INTERNATIONAL COINAGE 291 



international coin, it would seem as if the harvest is almost ripe for 

 the gathering, that much preliminary work has already been done, and 

 that if the cooperation of America, England, France and Germany was 

 arranged, the step would be easily taken. The French franc, under 

 different names but identical in value, is the legal unit in Greece, Italy, 

 Belgium, Switzerland and the French colonies in north Africa. The 

 English have been agitating for fifty years the reform of their cur- 

 rency, appreciating how great a handicap it is in commercial competi- 

 tion, and are only awaiting a plan that can be put into effect without 

 too serious a wrench to the national susceptibilities. The German 

 Mark presents the greatest difficulty, for it is the business unit of sixty 

 millions of intelligent and pushing people. To North Americans the 

 dollar of course seems to be the most satisfactory money unit in 

 existence. Canada and Mexico already have it, the latter, however, 

 at the silver valuation. It differs but a few cents in nominal value 

 from that of the units of most of the Central and South American na- 

 tions except Brazil. As the dollar was originally a Teutonic coin 

 (known as the Thaler), and the Mark is a unit of comparatively recent 

 origin, it would seem as if the Germans should not object too seriously 

 to take it up again, and they would carry with them the Scandinavians, 

 the Hollanders and the citizens of Austro-Hungary, with whom they 

 have intimate financial and commercial relations. 



The franc (and also the Mark) seems too small a unit for these days 

 of great fortunes and huge capital aggregations, and the pound sterling 

 is too large. As the shilling is really the retail unit of the British Em- 

 pire — except in Canada and India — and has very nearly the value of 

 our quarter, but little difficulty could be experienced by England and 

 her colonies in changing to the dollar and a decimal system. Alto- 

 gether the way seems very clear to us, but national pride in a coin, 

 and national habits of long standing, are difficult matters to overcome. 

 Perhaps the best argument in favor of the dollar is the rapidly grow- 

 ing financial preponderance of the United States and North America 

 in general in the commercial world. This in time will force the 

 financiers of all nations to think, write and act in terms of dollars as 

 well as of their own coins, if they intend to keep up with the procession 

 of events. Just as the English language, by the spread and increase of 

 English-speaking people, is likely to become in due time the vehicle of 

 communication between business men all over the world, so the dollar, 

 aside from its inherent good qualities as a convenient money unit, 

 promises, by reason of the expanding population, trade and activity of 

 the North American continent, to become each year better known and 

 better appreciated, until its universal adoption becomes natural and 

 inevitable. 



Aside, however, from such an argument, which Americans can not 



