BULLION. 



flullion. alloy. The standard weight of our guinea is 5 dwt. 

 rains | lmt the mon- ordinary weight, after a 

 coinage haw I icon in wear, is 5 dwt. 8 grain*. A gui- 

 nea below 5 dwt. 8 grains is no longer a le^al tender, 

 nor is there any penalty in melting and uaing it for 

 the purposes of manufacture. It cannot, however, 

 be exported. Tiie standard price of gold it L.3, 17. 

 '.. an o/.. ; the standard price of ^ilver is 5s. 2d. 

 an oz. The relative value of gold to silver is some- 

 what different in different currencies. In ours it is 

 (according to Dr Kelly } as 15J1 to 1 ; in Paris 15 T V 

 to 1, which is very nearly the same; in the United 

 States it is about 15 to 1 ; in Hamburgh 14.7, and 

 in Amsterdam 14.8 to 1. 



Until a century ago, silver was the standard metal 

 in our currency, as it still is in the currencies of Hol- 

 land and Hamburgh. Sice 1717, gold has been our 

 standard. Gold bullion in our markets vras, during 

 many years, at a very slight variation from the coin- 

 age price, with the exception of an interval previous 

 to the great recoinage in 1773, when the worn and 

 degraded state of our guineas made uncoined gold 

 comparatively high. It rose, however, no higher 

 than L..4, or L.. 4, Is. per ox., and fell to its proper 

 level as soon as our coin was renewed. . But in silver 

 it has unluckily happened, during more than a cen- 

 tury, that the market price has exceeded the coinage 

 value of 5s. 2d. an oz. Hence a powerful tempta- 

 tion to melt the coin ; and hence the cause of the 

 sudden disappearance of the expensive coinage execu- 

 ted in King William's reign. 



India and China, which used for ages to receive 

 large supplies of silver from Europe, have of late years 

 drawn them direct from America ; one result, among 

 others, of the extended traffic of the United States. 

 It happens indeed, oddly enough, that in consequence 

 of the high price of bullion in England, our mint is 

 now at work on silver imported from Bengal. The 

 partial diminution which lias taken place in the pre- 

 sent age in the relative value of silver to gold, is to 

 be accounted for by the difference in the quantities 

 respectively produced at the American mines, where 

 gold has hardly kept up its former amount, (Evidence, 

 Bullion Committee, p. 129,) the supply of silver has 

 been nearly doubled. Mexico is in this, as in other 

 respects, by far the foremost of the Spanish colonies, 

 the yearly produce of her silver mines appearing now 

 to amount to nearly five millions sterling. The col- 

 lective produce of the rest of Spanish America in 

 silver and gold, may be estimated at three millions 

 more. Adding to these somewluit less thaa a rail, 

 lion sterling for the produce of Portuguese America in 

 both metals, and somewhat more than another million 

 for the mines of our own hemisphere, we make a total 

 often millions sterling annually, added to the stock 

 of the precious metals throughout the world. When 

 we thus find that the produce of the mines of the 

 old world form a tenth part only of those of the 

 new, we need hardly wonder at the rapid decrease 

 in the value of the precious metals which took place 

 throughout Europe in the sixteenth ceutury, the 

 time when the Spanish American mines began to be 

 effectually wrought. A much greater fall would 

 have ensued, had not the extended commerce to India 

 and China opened, chiefly through the medium of 

 the Dutch, a wide vent for these metallic treasures. 



It appeart, from tablet in the Appendix lo the fluUw* 

 it the relative weight of gold 

 annually produced it to that of tilver at one to fifty- 

 value at one to three and a half. 

 Spain being the country in Europe which u tuppotrd 

 to feel the effect of depreciation in the firtt iuunce t 

 the b'-.i of her corn markets becomet an object of 

 consideration. In obterviuz the course of price* in 

 them during the century from 1S>75 to !?(>>, we 

 find very littK- appearance of cnhano ment ; a circum- 

 stance which tertct to confirm Dr Smith't opinion, 

 that during that period there wat DO material rite 

 in the money price of commoditict, while, on coming 

 to a later epoch, from 1 1 787, the enhance* 



ment that took place in the Spanish corn markets, (vfp- 

 pcudixlo }>it!/i<."i /i- 'ii-t, p. 183,) will be found to Dear 

 a close resemblance to wf.at happened in our own. 



II. We now cor.ie to the second division of our 

 article, we mean the question that is still pending, in 

 regard to the resumption of cash payment* by the 

 Bank of England. W may look back to the histo- 

 ry of parliamentary proceeding* for ages, without be- 

 ing enabled to find a topic which has excited a larger 

 share of public interest, or more ample contributions 

 of individual exertion, both in aud out of parliament ; 

 contributions creditable, on the whole, to their au- 

 thors, though often marked by the erroneout con- 

 clusions inseparable from the application of a limited 

 experience to the discussion of a wide and complica- 

 ted subject. 



Among the various inconveniencet produced by 

 our eager participation in the war of the French Re- 

 volution, one of the most considerable was the over- 

 throw of our exchanges. That this was not imme- 

 diately perceptible in 1793, must have been owing to 

 the circumstance of our aid consisting not in money 

 but in troops, and to the large proportion of military 

 stores transported from England. Next summer, the 

 commencement of the Prussian subsidy caused a tem- 

 porary depression of the exchange, which ceased to 

 exist as soon as it became known, that the infidelity 

 of that power to its engagements would lead to a 

 suspension of our remittances. Besides, Holland and 

 all the north of Germany being open to our mer- 

 chants during ITiH, the counteracting power of 

 commerce had full play in affording a corrective to 

 those encroachments which public expences abroad 

 never fail to make in the natural levtl of exchange. 

 But in 1795, the case became very different. Our 

 troops had been withdrawn, and our contribution to 

 the continental struggle consisted wholly in money. 

 Holland was no longer open to our commerce, and, 

 what was unfortunately of much more consequence, 

 a deficiency in oar harvest forced ui to auke larger 

 importations of corn from the north of Europe. Toe 

 balance of commercial payments came thus to be add- 

 ed to the balance of political payment*, and their 

 conjunct effect was a considerable reduction of the 

 exchange. Of the distressing consequences of thit 

 state of things, both to our merchants and to govern- 

 ment, those only can judge who knew the pecuniary 

 straits of 1795 und 179(3, or who have read, in the 

 rrporto of our parliamentary committees, the anxious 

 conferences and correspondence between Mr Pitt and 

 the Bank directors. It was then (November 1795) 

 that the directors declared that gold bad risen in tbi 



