MONEY. 



encouraged, and imports of goods which would 

 have drawn money away, were discouraged. It 

 was overlooked that the money itself was useful 

 only as a convenient means of obtaining other 

 commodities, and that it must be advantageous 

 to a nation to part with its money for commodities 

 which it wanted, when it could get them cheaper 

 from abroad than it could produce them at home. 

 It used to be said that we can only establish a 

 profitable trade when we pay in our own manu- 

 factures. Now, paying in gold is, after all, 

 indirectly paying with our own manufactures, for 

 except the comparatively trifling quantity that 

 may have been taken in war, or that may have 

 been brought home in their own possession by 

 persons who had gone as diggers to the gold 

 countries there is not an ounce of bullion in the 

 country that has not been obtained in exchange 

 for some article produced either by our manu- 

 facturing or agricultural industry. Let him who 

 doubts this position, try if he can discover any 

 other method by which gold can have found its 

 way to this country. 



Coined Money. Gold and silver were formerly 

 chiefly brought from the mines of South America ; 

 now large quantities are obtained yearly from Aus- 

 tralia, California, and the Ural Mountains. They are 

 generally imported in the form of bars, and some- 

 times as dust; and in this rude state are commer- 

 cially named bullion. The price of bullion in the 

 market is liable to fluctuations, according to the 

 cost of production, the supply, and the demand. 

 However, the variation, as we have said, is never 

 very great, and has little sensible effect on the 

 coinage. It is customary to estimate the purity 

 of gold by an imaginary standard of 24 carats. 

 The carat is a small weight of universal use, 

 containing 4 grains. It originated from the carat 

 or kaura, a small bean, used by the Abyssinians 

 for weighing gold. Diamonds are also weighed 

 by it. If in a piece of gold weighing 24 carats 

 there be -* of alloy, then the piece is i below the 

 standard. What is called jewellers' gold is seldom 

 purer than 20 fine to 4 of alloy the alloy being 

 usually silver, but sometimes copper, which gives 

 a deeper red tinge to the metal. Perfectly pure 

 gold is never seen either in trinkets or coins, for 

 it is too ductile, and for that and other reasons 

 requires a certain quantity of alloy. Sovereigns 

 and other modern English gold coins contain -fa 

 of alloy ; but this twelfth is not reckoned as gold 

 in point of value. At present, the gold coin of 

 Great Britain is issued at very nearly its precise 

 market value as bullion. A pound-weight of 

 gold, of 22 carats fineness, produces coins to 

 the amount of 46, 143. 6d., which is about the 

 price at which bullion sells for in the market. 

 Thus, the gold of our currency is coined free of 

 expense, or at the rate of 3, 175. io|d. per ounce 

 the weight of a sovereign being 5 dwt. 3-274 

 grains. In coining silver, government is allowed, 

 by the Act 56 George III., a profit or seigniorage 

 of about 6 per cent. ; the pound-weight of silver, 

 which should produce 625., being coined into 66s. 

 that is, at the rate of 53. 6d. per ounce. Our 

 silver coins being, therefore, of a little less real 

 value than the sums they represent, they are not 

 liable to be melted down by silversmiths for the 

 manufacture of articles in their trade. There is 

 now no fixed price paid at the Mint to the 

 public for silver as for gold, the government 



j having taken the coinage of silver into its own 

 hands. 



Money of the current and standard coinage is 

 frequently signified by the term sterling, as ' one 

 pound sterling,' &c. With respect to the origin 

 of the word sterling, it is, among other guesses, 

 supposed that it is derived from Esterling ; for in 

 the time of Henry III. it is called Moneta Ester- 

 lingorum, the money of the Esterlings, or people 

 of the East (of Germany), who came hither to 

 refine the silver of which it was made j and hence 

 it was valued more than any other coin, on account 

 of the purity of its substance. The denomination 

 of the weights and their parts is of the Saxon or 

 Esterling tongue as pound, shilling, penny, and 

 farthing, which are so called in their language to 

 the present day. 



The following is a short explanation of the 

 origin of the principal terms used in reference to 

 coined money : The word money is from the 

 temple of Juno Moneta, in which money was first 

 coined by the ancients. Pecuniary is from pecus, 

 a flock flocks and herds of animals being origin- 

 ally equivalent to money, or things constituting 

 wealth. Cash, in commerce, signifies ready money, 

 or actual coin paid on the instant, and is from the 

 French word caisse, a coffer or chest in which 

 money is kept. Pound never was a coin ; the 

 term was originally employed to signify a pound- 

 weight of silver, but afterwards it was applied to 

 mean 203. in tale, or by counting. Guinea took 

 its name from the coast _of Guinea, in Africa, 

 whence the gold for it was 'originally brought ; at 

 first, the piece was current at 205., afterwards it 

 was equal to 2 is. 6d., and finally settled at 2 is. 

 In the present day, the guinea is not coined, and 

 the term only remains to indicate 2 is. Honorary 

 fees and gifts are still usually reckoned in guineas, 

 though paid in other money. Shilling and penny 

 are both from Saxon words : the penny was first 

 coined in silver. Groat was a name given to 

 silver pieces equal to four pennies in value, coined 

 by Edward III. : the word groats is a corruption 

 of grosses, or great pieces, and was given to dis- 

 tinguish this larger coinage from pennies or small 

 coins. Farthing is a corruption otjourthing, or 

 the fourth part of a penny. 



The coining of money forms one of the exclusive 

 privileges of the crown, and the counterfeiting of 

 it constituted formerly the offence of high treason. 

 Severe punishment is inflicted on those counter- 

 feiting or uttering false coins, and on those making, 

 mending, or having in possession any coining-tools. 



A currency of gold is the most secure and per- 

 manent, and the pieces are received for their 

 proper value in all countries. But a metallic 

 currency alone is quite unsuitable in highly com- 

 mercial communities. Not only would it be 

 highly inconvenient, if not impracticable, in the 

 ordinary course of business, to pay large sums 

 in coin, but a heavy loss would also be incurred 

 annually from tear and wear. Nor would that 

 be all The additional amount of coin that would 

 be required in this country, were bank-notes 

 abolished, would be enormous ; and the loss 

 of profit on such a sum, if withdrawn from pro- 

 ductive purposes, and devoted to no other use 

 than that of exchange, would amount to millions. 

 The additional gold could not be got by us with- 

 out our giving an equal value of our manufactur- 

 ing and agricultural products in exchange for 



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