138 REPOET — 1867. 



The value of the vessels represented by tliis tonnage is about £627,000 sterling, or 

 £104,500 anuuall}', exclusive of the machinery fitted on hoard the steamers. The 

 average number of men and boys employed iii the shipbuilding yards is about 910. 

 The materials of which the vessels are constructed are generally brought from a 

 distance. The iron comes from the north of England and Glasgow; the wood 

 (except the oak, which is grown in the neighbourliood) from the Baltic, America, 

 and India. The chains and anchors are generally manufactiu-ed in Newcastle,_but 

 the sailcloth and cordage are produced in Dundee. The cost of the carriage of iron 

 and coal is a disadvantage that the Dundee shipbuilder labours under ; but it is not 

 a very serious obstacle, as these materials can be carried at a cheap rateby water, 

 and there are advantages to compensate, so that there is no reason why shipbuilding 

 may not be largely carried on in Dimdee. Iron as a material for shipbuilding is 

 here, as elsewhere, to a large extent talring the place of wood ; for we find that in 

 185.3 there were no iron ships building in Dundee, but for the last six years the 

 tonnage of the iron vessels has not been far short of the wooden ones, whilst there 

 is nearly double the tonnage of iron vessels on hand that there is of wooden ones. 



On tJie various MetJiods in which our coinage may he Decimalized — the Advan- 

 tages and Disadvantages of each. Bg F. P. Fellows, F.S.A., F.S.S. 

 This paper, after discussing the general principles that should guide us in choosing 

 for adoption any methods of decimalizing our coinage, described at length the 

 various plans that had been proposed. 



First. We could at once decimalize our money by adopting the American plan 

 of coining apiece eqiml to 100 haltiDence, or 4>.'. 2f/., or a dollar; the halfpenny 

 being equal to an American cent, and the 100 halfpence the dollar. 



This would be a very simple method, but the objections to it were, that the 

 halfpenny was too high for our lowest coin (the lartliing being much used by our 

 poorer classes), and the doUar of As. 2d. was not sufficiently high for our largest 

 coin. 



Secondly. There was what was commonly called the penny, tenpenny, and 

 hundredpt'nuy scheme — 1 penny being the unit or smallest coin, and lOOrZ. or 

 8s. id. the largest. The same objections applied to this as to the halfpenny and 

 dollar scheme, and if we are to express farthings and halfpence, we still retain 

 vulgar fractions. It had been suggested that the penny might be divided into ten 

 parts, and also that by a slight ch.mge in value, this would bring our system into 

 accord with French francs and centimes ; the centime being equal to nearly the 

 -^Lth of a penny, and the lOd. to a franc. The evils and difficulties of this 

 scheme were entered upon, and it was maintained tliat tlio tenth of a penny was 

 too low for our lowest coin, and would cause an imnecessary number of figures 

 to be written down. 



The third scheme discussed, proposed to commence at the half sovereign ; the 

 shilling being the tenth, the shilling being again divided into ten parts, and the 

 tenth of a shilling again decimally subdivided ; the lowest unit being the ||ths 

 of the half farthing. 



The difiiculties of the introduction of this scheme were stated to be the same 

 as those of the poimd and mil scheme, -which was next discussed. 



The fourth plan, viz. the pound and mil scheme, proposed to retain the present 

 sovereign, and to consider that, as now, the liighest coin of account. Thus wo 

 should have the present pound, the fiorin as the tenth of the pound, a coin of 

 the value of the tenth of a fiorin (between 2\d. and 2hJ.), and the lOOOth of a 

 pound, being ffths of the present farthing. 



This system woidd disarrange and throw out all our present copper coinage, 

 and the burden of the change would consequently be thrown mainly upon the poorer 

 and least educated classes, and therefore the least able to understand the new 

 system, or to accommodate themselves to it. Eespecting the ti-ansition period, it 

 was shown that the change wovdd be nearly as diihcidt as to inti'oduce an enth-ely 

 new coinage ; for that out of the 960 sums that could be paid from one farthing 

 to a pound, only forty, or about 4 per cent , could possibly oe paid with the new 



