624 



CURRENCY 



CURSE OF SCOTLAND 



substitutes for the metallic money of a country, 

 especially bank-notes. The leading question among 

 political economists regarding currency is, how far 

 it should be restrained. The most effectual method 

 of restraining it is by confining it to the precious 

 metals. If it were law that none but a gold cur- 

 rency should be used in any country, and if, at the 

 same time, there were no effort to tamper with this 

 gold currency, and give it an artificial value, the 

 currency of that country would always be adjusted 

 to the general level of prices throughout the com- 

 mercial world, and if it were redundant would be 

 at once exported, and if deficient at once imported 

 in exchange for commodities. 



A country which does not produce gold must 

 pay for its gold with commodities, and conse- 

 quently it is a very expensive currency, and 

 therefore, ever since man's ingenuity was turned 

 to trade, methods have been devised for super- 

 seding gold or the other precious metals by 

 something cheaper. Unless, however, law or 

 custom intervenes to give it efficiency, this cheaper 

 material will only be worth its own (so-called) 

 intrinsic value. A five-pound Bank of England 

 note is worth so little in its intrinsic value as a 

 picture upon thin paper, that such a value can 

 hardly be expressed. It derives its power as cur- 

 rency from the obligation it fixes on a great rich 

 corporation to make good its professed amount to 

 the holder. We thus pass from a purely bullion 

 currency to the next step of restraint, which is 

 generally called a mixecf currency. Here some 

 maintain that no note should be issued unless the 

 banker or other person issuing it has in his posses- 

 sion as much bullion as will pay it. Others say it 

 is sufficient that he is bound to pay its amount in 

 bullion on demand without his actually possessing 

 the bullion throughout the whole period of the cur- 

 rency of the note. A third party, again, are for a 

 currency entirely free of a metallic basis ; they hold 

 that naturally paper money, passing from hand to 

 hand, will represent transactions, and will there- 

 fore come in the end to be made good in some shape 

 or other ; and they further hold, that if some losses 

 should thus occur, these will be more than com- 

 pensated by the rapid increase of trade and enter- 

 prise, caused by a free trade in currency, as it is 

 termed that is to say, by every man issuing his 

 own notes or promises to pay to whoever will take 

 them. As a matter of fact, every nation beyond 

 the first stage of civilisation has always regulated 

 its currency, and Adam Smith carefully points out 

 that this is no real infringement of natural liberty 

 and free trade. Through a succession of practical 

 measures, reached with considerable caution, the 

 English have come to a mixed currency, resting on 

 a compromise between the two classes of mixed 

 currency above referred to. In the theory of the 

 measures brought to completion under Sir Robert 

 Peel in 1844, it is admitted that, to a certain ex- 

 tent, a currency can be based on transactions and 

 the property of those concerned in them, but that 

 a limit must be drawn, to prevent the power of 

 creating such a currency from running to excess, by 

 the issue of notes which cannot be immediately 

 made good by those who issue them. Accordingly, 

 the several banks in existence were allowed to 

 continue their note circulation, but they were per- 

 mitted to increase it only on the condition of 

 having bullion in their coffers to pay the additional 

 notes issued by them. 



A currency which is not worth its nominal value 

 in bullion is called a ' depreciated currency.' Dur- 

 ing the period of the restriction of cash payments 

 (1797-1821 ), the notes of the Bank of England were 

 at one time ( 1816 ) depreciated 16| per cent. Before 

 the resumption of cash payments, the notes of the 

 bank of England had sunk to be worth but 16s. in 



the pound, as compared with gold. During the 

 civil war in the United States, the paper dollar 

 sank in 1864 to 38 cents ; it did not reach par ( 100 

 cents) till 1879. A depreciated currency may be 

 created by a government calling notes or any 

 other form of money a legal standard, and issuing 

 a greater quantity of it than the real trans- 

 actions of the country and the property passing 

 from hand to hand require ; or it may be created by 

 private persons acting under laws by which the 

 right of issuing a currency is not duly limited. 

 This faculty which a currency has of becoming- 

 depreciated without being repudiated, is the real 

 source of danger in all proposals for an unfettered 

 currency, or a free trade in the issue of money. If 

 the bank-notes for which bullion cannot be immedi- 

 ately obtained were repudiated, there might be a 

 natural che^k on over-issues ; but it is their nature, 

 on account of the difficulty of getting bullion for 

 them, or the chance that it may never be got, that 

 they pass at a discount or reduction of their value. 

 Hence such a currency would be ever shifting ; 

 there would be no permanent standard, and the 



Eerson incurring a debt before a depreciation which 

 e pays afterwards would, in reality, be paying his 

 creditor a dividend only. A ' token ' currency, the 

 material of which is avowedly overvalued, and 

 which is issued in limited quantities for use in 

 small payments, must be distinguished from a 

 depreciated currency. In the silver currency of 

 Britain, a pound is worth little more than four- 

 fifths of a sovereign, even at the old valuation of 

 silver, at about 6()d. per oz. If a person due 100 

 could pay it in silver, he would get off with a divi- 

 dend of from 16s. to 18s. in the pound ; but bylaw, 

 silver is not a legal tender for more than 40s. The 

 copper currency is so far below its real value, that 

 it has not been thought worth while to give it a 

 permanent weight the pence and halfpence now 

 issued are little more than half the weight of those 

 of former mintages ; but they are only a medium 

 for small sums, and the royal stamp establishes 

 reliance. See BIMETALLISM, BULLION, MONEY, 

 and W. A. Shaw's History of Currency (1895). 



Currents, OCEANIC, are treated in the articles 

 on the oceans to which they belong ATLANTIC, 

 PACIFIC, &c. See also GULF STREAM, SEA, and 

 the Map of the Atlantic in Vol. I. 



Currie, JAMES, the earliest editor of Burns, was 

 born at Kirkpatrick Fleming manse, in Dumfries- 

 shire, 31st May 1756. He spent five years at Cabin 

 Point, Virginia, in a mercantile situation (1771- 

 76), then studied medicine at Edinburgh and 

 Glasgow; and settling in Liverpool in 1780, soon 

 obtained a good practice. His chief medical work 

 was the able Reports on the Effects of Water in 

 Febrile Disease (1797) ; but he is best remembered 

 by his edition of Burns (1800 ; 7th ed. 1813), with 

 a Life and criticism of the poet's writings, which he 

 undertook solely for the benefit of Burns's family, 

 and which was long the basis of all subsequent 

 editions. Dr Currie died at Sidmouth, 31st August 

 1805. See the Life by his son (2 vols. 1831 ). 



Currying. See LEATHER. 



Curry Powder, or CURRY PASTE, is a com- 

 pound of turmeric, coriander, pepper, ginger, and 

 various spices ; it is used to a large extent in India 

 and elsewhere as a seasoning for a variety of 

 dishes. 



Curse Of Scotland, a term popularly applied 

 to the nine of diamonds in a pack of playing-cards. 

 Perhaps the least worthless of the many explana- 

 tions offered is that it involves a reference to the 

 detestation entertained in Scotland towards John 

 Dalrymple, first Earl of Stair, on account of hia 

 activity in promoting the Union, and especially for 

 his share in the Massacre of Glencoe. His heraldic 



