1853.] 



ON THE PEOVINCIAL CURRENCY. 



1V9 



portion as they raised tlie denomination of tlieir coin, so tliat 

 tiieir g..)lJ and silver were exported as fast as ever." 



At lengtli the course of exchange was fixed at £90 sterling 

 for £100 currency, and this constitutes the bank par, the actual 

 exchange being adapted to this by the addition of a premium, 

 which has gradually I'isen to about 10-|-, from which it will not 

 probably vary much in future. 'J aking the premium at 9^, that 

 is, £90 stg. for £109^ currency, we have the value of £1 stg. to 

 be £l 4s. 4d., nearly, which is now its legal value. 



Taking the sterling standard of silver coin from our gold unit 

 we find the crown or 5s. exactly 6s. Id. 



I- Ciown 3s. O^d. 



Shilling ; ... Is. 2d. 3-5ths. 



Sixpence Os. 7d. 3-lOths. 



and these are also their values fixed by law except that the shil- 

 ling and sixpence are made equal to Is. 3d. and 7^d. for sake of 

 convenience. 



Turning to the United States money, we find tlie Eagle cur- 

 rent at £'2 10s., which is its coneet value, as compared with the 

 Sovereign ; and, taking the American relation of silver to gold, 

 this would make the dollar exactly 5s. ; or, taking its value as 

 compared with the current value of British silvei', it would be 

 ■worth about 5s. td.: we find it actually set down as legal tender 

 for 5.=. Id.; the half-dollar for 2s. 6M., and so on, the quarter 

 being diminished to Is. 3d., and the -^th of the dollar to T^-d. 

 The cause of this strange anomaly I am quite unable to discover, 

 but the etTect of it is to keep both British and American 

 gold out of circulation, 205. stg. going further than £l stg., 

 and 10 dollars going further than the eagle: in like man- 

 ner, the sterling shilling and six-pence being conventionally 

 raised relatively to the crown and half-crown, and the American 

 ■^ dollar and lower divisions being lowered i-elatively to the dol- 

 lar and -g- dollar, it follows that the circulation of crowns, half- 

 crowns, and the American j doUars and lower coins will be 

 materially retarded. 



I remarked before that any attempt to reconcile the two 

 cuiTencies of Great Britain and the United States, would be 

 . hopeless: it only remains then to discard our Provincial notation 

 and adopt one or other of these, with or without modifications. 

 Two proposals have lately been made — that of Sir John Paking- 

 ton, which was in effect, to coin for us sterling monies under our 

 present current denominations, such as seven-pence half-pennies, 

 one and three-peimies, and so on: this, stereotyping our present 

 absurdities, may be rejected at once: the other, was the bill 

 passed in the Provincial Legislature last year, and disallowed by 

 the Home Government for ostensible reasons which need not 

 here be discussed. This bill proposed simply that the £ sterling, 

 as determined by the United States' mint at $i. 86f, should be 

 as at present, denominated £1 4s. 4d. currency, and that of the 

 £ currency thus defined, one-fourth part should be called a dollar, 

 which should ever after be taken as the unit of monies, the 

 dollar being divided into one hundred cents, and all monies and 

 coins being determined by the proper ]")roportion of their value to 

 this value of the dollar. This proposal is undoubtedly simple, 

 clear and concise, being a great step in the right direction : in 

 fact, it would amount to adopting the American system in its 

 entireitv, both standard and notation. But, it may be remarked, 

 in the first plac?, that an entirely new coinage would be required, 

 as sterling money would no longer pass at the rates of American 

 monej', even conventionally as at present, and to this it is not 

 likely the British mint will consent. Secondly, that the American 

 notation should serve us both as an example and a warning; the 

 inconvenience felt in the practical currency of the United States, 

 arises from the circiimstanee of their having retained the old 

 coins along with the new denominations, and not having insisted 

 strongly enough on the division of the dollar into tenths or dimes. 



Thus the quarter dollar is not an exact number of dimes, and 

 the York-shilling and the sixpence not even an exact number of 

 cents; these coins ought to have been withdrawn altogether from 

 circulation ; the division should have run, not only in theory but 

 in practice, 10 cents, 1 dime— 10 dimes, 1 dollar, and no coin 

 should fall between the cent and dime which is not an exact 

 number of cents, nor any between the dime and dollar not an 

 exact number of dimes. In fact, the people should have been 

 made to count by tens upwards, instead of downwards, by halves, 

 quarteis, eighths, and sixteenths. This precaution was not taken 

 in the bill in question, and if it had been, would still moi'e strong- 

 ly have necessitated the use of new coins : prDbably they would 

 have been the dollar, the five-dime piece, or half-dollar, a two- 

 dime piece, the dime, and the cent. 



There is one remaining system to be examined, and to this I 

 would beg to direct especial atcention : it is the system proposed 

 to be adopted for a decimal division of sterling, recommended by 

 a commission of the best scientific men in the kingdom, and 

 which will probably be carried out in a few years in its integrity, 

 under the superintendence of the gi-eat Sir John Herschel. In 

 this division the £ sterling will contain ten florins, the florin 

 ten-pence, and the penny ten farthings, so that the currency will 

 consist of the following coins: — The pound often florins, or the 

 sovereign; the five-florin piece, or half-sovereign; a two-florin 

 piece, and the florin itself. The only new coin here requn-ed is 

 the double-florin, and this will probably be issued as soon as the 

 withdrawal from circulation of the crown and half-crown, already 

 begun, is completed. 



The divisions of the florin wdl be the five-penny piece, which 

 is the present shiUing sterling, the two-penny piece, for which the 

 dime might pass, and the penny ; with the lattei', some practical 

 difficulty exists, for being equal to two-pence two-fifths of the 

 present sterling, it would be too large for a copper coin, and too 

 small for silver. Three methods have been suggested for ob- 

 viating this difficulty — the first proposes to make a coin of a 

 convenient size of a proper alloy of silver and copper; the second 

 to have a copper coin with a central disk of silver ; and the third 

 to make the coin of silver, with a hole in the centre : any of the 

 three methods would probably do. 



For the divisions of the penny it would be sufficient to have 

 the farthing and a five-farthing piece, or half-penny : the farthing 

 being then the thousandth part of the pound, instead of one 

 nine-hundred and-sixtieth as at present, and nearly the same as 

 lialf a cent. 



This system, then, is complete in all its parts, more useful than 

 the federal money, because embracing a larger range, the pound 

 being as much more useful than the dollar in large transactions 

 as the farthing than the cent in small, and every coin being an 

 exact multiple of the lower denomination. 



In the adoption of this currency by Canada, there seems to be 

 no difficulty in the way ; all current sums would be turned at 

 once into sterling at the current rate, and after the trouble of the 

 first step, no fi'esh vexation would occur. There is little fear that 

 the mint would object to it, and the Province would have the honor 

 of outrunning the mother country in effecting perhaps the greatest 

 commercial reformation that has been made in moderntim times. 



The changes, which are here discussed with reference to money 

 merely, apply with still greater force to the numerous weights 

 and measures which are used bath here and elsewhere. The 

 anomalous and annoying divisions that occur in every depart- 

 ment, have long been a theme for scientific indignation ; but a 

 reformation of these will perha])s only be brought about at long 

 intervals. What was done in France at a single blow, will with 

 us be the" work of a longer but not less certain process : the 

 guinea of 21s. has at last disappeared — the score of 25, and the 



