112 
Agricultural Weights and Measures. 
Surely this is clear enough. The farmer feels instinctively 
that the first course open to him means 100 sovereigns where 
the second means 67 and the third 63. Once established as a 
scale of comparison, the decimal system may almost be said to 
do its own translation into whatever sum or quantity is most 
familiar to each individual in his own transactions. The poor 
will at once grasp the difference between the article a pound 
of which costs a penny and the article a pound of which costs 
less than a penny, while the well-to-do who think, as we may 
say, “ in consols.” will with equal readiness perceive what 
values are above and below 'par. 
There is another complication introduced very gratuitously 
by the mints, and we must observe in passing that this is no 
excursus into a non-agricultural matter, but is vital to the main 
subject. Farming is a tra*de as well as an art. Crops are grown 
for money, and diversities in money remuneration, already made 
bad enough by so odd a scale as 12 and 20 mixed, are rendered 
far worse when diversities in the intrinsic value of the money 
assert themselves. Cannot the chemists find a method of 
hardening gold and silver for trade use and so give us pure 
money ? At present only China has this. Thus the respective 
finenesses of seven leading coins are as follows : — 
1. The Sovereign 
2. The Dollar 
3. The Franc 
4. The Rupee 
5. The Guelder 
6. The Tael. 
7. The Rouble 
•916667 fine, 
•900000 „ 
•900000 „ 
•916667 „ 
•945000 „ 
1-000000 „ 
•868060 
or pure gold 
,, silver 
n 
n v 
n n 
f> n 
M v 
For the first five of these we are indebted to Mr. Norman’s 
Cambist (London, 1897), and Mr. Norman, an apologist of 
the mints, apparently in this respect, though not in others, 
dismisses the tael as a weight. Is alloy necessary to make 
a coin ? Of course one concedes that a big and rapid trade 
would render soft metal impossible. But, as already remarked, 
has the possibility of a chemical hardening of precious metal 
been considered ? The degradation of the rouble will be 
noted ; our figures are derived from a Russian official source. 
The Bank of England will buy gold in unlimited quantity at 
31. 17 s. 9 d. per ounce of pure metal. It only makes a penny 
profit on the transaction. 
The Uruguayan system is one of inconvertible paper. In 
this case the difficulties of alloy are, together with many other 
troubles, such as wear and tear, &c., escaped ; but the value of 
the paper depends on the national honour ; and here again 
infinite diversity makes its appearance. 
The ratio of silver to gold is a further source of market 
diversity. Japan, the latest country to grapple with this 
