Qnd §, No 15., Aprit 12, *56,] 
NOTES AND QUERIES, 
297 
for translation into the dialect of Languedoc by 
L’ Abbé Soularie, in a letter to a French countess, 
“sur le dépérissement des langues du midi,” 
Mereure de France; Esprit des Journaux, Oc- 
tobre, 1788. G. M, 
St. Martin’s, Guernsey. 
VARIATION OF CURRENCY. 
2" §, i. 153.) 
Currency, or the imaginary money of the British 
colonies, had its origin in various causes, The 
metallic circulation of these colonies consisted ori- 
ginally of Spanish and Portuguese coins*, current 
at nominal rates established by law or by custom, 
In the apportionment of those rates to British and 
foreign coins (determined in the first instance by 
the people, and afterwards modified by acts passed 
in the local legislatures and ratified by the Crown), 
the monetary denominations of the parent state 
were adopted ; and it appears that not only were 
different rates assigned to the same coins in dif- 
ferent colonies, but the rates assigned were rela- 
tively different with reference to the intrinsic 
value of the different coins. 
Thus, in most of the colonial possessions of the 
Crown, the British denominations of #£. s. d. were 
at an early period introduced into their pecuniary 
computations. At a subsequent period, in conse- 
quence of the scarcity of specie, the wear and 
mutilation of the coins, and the excessive issues 
of paper, various depreciations took place, which 
were liquidated at different rates of composition. 
Hence arose the various systems of currencies 
which prevailed in the West Indies and in Ame- 
rica; the monies of account, and the nominal 
prices of current coins, being raised so as to cor- 
respond with the depreciations respectively. 
Previous to the year 1838 the state of the me- 
tallic money of the West India colonies was in the 
highest degree confused and unsatisfactory: the 
conflicting character of the coins, and the various 
monetary denominations which existed, were the 
sources of innumerable difficulties and complaints. 
No fixed standard to which those denominations 
referred was provided by law; gold and silver 
coins bore no relative accurate adjustment, those 
of the former metal being generally oyer-valued 
with respect to those of the latter. 
In 1838 the subject was a second time brought | 
under the consideration of the Treasury Board, 
and a remedial measure introduced. A previous | 
order in couneil (of 1825) was revoked, and in- 
* The existence of these coins, as the medium of circu- 
lation in the West Indies and America, arose from the 
proximity of these colonies to the countries in possession 
of the mines from which the supplies of gold and silver 
(in the form of coins) were chiefly deriyed, 
structions transmitted by the Secretary of State 
to the governors of the several colonies in the 
West Indies (including the province of British 
Guiana), directing them to issue proclamations 
declaratory of the nominal value and rate at 
which the doubloon, dollar, and British shilling 
should circulate and be deemed a legal tender, — 
‘ ‘expressed in terms of the currency of those several colo- 
nies, according to the proportions and relative value of the 
coins fixed in Her Majesty’s proclamation.” 
Those rates are exhibited in the following tabular 
statement : 
Doubloon, dpalne. Dollar. 
fossa SiGe s. d, 
Jamaica = - 5 6 8 i's 6 115 
Barbadoes - - 5 0 0 1. 624~6 6 
Trinidad 
Grenada 
St. Vincent r Sg) 26/10 5 
Dominica 
Antigua 
St. Kitt’s = 
Montserrat " Rm: 72 2 ae 
Nevis 
~ is 
In Jamaica the ultimate object of this measure, 
_viz. the correct apportionment of the several de- 
scriptions of coins in circulation according to their 
respective values, thus preparing the way for the 
future conversion of the various monies of account 
into sterling denominations, was effected by an 
Act passed by the legislature of that island in the 
following year (1839), by which the currency of 
| the colony was assimilated to that of the United 
Kingdom. By this Act it was ordained that the 
doubloon shall be a legal tender at and after the 
rate of 64s., the dollar at 4s. 2d.*, and that the 
gold and silver coins of Great Britain shall be a 
legal tender to any amount at the rates current in 
the mother country. In many of the other islands 
of the British West Indies the old forms and de- 
nominations of money are still retained; virtually, 
however, and for all practical purposes, payments 
in doubloons and dollars (or either), at the rates 
before mentioned, viz. 64s. and 4s. 2d. respec- 
tively, are deemed and taken to be a lawful 
tender, in the same manner as if such tender had 
| been made in the current coin of the United 
Kingdom. 
It should be added, that by an order in council, 
dated August 19, 1853, the coins of the United 
States of America are declared to be equivalent, 
in Her Majesty’s West India colonies, to current 
money of the United Kingdom at the following 
* The conversion of the former currency ef Jamaica 
into sterling money is effected by deducting 40 per cent, 
from the amount of that currency, 
