28 MONEY. Tchap. ii. 



MONET. 



The Mexican dollar, the American half-dollar, and smaller 

 Spanish silver coins, are most commonly used in Madeira. 

 The money is all reckoned by an imaginary standard called a 

 ree, which is equal to about the one-twentieth part of a penny. 

 Cem reis, which the Portuguese call a tostao, and the English 

 a bit, equal fivepence ; two of these coins, equivalent to a 

 French/Vrtwc, the English call apistaree?i; they are represented 

 respectively, as far as currency is concerned, by the peseta and 

 half peseta of Spain. Two pesetas the Portuguese call a 

 crusado. The pesetas are sometimes of ancient date and in 

 excellent preservation, looking as if they had been long 

 hoarded, and accordingly many are the legends of secreted 

 treasures, and many the fruitless searches which have been 

 made under old floors for them. Mil reis, or patdca, is the 

 name applied to dollars, whether they be the pillared dollars 

 of Spain, the Mexican, Bolivian, or Peruvian, and all are re- 

 duced to the same value of four shillings and twopence. The 

 weight, indeed, and intrinsic value of all the different dollars 

 is nearly the same. The pillared dollars of Spain have ob- 

 tained a general preference, due either to the silver being less 

 alloyed, or, as some say, to their being the only dollar ac- 

 cepted by the Moors, who will take no coin to which they have 

 been unaccustomed. In China, where the value of silver is 

 of serious commercial consequence, there has been lately 

 published a curious official paper, setting forth the relative 

 worth to shopkeepers of the various coins. " It has already 

 been proved by assay," this document says, " that the quality 

 of ike fowl money (Mexican dollar), compared with the foreign 

 face money (Spanish dollar) is inferior in value one can- 

 dareen, 43-10 and decimals of a cash; that of the tree 



