38 KOBEET WALLACE McLACHLAN ON THE 



The currency, notwithstaudiug the ample provisiou of copper coin and treasury notes 

 made by the government, was, on account of the scarcity of exchange, all along in an 

 unsettled condition. According to the Treasurer, in 1825, fifteen per cent premium had 

 to be paid for a private bill while the real par was seven and one-half per cent as shown 

 by the cost of the Grovernor's exchange.' This tended to entirely denude the country of 

 silver coin as traders could afford to allow a premium over its circulating value to ship it 

 to England as remittances.- Even the copper tokens were shipped to the United States 

 where they circulated as cents.' Thus, while nothing had been done to regulate the stand- 

 ard since the Act of 1*787, to which allusion has alreadj^ been ma<ie,' we are not surprised 

 then 10 find that the shilling circulated at thirteen pence halfpenny ' instead of thirteen 

 pence as provided for by the Act ; or that the Treasurer considered doubloons and Spanish 

 dollars an unprofitable form of remittance," and, as is stated by writers of the time, 

 money was so scarce that the people, especially in the country parts, were often in sore 

 straits for want of coined money .'^ They had to resort to rare expedients to carry on 

 their necessary trade, which was transacted mainly in kind ; and recipients of large 

 payments or those doing a flourishing country trade often accumulated a motley collection 

 of commodities. In 1834 an Act was passed provisionally raising the English shilling to 

 fifteen pence, and other coins iu like proportion, with the view of co-operating with the 

 other colonies iu passing a uniform currency among them.** From this the standard has 

 become known as " Halifax currency." In 1836 this provisional act was confirmed by 

 the Customs Act, which fixed the Halifax currency as the standard of the province, by 

 making it necessary to reduce all foreign invoices to this currency.'' By it the sovereign 

 was legalized to pass for twenty-five shillings. But the idea of a uniform currency was 

 not realized, for the other provinces adopted different standards. In Upper and Lower 

 Canada, although, for convenience of reckoning, the shilling circulated at fifteen pence, to 

 make the pound currency equal to four dollars, the sovereign was rated at twenty-four 

 shillings and four pence. In New Brunswick it was fixed at twenty-four shillings.'" As 

 under this standard the enhanced relative values of Spanish and United States silver 

 could only be made inconvenient fractions, these coins were altogether withdrawn from 

 the province, leaving English silver and the tokens as the only coins that continued to 

 circulate. This difference in the Nova Scotian currency from that of the other provinces 

 continued until 1869. In U68, " an Act respecting the currency " " was passed, providing, 

 among other things, for assimilating the Nova Scotian standard to that of the Dominion. 

 But a clause in the Act provided that, should the suggestions of the monetary conference, 

 held in Paris in 1867, be carried out by the United States, which proposed to reduce the 



' Compare letters d, h and i with statement s iu Appendix V. 



■-' Letters from Nova Scotia by Captain W. Moorsom, London, 18;'>0 ; pages 86 and 87. 

 " Appendix VI, a. 

 * Appendix II. 



^ Statistics of the Colonies, London, 1839 ; page 229. 

 " Appendix V, m, 



' Letters from Nova Scotia, by Captain W. Moorsom, London, 1830 ; page 88. 

 " Appendix VII. 



' The Currency of the Colonies, London, 1848 ; page 89. 

 '» " " " pages 69, 79 and 94. 



" Appendix IX. 



