to the standard, is coined into 62 shillings; consequently, every shilling ought to weigh 92.9 grams.

Of such shillings it is impossible that ever standard bullion should sell at above 62 pence per ounce. If therefore such bullion sells for 65 pence, the shillings with which it is bought must weigh no more than 88.64 grams standard silver; that is, they must lose 4.29 grams, and are reduced to ⅛ of a pound troy.

But it is not necessary that bullion be bought with shillings: no stipulation of price is ever made farther, than at so many pence sterling per ounce. Does not this virtually determine the value of such currency with regard to all the currencies in Europe? Did a Spaniard, a Frenchman, or a Dutchman, know the exact quantity of silver bullion which can be bought in the London market for a pound sterling, would he inform himself any farther as to the intrinsic value of that money unit? would he not understand the value of it far better from that circumstance than by the course of any exchange, since exchange does not mark the intrinsic value of money, but only the value of that money transported from one place to another?

The price of bullion, therefore, when it is not influenced by extraordinary demand, (such as for the payment of a balance of trade, or for making an extraordinary Money.

traordinary provision of plate), but when it stands at what every body knows to be meant by the common market price, is a very tolerable measure of the value of the actual money standard in any country.

If it be therefore true, that a pound sterling cannot purchase above 1638 grains of fine silver bullion, it will require not a little logic to prove that it is really, or has been for these many years, worth any more; notwithstanding that the standard weight of it in England is regulated by the laws of the kingdom at 1718.7 grains of fine silver.

If to this valuation of the pound sterling drawn from the price of bullion, we add the other drawn from the course of exchange; and by this we find that when paper is found for paper upon exchange, a pound sterling cannot purchase above 1638 grains of fine silver in any country in Europe: upon these two authorities we may very safely conclude (as to the matter of fact at least) that the pound sterling is not worth more, either in London or in any other trading city; and if this be the case, it is just worth 20 shillings of 6½ to the pound troy.

If therefore the mint were to coin shillings at that rate, and pay for silver bullion at the market price, that is, at the rate of 6½ pence per ounce in those new coined shillings, they would be in proportion to the gold; silver would be carried to the mint equally with gold, and would be as little subject to be exported or melted down.

It may be inquired in this place, how far the coining the pound troy into 6½ shillings is contrary to the laws of England?

The moment a state pronounces a certain quantity of gold to be worth a certain quantity of silver, and orders these respective quantities of each metal to be received as equivalents of each other, and as lawful money in payments, that moment gold is made a standard as much as silver. If therefore too small a quantity of gold be ordered or permitted to be considered as an equivalent for the unit, the silver standard is from that moment debased; or indeed, more properly speaking, all silver money is from that moment proscribed; for who, from that time, will ever pay in silver, when he can pay cheaper in gold? Gold, therefore, by such a law, is made the standard, and all declarations to the contrary are against the matter of fact.

Were the king, therefore, to coin silver at 6½ shillings in the pound, it is demonstration, that by such an act he would commit no adulteration upon the standard: the adulteration is already committed. The standard has descended to where it is by slow degrees, and by the operation of political causes only; and nothing prevents it from falling lower but the standard of the gold coin. Let guineas be now left to seek their value as they did formerly, and let light silver continue to go by tale, we shall see the guineas up at 30 shillings in 20 years time, as was the case in 1695.

It is as absurd to say that the standard of Queen Elizabeth has not been debased by enacting that the English unit shall be acquitted with 113 grains of fine gold, as it would be to affirm that it would not be debased from what it is at present by enacting that a pound of butter should everywhere be received in payment for a pound sterling; although the pound sterling should continue to consist of three ounces, 17 pennyweights, and 10 grains of standard silver, according to the statute of the 43d of Elizabeth. In that case, most debtors would pay in butter; and silver would, as at present, acquire a conventional value as a metal, but would be looked upon no longer as a standard, or as money.

If therefore, by the law of England, a pound sterling must consist of 1718.7 grains troy of fine silver; by the law of England also, 113 grains of gold must be of the same value: but no law can establish that proportion; consequently, in which ever way a reformation be brought about, some law must be reversed; consequently, expediency, and not compliance with law, must be the motive in reforming the abuse.

From what has been said, it is not at all surprising that the pound sterling should in fact be reduced nearly to the value of the gold. Whether it ought to be kept at that value is another question. All that we here decide is, that coining the pound troy into 6½ shillings would restore the proportion of the metals, and render both species common in circulation. But restoring the weight and proportion of the coin is not the difficulty which prevents a reformation of the English coinage.

8. Circumstances to be attended to in a New Regulation of the British Coin.

To people who do not understand the nature of such operations, it may have an air of justice to support the unit at what is commonly believed to be the standard of Queen Elizabeth, viz. at 1718.7 grains of fine silver.

The regulating the standard of both silver and gold to ¼ fine, and the pound sterling to four ounces standard silver, as it stood during the reign of Queen Mary I. has also its advantages, as Mr Harris has observed. It makes the crown-piece to weigh just one ounce, the shilling four pennyweights, and the penny eight grains: consequently, were the new statute to bear, that the weight of the coin should regulate its currency upon certain occasions, the having the pieces adjusted to certain aliquot parts of weight would make weighing easy, and would accustom the common people to judge of the value of money by its weight, and not by the stamp.

In that case, there might be a conveniency in striking the gold coins of the same weight with the silver; because the proportion of their values would then constantly be the same with the proportion of the metals. The gold crowns would be worth at present, 3l. 12s. 6d. the half-crowns 1l. 16s. 2d. the gold shillings 1s. 6d. and the half 7s. 3d. This was anciently the practice in the Spanish mints.

The interests within the state can be nowise perfectly protected, but by permitting conversions of value from the old to the new standard, whatever it be, and by regulating the footing of such conversions by act of parliament, according to circumstances.

For this purpose, we shall examine those interests which will chiefly merit the attention of government, when they form a regulation for the future of acquir- ting permanent contracts already entered into. Such may be contracted afterwards will naturally follow the new standard.

The landed interest is no doubt the most considerable in the nation. Let us therefore examine, in the first place, what regulations it may be proper to make, in order to do justice to this great class, with respect to the land tax on one hand, and with respect to their lessees on the other.

The valuation of the lands of England was made many years ago, and reasonably ought to be supported at the real value of the pound sterling at that time, according to the principles already laid down. The general valuation, therefore, of the whole kingdom will rise according to this scheme. This will be considered as an injustice; and no doubt it would be so, if for the future, the land tax be imposed as heretofore, without attending to this circumstance; but as that imposition is annual, as it is laid on by the landed interest itself, who compose the parliament, it is to be supposed that this great class will at least take care of their own interest.

Were the valuation of the lands to be stated according to the valuation of the pound sterling of 1718.7 grains of silver, which is commonly supposed to be the standard of Elizabeth, there would be no great injury done; this would raise the valuation only 5 per cent. and the land tax in proportion.

There is no class of inhabitants in all England so much at their ease, and so free from taxes, as the class of farmers. By living in the country, and by consuming the fruits of the earth without their suffering any alienation, they avoid the effect of many excises, which, by those who live in corporations, are felt upon many articles of their consumption, as well as on those which are immediately loaded with these impositions. For this reason it will not, perhaps, appear unreasonable, if the additional 5 per cent. on the land tax were thrown upon this class, and not upon the landlords.

With respect to leases, it may be observed, that we have gone upon the supposition that the pound sterling in the year 1728 was worth 1718.7 grains of fine silver, and 113 grains of fine gold.

There would be no injustice done the lessees of all the lands in the kingdom, were their rents to be fixed at the mean proportion of these values. We have observed how the pound sterling has been gradually diminishing in its worth from that time by the gradual rise of the silver. This mean proportion, therefore, will nearly answer to what the value of the pound sterling was in 1743; supposing the rise of the silver to have been uniform.

It may be farther alleged in favour of the landlords, that the gradual debasement of the standard has been more prejudicial to their interest in letting their lands, than to the farmers in disposing of the fruits of them. Proprietors cannot so easily raise their rents upon new leases, as farmers can raise the prices of their grain according to the debasement of the value of the currency.

The pound sterling, thus regulated at the mean proportion of its worth, as it stands at present, and as it stood in 1728, may be realized in 1678.6 grains of fine silver, and 115.76 grains fine gold; which is 2.4 per cent. above the value of the present currency. No injury, therefore, would be done to lessees, and no unreasonable gain would accrue to the landed interest, in appointing conversions of all land rents at 2½ per cent. above the value of the present currency.

Without a thorough knowledge of every circumstance relating to Great Britain, it is impossible to lay down any plan. It is sufficient here briefly to point out the principles upon which it must be regulated.

The next interest to be considered is that of the nation's creditors. The right regulation of their concerns will have a considerable influence in establishing public credit upon a solid basis, by making it appear to all the world, that no political operation upon the money of Great Britain can in any respect either benefit or prejudice the interest of those who lend their money upon the faith of the nation. The regulating also the interest of so great a body, will serve as a rule for all creditors who are in the same circumstances, and will upon other accounts be productive of greater advantages to the nation in time coming.

In 1749, a new regulation was made with the public creditors, when the interest of the whole redeemable national debt was reduced to 3 per cent. This circumstance infinitely facilitates the matter with respect to this class, since by this innovation of all former contracts, the whole national debt may be considered as contracted at, or posterior to, the 25th December 1749.

Were the state, by an arbitrary operation upon money (which every reformation must be), to diminish the value of the pound sterling in which the parliament at that time bound the nation to acquit those capitals and the interest upon them, would not all Europe say, That the British parliament had defrauded their creditors? If therefore the operation proposed to be performed should have a contrary tendency, viz. to augment the value of the pound sterling with which the parliament at that time bound the nation to acquit those capitals and interests, must not all Europe also agree, that the British parliament had defrauded the nation?

The convention with the ancient creditors of the state, who, in consequence of the debasement of the standard, might have justly claimed an indemnification for the loss upon their capitals, lent at a time when the pound sterling was at the value of the heavy silver, removes all causes of complaint from that quarter. There was in the year 1749 an innovation in all their contracts; and they are now to be considered as creditors only from the 25th of December of that year.

Let the value of the pound sterling be inquired into during one year preceding and one posterior to the transaction of the month of December 1749. The great sums borrowed and paid back by the nation during that period, will furnish data sufficient for that calculation. Let this value of the pound be specified in troy grains of fine silver and fine gold bullion, without mentioning any denomination of money according to the exact proportion of the metals at that time. And let this pound be called the pound of national credit.

This first operation being determined, let it be enacted, that the pound sterling, by which the state is to borrow borrow for the future, and that in which the creditors are to be paid, shall be the exact mean proportion between the quantities of gold and silver above specified, according to the actual proportion of the metals at the time such payments shall be made; or that the sums shall be borrowed or acquitted, one half in gold and one half in silver, at the respective requisitions of the creditors or of the state, when borrowing. All debts contracted posterior to 1749 may be made liable to conversions.

The consequence of this regulation will be the insensible establishment of a bank money. Nothing would be more difficult to establish, by a positive revolution, than such an invariable measure; and nothing will be found so easy as to let it establish itself by its own advantages. This bank money will be liable to much fewer inconveniences than that of Amsterdam. There the persons transacting must be upon the spot; here, the sterling currency may, every quarter of a year, be adjusted by the exchequer to this invariable standard, for the benefit of all debtors and creditors who incline to profit of the stability of this measure of value.

This scheme is liable to no inconvenience from the variation of the metals, let them be ever so frequent or hard to be determined; because upon every occasion where there is the smallest doubt as to the actual proportion, the option competent to creditors to be paid half in silver and half in gold will remove.

Such a regulation will also have this good effect, that it will give the nation more just ideas of the nature of money, and consequently of the influence it ought to have upon prices.

If the value of the pound sterling shall be found to have been by accident less in December 1749 than it is at present; or if at present the currency be found below what it has commonly been since 1749; in justice to the creditors, and to prevent all complaints, the nation may grant them the mean proportion of the value of the pound sterling from 1749 to 1760, or any other which may to parliament appear reasonable.

This regulation must appear equitable in the eyes of all Europe; and the strongest proof of it will be, that it will not produce the smallest effect prejudicial to the interest of the foreign creditors. The course of exchange with regard to them will stand precisely as before.

A Dutch, French, or German creditor, will receive the same value for his interest in the English stocks as heretofore. This must silence all clamours at home, being the most convincing proof, that the new regulation of the coin will have made no alteration upon the real value of any man's property, let him be debtor or creditor.

The interest of every other denomination of creditors, whose contracts are of a fresh date, may be regulated upon the same principles. But where debts are of an old standing, justice demands, that attention be had to the value of money at the time of contracting. Nothing but the stability of the English coin, when compared with that of other nations, can make such a proposal appear extraordinary. Nothing is better known in France than this stipulation added to obligations, Argent au cours de ce jour; that is to say, That the sum shall be paid in coin of the same intrinsic value with what has been lent. Why should such a clause be thought reasonable for guarding people against arbitrary operations upon the numerary value of the coin, and not be found just upon every occasion where the numerary value of it is found to be changed, let the cause be what it will?

The next interest we shall examine is that of trade. When men have attained the age of 21, they have no more occasion for guardians. This may be applied to traders; they can parry with their pen every inconvenience which may result to other people from the changes upon money, provided only the laws permit them to do themselves justice with respect to their engagements. This class demands no more than a right to convert all reciprocal obligations into denominations of coin of the same intrinsic value with those they have contracted in.

The next interest is that of buyers and sellers; that is, of manufacturers with regard to consumers, and of servants with respect to those who hire their personal service.

The interest of this class requires a most particular attention. They must, literally speaking, be put to school, and taught the first principles of their trade, which is buying and selling. They must learn to judge of price by the grains of silver and gold they receive; they are children of a mercantile mother, however warlike the father's disposition. If it be the interest of the state that their bodies be rendered robust and active, it is no less the interest of the state that their minds be instructed in the first principles of the trade they exercise.

For this purpose, tables of conversion from the old standard to the new must be made, and ordered to be put up in every market, in every shop. All duties, all excises, must be converted in the same manner. Uniformity must be made to appear everywhere. The smallest deviation from this will be a stumbling block to the multitude.

Not only the interest of the individuals of the class we are at present considering, demands the nation's care and attention in this particular; but the prosperity of trade, and the wellbeing of the nation, are also deeply interested in the execution.

The whole delicacy of the intricate combinations of commerce depends upon a just and equable vibration of prices, according as circumstances demand it. The more, therefore, the industrious classes are instructed in the principles which influence prices, the more easily will the machine move. A workman then learns to sink his price without regret, and can raise it without avidity. When principles are not understood, prices cannot gently fall, they must be pulled down; and merchants dare not suffer them to rise, for fear of abuse, even although the perfection of an infant manufacture should require it.

The last interest is that of the bank of England, which naturally must regulate that of every other.

Had this great company followed the example of other banks, and established a bank-money of an invariable standard as the measure of all their debts and credits, they would not have been liable to any inconvenience upon a variation of the standard. The bank of England was projected about the year 1694, at a time when the current money of the nation was in the greatest disorder, and government in the greatest distress both for money and for credit. Commerce was then at a very low ebb; and the only, or at least the most profitable, trade of any, was jobbing in coin, and carrying backwards and forwards the precious metals from Holland to England. Merchants profited also greatly from the effects which the utter disorder of the coin produced upon the price of merchandise.

At such a juncture the resolution was taken to make a new coinage; and upon the prospect of this, a company was found, who, for an exclusive charter to hold a bank for 13 years, willingly lent the government upwards of a million sterling at 8 per cent. (in light money we suppose), with a prospect of being repaid both interest and capital in heavy. This was not all; part of the money lent was to be applied for the establishment of the bank; and no less than 4000l. a-year was allowed to the company, above the full interest, for defraying the charge of the management.

Under such circumstances the introduction of bank-money was very superfluous, and would have been very impolitic. That invention is calculated against the raising of the standard: but here the bank profited of that rise in its quality of creditor for money lent; and took care not to commence debtor by circulating their paper until the effect of the new regulation took place in 1695; that is, after the general re-coining of all the clipped silver.

From that time till now, the bank of England has been the basis of the nation's credit, and with great reason has been constantly under the most intimate protection of every minister.

The value of the pound sterling, as we have seen, has been declining ever since the year 1601, the standard being fixed to silver during all that century, while the gold was constantly rising. No sooner had the proportion taken another turn, and silver begun to rise, than the government of England threw the standard virtually upon the gold, by regulating the value of the guineas at the exact proportion of the market. By these operations, however, the bank has constantly been a gainer (in its quality of debtor) upon all the paper in circulation; and therefore has lost nothing by not having established a bank-money.

The interest of this great company being established upon the principles we have endeavoured to explain, it is very evident, that the government of England never will take any step in the reformation of the coin which in its consequences can prove hurtful to the bank. Such a step would be contrary both to justice and to common sense. To make a regulation which, by raising the standard, would prove beneficial to the public creditors, to the prejudice of the bank (which we may call the public debtor), would be an operation upon public credit like that of a person who is at great pains to support his house by props on all sides, and who at the same time blows up the foundation of it with gunpowder.

We may therefore conclude, that with regard to the bank of England, as well as every other private banker, the notes which are constantly payable upon demand must be made liable to a conversion at the actual value of the pound sterling at the time of the new regulation.

That the bank will gain by this, is very certain; but the circulation of their notes is so swift, that it would be absurd to allow to the then possessors of them that indemnification which naturally should be shared by all those through whose hands they have passed, in proportion to the debasement of the standard during the time of their respective possession.

Besides these considerations, which are in common to all states, the government of Great Britain has one peculiar to itself. The interest of the bank, and that of the creditors, are diametrically opposite; every thing which raises the standard hurts the bank; every thing which can sink it hurts the creditors: and upon the right management of the one and the other, depends the solidity of public credit. For these reasons, without the most certain prospect of conducting a restitution of the standard to the general advantage as well as approbation of the nation, no minister will probably ever undertake so dangerous an operation.

We shall now propose an expedient which may remove at least some of the inconveniences which would result from so extensive an undertaking as that of regulating the respective interests in Great Britain by a positive law, upon a change in the value of their money of account.

Suppose then, that, before any change is made in the coin, government should enter into a transaction with the public creditors, and ascertain a permanent value for the pound sterling for the future, specified in a determined proportion of the fine metals in common bullion, without any regard to money of account, or to any coin whatever.

This preliminary step being taken, let the intended alteration of the standard be proclaimed a certain time before it is to commence. Let the nature of the change be clearly explained, and let all such as are engaged in contracts which are dissolvable at will upon the prestation stipulated, be acquitted between the parties, or innovated as they shall think proper; with certification, that, posterior to a certain day, the stipulations formerly entered into shall be binding according to the denominations of the money of account in the new standard.

As to permanent contracts, which cannot at once be fulfilled and dissolved, such as leases, the parliament may either prescribe the methods and terms of conversion; or a liberty may be given to the parties to annul the contract, upon the debtor's refusing to perform his agreement according to the new standard. Contracts, on the other hand, might remain stable, with respect to creditors who would be satisfied with payments made on the footing of the old standard. If the rise intended should not be very considerable, no great injustice can follow such a regulation.

Annuities are now thoroughly understood, and the value of them is brought to so nice a calculation, that nothing will be easier than to regulate these upon the footing of the value paid for them, or of the subject affected by them. If by the regulation, land rents are made to rise in denomination, the annuities charged upon them ought to rise in proportion; if in intrinsic value, the annuity should remain as it was. Let us now examine what regulations it may be proper to make by a new statute concerning the coin of Great Britain, in order to preserve always the same exact value of the pound sterling realized in gold and in silver, in spite of all the incapacities inherent in the metals to perform the functions of an invariable scale or measure of value.

1. The first point is to determine the exact number of grains of fine gold and fine silver which are to compose it, according to the then proportion of the metals in the London market.

2. To determine the proportion of these metals with the pound troy; and in regard that the standard of gold and silver is different, let the mint price of both metals be regulated according to the pound troy fine.

3. To fix the mint price within certain limits; that is to say, to leave to the king and council, by proclamation, to carry the mint price of bullion up to the value of the coin, as is the present regulation, or to sink it per cent. below that price, according as government shall incline to impose a duty upon coining.

4. To order, that silver and gold coin shall be struck of such denominations as the king shall think fit to appoint; in which the proportion of the metals above determined shall be constantly observed through every denomination of the coin, until necessity shall make a new general coinage unavoidable.

5. To have the number of grains of the fine metal in every piece marked upon the exergue, or upon the legend of the coin, in place of some initial letters of titles, which not one person in a thousand can decipher; and to make the coin of as compact a form as possible, diminishing the surface of it as much as is consistent with beauty.

6. That it shall be lawful for all contracting parties to stipulate their payments either in gold or silver coin, or to leave the option of the species to one of the parties.

7. That where no particular stipulation is made, creditors shall have power to demand payment, half in one species, half in the other; and when the sum cannot fall equally into gold and silver coins, the fractions to be paid in silver.

8. That in buying and selling, when no particular species has been stipulated, and when no act in writing has intervened, the option of the species shall be competent to the buyer.

9. That all sums paid or received by the king's receivers, or by bankers, shall be delivered by weight, if demanded.

10. That all money which shall be found under the legal weight, from whatever cause it may proceed, may be rejected in every payment whatsoever; or if offered in payment of a debt above a certain sum, may be taken according to its weight, at the then mint price, in the option of the creditor.

11. That no penalty shall be incurred by those who melt down or export the nation's coin; but that washing, clipping, or diminishing the weight of any part of it shall be deemed felony, as much as any other theft, if the person so degrading the coin shall afterwards make it circulate for lawful money.

To prevent the inconveniences proceeding from the variation in the proportion between the metals, it may be provided,

12. That upon every variation of proportion in the market price of the metals, the price of both shall be changed, according to the following rule:

Let the price of the pound troy fine gold in the coin be called $G$.

Let the price of ditto in the silver be called $S$.

Let the new proportion between the market price of the metals be called $P$.

Then state this formula:

$$\frac{G}{2} + \frac{S}{2} = \text{a pound troy fine silver, in sterling currency.}$$

$$\frac{S}{2} + \frac{G}{2} = \text{a pound troy fine gold, in sterling currency.}$$

This will be a rule for the mint to keep the price of the metals constantly at par with the price of the market; and coining may be imposed, as has been described, by fixing the mint price of them at a certain rate below the value of the fine metals in the coin.

13. As long as the variation of the market price of the metals shall not carry the price of the rising metal so high as the advanced price of the coin above the bullion, no alteration need be made on the denomination of either species.

14. So soon as the variation of the market price of the metals shall give a value to the rising species, above the difference between the coin and the bullion; then the king shall alter the denominations of all the coin, silver and gold, adding to the coins of the rising metal exactly what is taken from those of the other. An example will make this plain:

Let us suppose that the coining has been made according to the proportion of 14.5 to 1; that 20 shillings, or 4 crown-pieces, shall contain, in fine silver, 14.5 times as many grains as the guinea, or the gold pound, shall contain grains of fine gold. Let the new proportion of the metals be supposed to be 14 to 1. In that case, the 20 shillings, or the 4 crowns, will contain more value than the guinea. Now since there is no question of making a new general coining upon every variation, in order to adjust the proportion of the metals in the weight of the coins, that proportion might be adjusted by changing their respective denominations according to this formula:

Let the 20 shillings, or 4 crowns, in coin, be called $S$. Let the guinea be called $G$. Let the difference between the old proportion and the new, which is $\frac{1}{2}$, be called $P$. Then say.

$$S - \frac{P}{2} = \text{a pound sterling, and } G + \frac{P}{2} = \text{a pound sterling.}$$

By this it appears that all the silver coin must be raised in its denomination $\frac{1}{2}$, and all the gold coin must be lowered in its denomination $\frac{1}{2}$; yet still $S + G$ will be equal to two pounds sterling, as before, whether... ther they be considered according to the old or according to the new denominations.

But it may be observed, that the imposition of coinage rendering the value of the coin greater than the value of the bullion, that circumstance gives a certain latitude in fixing the new denominations of the coin, so as to avoid minute fractions. For, providing the deviation from the exact proportion shall fall within the advanced price of the coin, no advantage can be taken by melting down one species preferably to another; since, in either case, the loss incurred by melting the coin must be greater than the profit made upon selling the bullion. The mint price of the metals, however, may be fixed exactly, that is, within the value of a farthing upon a pound of fine silver or gold. This is easily reckoned at the mint; although upon every piece in common circulation the fractions of farthings would be inconvenient.

15. That notwithstanding of the temporary variations made upon the denomination of the gold and silver coins, all contracts formerly entered into, and all stipulations in pounds, shillings, and pence, may continue to be acquitted according to the old denominations of the coins, paying one-half in gold and one-half in silver: unless in the case where a particular species has been stipulated; in which case, the sums must be paid according to the new regulation made upon the denomination of that species, to the end that neither profit or loss may result to any of the parties.

16. That notwithstanding the alterations on the mint price of the metals, and in the denomination of the coins, no change shall be made upon the weight of the particular pieces of the latter, except in the case of a general re-coining of one denomination at least: that is to say, the mint must not coin new guineas, crowns, &c. of a different weight from those already in currency, although by so doing the fractions might be avoided. This would occasion confusion, and the remedy would cease to be of any use upon a new change in the proportion of the metals. But it may be found convenient, for removing the small fractions in shillings and sixpences, to recoin such denominations altogether, and to put them to their integer numbers of twelve and of six pence, without changing in any respect their proportion of value to all other denominations of the coin: this will be no great expense, when the bulk of the silver coin is put into 5 shilling pieces.

By this method of changing the denomination of the coin, there never can result any alteration in the value of the pound sterling, and although fractions of value may now and then be introduced, in order to prevent the abuses to which the coin would otherwise be exposed by the artifice of those who melt it down, yet still the inconvenience of such fractions may be avoided in paying, according to the old denominations, in both species, by equal parts. This will also prove demonstratively, that no change is thereby made in the true value of the national unit of money.

17. That it be ordered, that shillings and sixpences shall only be current for 20 years; and all other coins, both gold and silver, for 40 years, or more. For ascertaining which term, there may be marked, upon the exergue of the coin, the last year of their currency, in place of the date of their fabrication. This term elapsed, or the date effaced, that they shall have no more currency whatsoever; and, when offered in payment, may be received as bullion at the actual price of the mint, or refused, at the option of the creditor.

18. That no foreign coin shall have any legal currency, except as bullion at the mint price.

By these and the like regulations may be prevented, 1709, The melting or exporting of the coin in general. 2709, The melting or exporting one species, in order to sell it as bullion at an advanced price. 3709, The profit in acquitting obligations preferably in one species to another. 4709, The degradation of the standard, by the wearing of the coin, or by a change in the proportion between the metals. 5709, The circulation of the coin below the legal weight. 6709, The profit that other nations reap by paying their debts more cheaply to Great Britain than Great Britain can pay her's to them.

And the great advantage of it is, that it is an uniform plan, and may serve as a perpetual regulation, compatible with all kinds of denominations of coins, variations in the proportion of the metals, and with the imposition of a duty upon coining, or with the preserving it free; and further, that it may in time be adopted by other nations, who will find the advantage of having their money of account preserved perpetually at the same value, with respect to the denominations of all foreign money of account established on the same principles.—But for a fuller discussion of this subject we must refer our readers to the articles Banking and Exchange in the Supplement, and to Mr Wheatley's Essay on the Theory of Money and Principles of Commerce, London 1807; and to a Treatise on the Coins of the Realm, in a letter to the king, by the Earl of Liverpool, London 1805.

A TABLE ### A TABLE OF COINS

**MONEY**

**Dutch Coins.** **German Coins.** **French Coins.** **English Coins.**

| Troy. | Paris. | Colonies. | Holland. | Troy. | Paris. | Colonies. | Holland. | |-------|--------|-----------|----------|-------|--------|-----------|----------| | 1 A Guiney by statute | —— | —— | —— | 11865 | 144-46 | 143-65 | 160-45 | | 2 A Shilling by statute | —— | —— | —— | 137-61 | 196-8 | 152-8 | 171-87 | | 3 A Silver Pound Sterling by statute 1661 | —— | —— | —— | 137-61 | 196-8 | 152-8 | 171-87 | | 4 A Gold Pound Sterling by statute 1728 | —— | —— | —— | 137-61 | 196-8 | 152-8 | 171-87 | | 5 A Silver Pound Sterling in currency = 22½ lbs. Troy | —— | —— | —— | 137-61 | 196-8 | 152-8 | 171-87 | | 6 A Silver Pound Sterling at the proportion of gold to silver as 1 to 14½ | —— | —— | —— | 137-61 | 196-8 | 152-8 | 171-87 | | 7 A Gold Pound Sterling at the same proportion of gold to silver as 1 to 14½ | —— | —— | —— | 137-61 | 196-8 | 152-8 | 171-87 | | 8 A Silver Pound Sterling at the mean proportion of gold to silver | —— | —— | —— | 137-61 | 196-8 | 152-8 | 171-87 | | 9 A Silver Pound Sterling at the mean proportion of gold to silver | —— | —— | —— | 137-61 | 196-8 | 152-8 | 171-87 | | 10 A Silver Pound Sterling at the mean proportion of gold to silver | —— | —— | —— | 137-61 | 196-8 | 152-8 | 171-87 | | 11 A Silver Pound Sterling at the mean proportion of gold to silver | —— | —— | —— | 137-61 | 196-8 | 152-8 | 171-87 | | 12 A Silver Pound Sterling at the mean proportion of gold to silver | —— | —— | —— | 137-61 | 196-8 | 152-8 | 171-87 | | 13 A Silver Pound Sterling at the mean proportion of gold to silver | —— | —— | —— | 137-61 | 196-8 | 152-8 | 171-87 |

**Gold Coins.**

| Troy. | Paris. | Colonies. | Holland. | |-------|--------|-----------|----------| | 1 A Louis d'or | —— | —— | —— | | 2 A Crown of six livres | —— | —— | —— | | 3 A Crown of three ditto | —— | —— | —— | | 4 A Livre | —— | —— | —— | | 5 A Louis d'or, or 24 livres in silver | —— | —— | —— | | 6 A Marc of Paris weight, fine gold or silver | —— | —— | —— | | 7 A Marc of gold coin effective weight, in fine | —— | —— | —— | | 8 A Marc of silver coin effective weight, in fine | —— | —— | —— |

**Silver Coins.**

| Troy. | Paris. | Colonies. | Holland. | |-------|--------|-----------|----------| | 1 A Carolin legal weight | —— | —— | —— | | 2 A Ducat of the Empire ditto | —— | —— | —— | | 3 A Florin of Convention | —— | —— | —— | | 4 A Dollar of Exchange | —— | —— | —— | | 5 A Dollar of Exchange, the Carolin = 9 flor. 42 kreutzers | —— | —— | —— | | 6 A Florin current = 1½ of a Carolin | —— | —— | —— | | 7 A Carolin in silver, at the proportion of 1 to 14½ | —— | —— | —— | | 8 A Carolin in silver | —— | —— | —— |

---

The number of grains of fine metal in every coin is sought for in the regulations of the mint of the country where it is coined, and is expressed in the grains in use in that mint. From that weight it is converted into those of other countries according to the following proportions:

3840 Troy grains, 4676-35 Paris grains, 5192-8 Holland acres or grains, and 4649-36 Colonies grains, are supposed to be equal weights; and the coins in the Table are converted according to those proportions.

---

**UNIVERSAL** UNIVERSAL TABLE Of the present State of the Real and Imaginary Moneys of the World.

† This mark is prefixed to the Imaginary Money, or Money of Account.

All Fractions in the Value English are Parts of a Penny.

= This mark signifies is, make, or equal to.

| ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. | HOLLAND, &c. | |-----------------------|--------------| | London, Bristol, Liverpool, &c. | 60 Stivers = a Dry Guilder L. s. d. | | Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, &c. | 105 Stivers = a Ducat 9 3 | | | 6 Guilders † a Pound Flem. 10 6 |

| IRELAND. | |----------| | Dublin, Cork, Londonderry, &c. |

| FLANDERS AND BRABANT. | |----------------------| | Ghent, Ostend, &c. Antwerp, Brussels, &c. |

| HOLLAND AND ZEALAND. | |---------------------| | Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Middleburg, Flushing, &c. |

| EUROPE, Northern Parts. | |------------------------| | HAMBURG. Altona, Lubec, Bremen, &c. | | † A Tryling = 0 0 0 1 8 | | 2 Trylings † a Sexling 0 0 0 1 7 | | 2 Sexlings a Fening 0 0 0 1 7 | | 12 Fenings a Shilling Lub. 0 0 0 1 7 | | 16 Shillings † a Marc 0 0 0 1 6 | | 2 Marcs a Slet Dollar 0 0 0 1 6 | | 3 Marcs a Rixdollar 0 0 0 4 6 | | 6½ Marcs a Ducat 0 0 0 9 4 5 | | 120 Shillings † a Pound Flem. 0 0 0 11 3 |

| HANOVER. Lunenburg, Zell, &c. | |------------------------------| | † A Fening = 0 0 0 0 7 | | 3 Fenings a Dreyer 0 0 0 0 7 | | 8 Fenings a Marien 0 0 0 0 7 | | 12 Fenings a Grosh 0 0 0 0 7 | | 8 Groshen a Half Gulden 0 0 0 1 2 | | 16 Groshen a Gulden 0 0 0 2 4 | | 24 Groshen † a Rixdollar 0 0 0 3 6 | | 32 Groshen a Double Gulden 0 0 0 4 8 | | 4 Guldens a Ducat 0 0 0 9 2 |

| SAXONY AND HOLSTEIN. | |---------------------| | Dresden, Leipzig, &c. Wismar, Keil, &c. | | † An Heller = 0 0 0 0 7 | | 2 Hellers a Fening 0 0 0 0 7 | | 6 Hellers a Dreyer 0 0 0 0 7 | | 16 Hellers a Marien 0 0 0 1 2 | | 12 Fenings a Grosh 0 0 0 1 2 | | 16 Groshen a Gould 0 0 0 2 4 | | 24 Groshen † a Rixdollar 0 0 0 3 6 | | 32 Groshen a Specie Dollar 0 0 0 4 8 | | 4 Goulds a Ducat 0 0 0 9 4 |

| BRANDENBURG AND POMERANIA. | |-----------------------------| | Berlin, Potsdam, &c. Stetin, &c. | | † A Denier = 0 0 0 0 7 | | 9 Deniers a Polchen 0 0 0 0 7 | | 18 Deniers a Grosh 0 0 0 0 7 | | 3 Polchens an Abrass 0 0 0 0 7 | | 20 Groshen † a Marc 0 0 0 9 1 | | T t 30 Groshen | ### BRANDENBURG, &c.

| Groshen | Florin | Rixdollar | Albertus | Ducat | |---------|--------|-----------|----------|-------| | 30 | 1 2 | | | | | 90 | 3 6 | | | | | 108 | 4 2 | | | | | 8 | 9 4 | | | |

### COLOGN. Mentz, Triers, Liege, Munich, Munster, Paderbourn, &c.

| Date | Cruitzer | Albus | Stiver | Plapert | Copstick | Guilder | Hard Dollar | Ducat | |--------|----------|-------|--------|---------|----------|---------|-------------|-------| | A | | | | | | | | | | 3 | = | | | | | | | | | 2 | | | | | | | | | | 8 | | | | | | | | | | 3 | | | | | | | | | | 4 | | | | | | | | | | 2 | | | | | | | | | | 4 | | | | | | | | |

### BOHEMIA, SILESIA, AND HUNGARY.

Prague, Breslaw, Presburg, &c.

| Fenings | Dreyer | Grosh | Cruitzer | White Grosh | Gould | Rixdollar | Hard Dollar | Ducat | |---------|--------|-------|----------|-------------|-------|-----------|-------------|-------| | A | | | | | | | | | | 2 | = | | | | | | | | | 3 | | | | | | | | | | 4 | | | | | | | | | | 2 | | | | | | | | | | 90 | | | | | | | | | | 2 | | | | | | | | | | 4 | | | | | | | | |

### AUSTRIA AND SWABIA.

Vienna, Trieste, &c. Augsburg, Blenheim, &c.

| Fenings | Dreyer | Grosh | Cruitzer | Batzen | Gould | Rixdollar | Specie Dollar | Ducat | |---------|--------|-------|----------|--------|-------|-----------|---------------|-------| | A | | | | | | | | | | 2 | = | | | | | | | | | 4 | | | | | | | | | | 14 | | | | | | | | | | 5 | | | | | | | | | | 90 | | | | | | | | | | 30 | | | | | | | | | | 60 | | | | | | | | |

### FRANCONIA. Frankfort, Nuremburg, Dettingen, &c.

| Fenings | Cruitzer | Keyser Grosh | Batzen | Ort Gould | Gould | Rixdollar | Hard Dollar | Ducat | |---------|----------|--------------|--------|-----------|-------|-----------|-------------|-------| | A | | | | | | | | | | 4 | | | | | | | | | | 3 | | | | | | | | | | 4 | | | | | | | | | | 15 | | | | | | | | | | 16 | | | | | | | | | | 90 | | | | | | | | | | 2 | | | | | | | | | | 240 | | | | | | | | |

### POLAND AND PRUSSIA.

Gracow, Warsaw, &c. Dantzig, Koningsberg, &c.

| Shelons | Grosh | Coustic | Tine | |---------|-------|---------|------| | A | | | | | 3 | | | | | 5 | | | | | 3 | | | |

### POLAND, &c.

| Groshen | Florin | Rixdollar | Albertus | Frederic d'Or | |---------|--------|-----------|----------|----------------| | 18 | | | | | | 30 | | | | | | 90 | | | | | | 8 | | | | | | 5 | | | | |

### LIVONIA.

Riga, Revel, Narva, &c.

| Blacken | Grosh | Vording | Whiten | Marc | Florin | Rixdollar | Albertus | Copperplate Dollar | |---------|-------|---------|--------|------|--------|-----------|----------|-------------------| | A | | | | | | | | | | 6 | | | | | | | | | | 9 | | | | | | | | | | 2 | | | | | | | | | | 6 | | | | | | | | | | 30 | | | | | | | | | | 90 | | | | | | | | | | 128 | | | | | | | | | | 64 | | | | | | | | |

### DENMARK, ZEALAND, AND NORWAY.

Copenhagen, Sound, &c. Bergen, Drontheim, &c.

| Skilling | Duggen | Marc | Rixmarc | Crown | Dollar | Ducat | Hatt Ducat | |----------|--------|------|---------|-------|--------|-------|------------| | A | | | | | | | | | 6 | | | | | | | | | 16 | | | | | | | | | 20 | | | | | | | | | 24 | | | | | | | | | 4 | | | | | | | | | 6 | | | | | | | | | 11 | | | | | | | | | 14 | | | | | | | |

### SWEDEN AND LAPLAND.

Stockholm, Upsal, &c. Thorn, &c.

| Runstick | Stiver | Copper Marc | Silver Marc | Copper Dollar | Caroline | Silver Dollar | Rixdollar | Ducat | |----------|--------|-------------|-------------|---------------|----------|--------------|-----------|-------| | A | | | | | | | | | | 2 | | | | | | | | | | 8 | | | | | | | | | | 3 | | | | | | | | | | 4 | | | | | | | | | | 9 | | | | | | | | | | 3 | | | | | | | | | | 3 | | | | | | | | | | 2 | | | | | | | | |

### RUSSIA AND MOSCOVY.

Petersburg, Archangel, &c. Moscow, &c.

| Polusca | Demusca | Copec | Altin | Griever | Polpotin | Poltin | Ruble | Xervonitz | |---------|---------|-------|-------|---------|----------|--------|-------|-----------| | A | | | | | | | | | | 2 | | | | | | | | | | 2 | | | | | | | | | | 3 | | | | | | | | | | 10 | | | | | | | | | | 25 | | | | | | | | | | 50 | | | | | | | | | | 100 | | | | | | | | | | 2 | | | | | | | | |

### BASIL. Zurich, Zug, &c.

| Rap | Fening | Cruitzer | Sol | |-----|--------|----------|-----| | A | | | | | 3 | | | | | 4 | | | | | 12 | | | |

| Fenings | Sol | |---------|-----| | 75 | | ### BASIL, &c.

| Fenings | Coarse Batzen | L. s. d. | |---------|---------------|---------| | 15 | | 0 0 1 | | 18 | Good Batzen | 0 0 2 | | 20 | Livre | 0 2 6 | | 60 | Cruitzers | 0 2 6 | | 108 | Rixdollar | 0 4 6 |

### St GALL. Apensal, &c.

| Heller | Fenings | Cruitzers | Coarse Batzen | Good Batzen | Livre | Gould | Rixdollar | |---------|---------------|-----------|---------------|-------------|-------|-------|-----------| | 2 | | | | | | | | | 4 | | | | | | | | | 12 | | | | | | | | | 4 | | | | | | | | | 5 | | | | | | | | | 20 | | | | | | | | | 60 | | | | | | | | | 102 | | | | | | | |

### BERN. Lucern, Neufchatel, &c.

| Denier | Cruitzer | Gros | Batzen | Sol | Livre | Crown | |---------|---------------|-----------|---------------|------------|-------|-------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

### GENEVA. Pekay, Bonne, &c.

| Denier | Denier current | Small Sol | Sol current | Florin | Livre current | Ducat | |---------|----------------|-----------|---------------|-----------|---------------|-------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

### Lisle, Cambrey, Valenciennes, &c.

| Denier | Sol | Patard | Piette | Livre Tournois | Ecu of Ex. | Louis d'Or | |---------|--------------|-----------|---------------|----------------|------------|------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

### Dunkirk, St Omers, St Quintin, &c.

| Denier | Sol | Patard | Piette | Livre Tournois | Ecu of Ex. | Louis d'Or | |---------|--------------|-----------|---------------|----------------|------------|------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

### Paris, Lyons, Marseilles, &c. Bourdeaux, Bayonne, &c.

| Denier | Liard | Dardene | Sol | Livre Tournois | Ecu of Ex. | Pistole | |---------|--------------|-----------|--------------|----------------|------------|---------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

### PORTUGAL. Lisbon, Oporto, &c.

| Rez | Half Vintin | Vintin | Testoon | Crusade of Ex. | New Crusade | Milre | |---------|--------------|-----------|--------------|----------------|-------------|---------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

### Madrid, Cadiz, Seville, &c. New Plate.

| Maravedie | Quartil | Rial | Pistarne | Piastre of Ex. | Dollar | Ducat of Ex. | |-----------|-------------|-----------|--------------|----------------|------------|---------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

### Gibraltar, Malaga, Denia, &c. Velon.

| Maravedie | Ochavo | Quartil | Rial Velon | Piastre of Ex. | Piastre | Pistole of Ex. | |-----------|------------|-----------|--------------|----------------|------------|----------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

### Barcelona, Saragossa, Valencia, &c. Old Plate.

| Maravedie | Soldo | Rial Old Plate | Libra | Ducat | Dollar | Ducat | |-----------|------------|----------------|-----------|-----------|------------|-----------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

### GENOA. Novi, &c. CORSICA. Bastia, &c.

| Denari | Soldi | Chevalet | Lire | Testoon | Lires | |----------|------------|------------|------------|-----------|-----------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ### GENOA, &c.

| Lires | Soldi | Testoons | Lires | |-------|-------|----------|-------| | 5 | | | 3 7 | | 11.5 | + | | 4 2 | | 6 | | | 6 2 | | 20 | | | 14 4 |

### PIEDMONT, SAVOY, AND SARDINIA.

| Turin, Chambery, Cagliari, &c. | |--------------------------------| | A Denari | | 3 Denari = a Quatrini | | 12 Denari = a Soldi | | 12 Soldi = a Florin | | 20 Soldi = a Lire | | 6 Florins = a Scudi | | 7 Florins = a Ducatoon | | 13 Lires = a Pistole | | 16 Lires = a Louis d'Or |

### MILAN, MODENA, PARMA, PAVIA, &c.

| A Denari | | 3 Denari = a Quatrini | | 12 Denari = a Soldi | | 20 Soldi = a Lire | | 115 Soldi = a Scudi current | | 117 Soldi = a Scudi of Ex. | | 6 Lires = a Phillip | | 22 Lires = a Pistole | | 23 Lires = a Spanish Pistole |

### LEGHORN, FLORENCE, &c.

| A Denari | | 4 Denari = a Quatrini | | 12 Denari = a Soldi | | 5 Quatrini = a Craca | | 8 Cracas = a Quilo | | 20 Soldi = a Lire | | 6 Lires = a Piastre of Ex. | | 7½ Lires = a Ducat | | 22 Lires = a Pistole |

### ROME. CIVITA VECCHIA, ANCONA.

| A Quatrini | | 5 Quatrini = a Bayoc | | 8 Bayocs = a Julio | | 10 Bayocs = a Stampf Julio | | 24 Bayocs = a Testoon | | 10 Julios = a Crown current | | 12 Julios = a Crown stamp | | 18 Julios = a Chequin | | 31 Julios = a Pistole |

### NAPLES. GAETA, CAPUA, &c.

| A Quatrini | | 3 Quatrini = a Grain | | 10 Grains = a Carlin | | 40 Quatrini = a Paolo | | 20 Grains = a Tarin | | 40 Grains = a Testoon | | 100 Grains = a Ducat of Ex. | | 23 Tarins = a Pistole | | 25 Tarins = a Spanish Pistole |

### SICILY AND MALTA. PALERMO, MESSINA, &c.

| A Pichila | | 6 Pichili = a Grain | | 8 Pichili = a Ponti | | 10 Grains = a Carlin | | 20 Grains = a Tarin | | 6 Tarins = a Florin of Ex. | | 13 Tarins = a Ducat of Ex. | | 60 Carlins = an Ounce | | 2 Ounces = a Pistole |

### BOLOGNA, RAVENNA, &c.

| A Quatrini | | 6 Quatrini = a Bayoc | | 10 Bayocs = a Julio | | 20 Bayocs = a Lire | | 3 Julios = a Testoon | | 80 Bayocs = a Schudi of Ex. | | 105 Bayocs = a Ducatoon | | 100 Bayocs = a Crown | | 31 Julios = a Pistole |

### VENICE. BERGHAM, &c.

| A Picoli | | 12 Picoli = a Solli | | 64 Soldi = a Gros | | 18 Soldi = a Jule | | 20 Soldi = a Lire | | 3 Jules = a Testoon | | 124 Soldi = a Ducat current | | 24 Gros = a Ducat of Ex. | | 17 Lires = a Chequin |

### TURKEY. MOREA, CANDIA, CYPRUS, &c.

| A Mangar | | 4 Mangars = + an Asper | | 3 Aspers = a Parac | | 5 Aspers = a Bestic | | 10 Aspers = an Ostic | | 20 Aspers = a Solota | | 80 Aspers = + a Piastre | | 100 Aspers = a Caragrouch | | 10 Solotas = a Xerif |

### ARABIA. MEDINA, MECCA, MOCHA, &c.

| A Carret | | 5 Carrets = a Caveer | | 7 Carrets = a Comashee | | 80 Carrets = a Larin | | 18 Comashees = an Abyss | | 60 Comashees = + a Piastre | | 80 Caveers = a Dollar | | 100 Comashees = a Sequin | | 80 Larins = + a Tomond |

### PERSIA. ISPANIAN, ORMUS, GOMBROON, &c.

| A Coz | | 4 Coz = a Bisti | | 10 Coz = a Shabee | | 20 Coz = a Mamooda | | 25 Coz = a Larin | | 4 Shalees = an Abashree | | 5 Abashes | ### MONEY

| Country | Description | L. s. d. | |------------------|------------------------------|---------| | **GUZZERAT. Surat, Cambay, &c.** | | | | A Pecka | | 0 0 4 | | 2 Peckas | = a Pice | 0 1 3 | | 4 Pieces | = a Famam | 0 1 7 | | 5 Pieces | = a Viz | 0 2 1 | | 10 Pieces | = an Ana | 0 7 8 | | 4 Anas | = a Rupee | 0 2 6 | | 2 Rupees | = an English Crown | 0 5 0 | | 14 Anas | = a Pagoda | 0 8 9 | | 4 Pagodas | = a Gold Rupee | 1 1 5 |

| **Bombay, Dabul, &c.** | | | | † A Budgrook | | 0 0 6 | | 2 Budgrooks | = † a Re | 0 0 3 | | 5 Rez | = a Pice | 0 0 7 | | 16 Pieces | = a Larse | 0 5 3 | | 20 Pieces | = a Quarter | 0 6 1 | | 240 Rez | = a Xeraphim | 0 1 4 | | 4 Quarters | = a Rupee | 0 2 3 | | 14 Quarters | = a Pagoda | 0 8 0 | | 60 Quarters | = a Gold Rupee | 1 1 5 |

| **Goa, Visapour, &c.** | | | | † A Re | | 0 0 6 | | 2 Rez | = a Bazaraco | 0 0 3 | | 2 Bazaracos | = a Pecka | 0 0 3 | | 20 Rez | = a Vintin | 0 1 8 | | 4 Vintins | = a Laree | 0 5 3 | | 3 Larees | = a Xeraphim | 0 1 4 | | 42 Vintins | = a Tangu | 0 4 6 | | 4 Tangus | = a Paru | 0 1 8 | | 8 Tangus | = a Gold Rupee | 1 1 5 |

| **COROMANDEL. Madrass, Pondicherry, &c.** | | | | A Cash | | 0 0 5 | | 5 Cash | = a Viz | 0 0 5 | | 2 Viz | = a Pice | 0 0 3 | | 6 Pieces | = a Pical | 0 0 2 | | 8 Pieces | = a Famam | 0 0 3 | | 10 Famams | = a Rupee | 0 2 6 | | 2 Rupees | = an English Crown | 0 5 0 | | 36 Famams | = a Pagoda | 0 8 9 | | 4 Pagodas | = a Gold Rupee | 1 1 5 |

| **BENGAL. Calicut, Calcutta, &c.** | | | | A Pice | | 0 0 4 | | 4 Pieces | = a Famam | 0 0 3 | | 6 Pieces | = a Viz | 0 0 2 | | 12 Pieces | = an Ana | 0 1 7 | | 10 Anas | = a Fiano | 0 1 6 | | 16 Anas | = a Rupee | 0 2 6 | | 2 Rupees | = a French Ecu | 0 5 0 | | 2 Rupees | = an English Crown | 0 5 0 | | 36 Anas | = a Pagoda | 0 8 9 |

| **SIAM. Pegu, Malacca, Cambodia, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, &c** | | | | A Cori | | 0 0 5 | | 800 Cori | = a Fette | 0 0 4 | | 125 Fettees | = a Sateeler | 0 0 7 | | 250 Fettees | = a Sooco | 0 1 3 | | 500 Fettees | = a Tical | 0 2 6 | | 900 Fettees | = a Dollar | 0 4 6 | | 2 Ticals | = a Rial | 0 5 0 | | 4 Soocos | = an Ecu | 0 5 0 | | 8 Sateelers | = a Crown | 0 5 0 |

| **CHINA. Pekin, Canton, &c.** | | | | A Caxa | | 0 0 3 | | 10 Caxa | = a Candereen | 0 0 3 | | 10 Candereens | = a Mace | 0 0 8 | | 35 Candereens | = a Rupee | 0 2 6 | | 2 Rupees | = a Dollar | 0 4 6 | | 70 Candereens | = a Rixdollar | 0 4 4 | | 7 Maces | = an Ecu | 0 5 0 | | 2 Rupees | = a Crown | 0 5 0 | | 10 Maces | = † a Tale | 0 6 8 |

| **JAPAN. Jeddo, Meaco, &c.** | | | | A Piti | | 0 0 4 | | 20 Pitis | = a Mace | 0 0 4 | | 15 Maces | = an Ounce Silver | 0 4 1 | | 20 Maces | = a Tale | 0 6 8 | | 30 Maces | = an Ingot | 0 9 8 | | 13 Ounces Silver | = an Ounce Gold | 3 3 0 | | 2 Ounces Gold | = a Japanese | 6 6 0 | | 2 Japanesees | = a Double | 12 12 | | 21 Ounces Gold | = † a Cattee | 66 3 |

| **EGYPT. Old and New Cairo, Alexandria, Sayde, &c.** | | | | An Asper | | 0 0 5 | | 3 Aspers | = a Medin | 0 1 7 | | 24 Medins | = an Italian Ducat | 3 4 | | 80 Aspers | = † a Piastre | 0 4 0 | | 32 Medins | = a Dollar | 0 4 6 | | 96 Aspers | = an Ecu | 0 5 0 | | 32 Medins | = a Crown | 0 5 0 | | 200 Aspers | = a Sultanin | 0 10 | | 70 Medins | = a Pargo Dollar | 0 10 |

| **AFRICA. Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, Una, &c.** | | | | An Asper | | 0 0 5 | | 3 Aspers | = a Medin | 0 1 7 | | 10 Aspers | = a Rial old Plate | 0 6 4 | | 2 Rials | = a Double | 0 1 5 | | 4 Doubles | = a Dollar | 0 4 6 | | 24 Medins | = a Silver Chequin | 0 3 4 | | 30 Medins | = a Dollar | 0 4 6 | | 180 Aspers | = a Zequin | 0 8 10 | | 13 Doubles | = a Pistole | 0 16 9 |

| **BARBARY. Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, Una, &c.** | | | | An Asper | | 0 0 5 | | 10 Aspers | = a Medin | 0 1 7 | | 2 Rials | = a Double | 0 1 5 | | 4 Doubles | = a Dollar | 0 4 6 | | 24 Medins | = a Silver Chequin | 0 3 4 | | 30 Medins | = a Dollar | 0 4 6 | | 180 Aspers | = a Zequin | 0 8 10 | | 13 Doubles | = a Pistole | 0 16 9 |

| **MOROCCO. Santa Cruz, Mequinez, Fez, Tangiers, Sallee, &c.** | | | | A Fluce | | 0 0 5 | | 24 Fluces | = a Blanquin | 0 2 | | | | 4 Blanquilo | ### MON

#### MOROCCO, &c.

| Blanquils | L. s. d. | |-----------|---------| | 4 | an Ounce | 0 0 8 | | 7 | an Octavo | 0 1 2 | | 14 | a Quarto | 0 2 4 | | 2 | a Medio | 0 4 8 | | 28 | a Dollar | 0 4 6 | | 54 | a Xequin | 0 9 0 | | 100 | a Pistole | 0 16 9 |

#### ENGLISH. Jamaica, Barbadoes, &c.

| Halfpenny | 0 0 0 | | Halfpence | = † Penny | 0 0 0 | | Pence | = † Shilling | 0 0 8 | | Pence | = a Dollar | 0 4 6 | | Shillings | = a Crown | 0 5 0 | | Shillings | = a Pound | 0 14 3 | | Shillings | = a Pistole | 0 16 9 | | Shillings | = a Guinea | 1 1 0 |

#### FRENCH. St Domingo, Martinico, &c.

| A Half Sol | 0 0 0 | | Half Sols | = † Sol | 0 0 0 | | Sols | = a Scaline | 0 2 8 | | Sols | = a Scaline | 0 5 0 | | Sols | = a Livre | 0 7 6 | | Livres | = a Dollar | 0 4 6 | | Livres | = an Ecu | 0 4 10 | | Livres | = a Pistole | 0 16 9 | | Livres | = a Louis d'Or | 1 0 0 |

#### ENGLISH. Nova Scotia, Virginia, New England, &c.

| Penny | 0 0 0 | | Pence | = † Shilling | 0 0 0 | | Shillings | = a Pound | 0 1 0 | | Pounds | 0 0 0 | | Pounds | 0 0 0 | | Pounds | 0 0 0 | | Pounds | 0 0 0 | | Pounds | 0 0 0 | | Pounds | 0 0 0 | | Pounds | 0 0 0 |

The value of the Currency varies according to the Plenty or Scarcity of Gold and Silver Coins that are imported.

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**Note.** For all the Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and Danish Dominions, either on the Continent or in the West Indies, see the Moneys of the respective nations.

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**Ancient Money.** See Coins and Medals.

**Paper Money.** See the article Bank.

**MONK** anciently denoted, “a person who retired from the world to give himself up wholly to God, and to live in solitude and abstinence.” The word is derived from the Latin *monachus*, and that from the Greek *μοναχός*, “solitary,” of *μόνος, solus*, “alone.”

The origin of monks seems to have been this: The persecutions which attended the first ages of the Gospel forced some Christians to retire from the world, and live in deserts and places most private and unfrequented, in hopes of finding that peace and comfort among beasts which were denied them among men. And this being the case of some very extraordinary persons, their example gave so much reputation to retirement, that the practice was continued when the reason of its commencement ceased. After the empire became Christian, instances of this kind were numerous; and those whose security had obliged them to live separately and apart, became afterwards united into societies. We may also add, that the mystic theology, which gained ground towards the close of the third century, contributed to produce the same effect, and to drive men into solitude for the purposes of enthusiastic devotion.

The monks, at least the ancient ones, were distinguished into *solitaries*, *cenobites*, and *saraibates*.

The *solitary* are those who live alone, in places remote from all towns and habitations of men, as do still some of the hermits. The *cenobites* are those who live in community with several others in the same house, and under the same superiors. The *saraibates* were strolling monks, having no fixed rule or residence.

The houses of monks again were of two kinds, viz., *monasteries* and *laura*. See Monastery and Laura.

Those we call monks now a-days are cenobites, who live together in a convent or monastery, who make vows of living according to a certain rule established by the founder, and wear a habit which distinguishes their order.

Those that are endowed, or have a fixed revenue, are most properly called monks, *monachi*; as the Chartreux, Benedictines, Bernardines, &c. The Mendicants, or those that beg, as the Capuchins and Franciscans, are more properly called *religious* and *friars*; though the names are frequently confounded.

The first monks were those of St Anthony; who, towards the close of the fourth century, formed them into a regular body, engaged them to live in society with each other, and prescribed to them fixed rules for the direction of their conduct. These regulations, which Anthony had made in Egypt, were soon introduced into Palestine and Syria by his disciple Hilarion. Almost about the same time, Aones or Eugenius, with their companions Gaddanias and Azyzas, instituted the monastic order in Mesopotamia and the adjacent countries; and their example was followed with such rapid success, that in a short time the whole east was filled with a lazy set of mortals, who, abandoning all human connexions, advantages, pleasures, and concerns, wore out a languishing and miserable life amidst the hardships of want, and various kinds of suffering, in order to arrive at a more close and rapturous communication with God and angels.

From the east this gloomy institution passed into the west, and first into Italy and its neighbouring islands; though it is uncertain who transplanted it thither. St Martin, the celebrated bishop of Tours, erected the first monasteries in Gaul, and recommended this religious solitude with such power and efficacy, both by his instructions and his example, that his funeral is said to have been attended by no less than 2000 monks. From hence the monastic discipline extended gradually its progress through the other provinces and countries of Europe. There were besides the monks of St Basil (called in the East Calogeri, from καλός γέροντος, "good old man") and those of St Jerome, the hermits of St Augustine, and afterwards those of St Benedict and St Bernard; at length came those of St Francis and St Dominic, with a legion of others; all which see under their proper heads, BENEDICTINES, &c.

Towards the close of the fifth century, the monks, who had formerly lived only for themselves in solitary retreats, and had never thought of assuming any rank among the sacerdotal order, were now gradually distinguished from the populace, and endowed with such opulence and honourable privileges that they found themselves in a condition to claim an eminent station among the supports and pillars of the Christian community. The fame of their piety and sanctity was so great, that bishops and presbyters were often chosen out of their order; and the passion of erecting edifices and convents, in which the monks and holy virgins might serve God in the most commodious manner, was at this time carried beyond all bounds. However their licentiousness, even in this century, was become a proverb; and they are said to have excited the most dreadful tumults and seditions in various places. The monastic orders were at first under the immediate jurisdiction of the bishops, from which they were exempted by the Roman pontiff about the end of the 7th century; and the monks, in return, devoted themselves wholly to advance the interests and to maintain the dignity of the bishop of Rome. This immunity which they obtained, was a fruitful source of licentiousness and disorder, and occasioned the greatest part of the vices with which they were afterwards so justly charged. In the 8th century the monastic discipline was extremely relaxed both in the eastern and western provinces, and all efforts to restore it were ineffectual. Nevertheless, this kind of institution was in the highest esteem, and nothing could equal the veneration that was paid about the close of the 9th century to such as devoted themselves to the sacred gloom and indolence of a convent. This veneration induced several kings and emperors to call them to their courts, and to employ them in civil affairs of the greatest moment. Their reformation was attempted by Louis the Meck, but the effect was of short duration. In the 11th century they were exempted by the popes from the authority of their sovereigns, and new orders of monks were continually established; insomuch that in the council of Lateran that was held in the year 1215, a decree was passed, by the advice of Innocent III., to prevent any new monastic institutions; and several were entirely suppressed. In the 15th and 16th centuries, it appears, from the testimonies of the best writers, that the monks were generally lazy, illiterate, profligate, and licentious epicures, whose views in life were confined to opulence, idleness, and pleasure. However, the Reformation had a manifest influence in restraining their excesses, and rendering them more circumspect and cautious in their external conduct.

Monks are distinguished by the colour of their habits into black, white, gray, &c. Among the monks, some are called monks of the choir, others professed monks, and others lay monks; which last are destined for the service of the convent, and have neither clerical nor literature.

Cloistered Monks, are those who actually reside in the house: in opposition to extra-monks, who have benefits depending on the monastery.

Monks are also distinguished into reformed, whom the civil and ecclesiastical authority have made masters of ancient convents, and put in their power to retrieve the ancient discipline, which had been relaxed; and ancient, who remain in the convent, to live in it according to its establishment at the time when they made their vows, without obliging themselves to any new reform.

Anciently the monks were all laymen, and were only distinguished from the rest of the people by a particular habit and an extraordinary devotion. Not only the monks were prohibited the priesthood, but even priests were expressly prohibited from becoming monks, as appears from the letters of St Gregory. Pope Syricus was the first who called them to the clericate, on occasion of some great scarcity of priests, that the church was then supposed to labour under: and since that time, the priesthood has been usually united to the monastical profession.