E X C 
EXCES'SIVE, adj. lexceffif, Fr.] Beyond the com¬ 
mon proportion of quantity or bulk.—If the panicum be 
laid below and about the bottom of a root, it will caufe 
the root to grow to an excejfive bignefs. Bacon. —Vehement 
beyond meafure in kindnefs or diilike.—Be not excejfive 
toward any. Ecclef —The people’s property it is, by excej¬ 
five favour, to bring-great men to mifery, and then to be 
excejfive in pity. Hayward. 
EXCES'SIVELY, adv. Exceedingly; eminently; in 
a great degree.'—A man mud be exajjively (lupid, as well 
as uncharitable, who believes there is no virtue but on 
his own fide. Addfon. —Voracioufly : 
Which having fwallow’d up exccffively. 
He foone in vomit up aguiue doth lay. Spenfcr. 
To EXCHA'NGE,ti. a. [exchanger, Fr. excambiare, low 
Lai.] To give or quit one thing for the fake of gaining 
another.—They (hall not fell of it, neither exchange nor 
alienate the firft fruits. Ezek. xlviii. 14.—Take delight 
in the good things of this v'orld, fo as to remember 
that we are to part with them, and to exchange them for 
more excellent and durable enjoyments. Atterbury. —To 
give or take reciprocally : 
Exchange forgivenefs with me, noble Hamlet; 
Mine and my father’s blood, be not upon thee, 
Nor thine on me. Shahefpeare. 
It has 'with before the perfon with wlponi the exchange is 
made, and for before the thing taken in exchange.—The 
king called in the old money, and eredted exchanges 
where the weight of old money was exchanged for new. 
Camden. —Being acquainted with the laws and fafliions of 
his own country, he has fomething to exchange with thofe 
abroad. Locke. 
EXCH A'NGE, f . The adt of giving and receiving re- 
ciprocally : 
And thus they parted, with exchange of harms ; 
Much blood the monller loft, and they their arms. Waller. 
Traffic by permutation.—The world is maintained by 
intercourfe ; and the whole courfe of nature is a great ex¬ 
change, in which one good turn is, and ought to be, the 
(fated price of another. South. —The form or adt of trans¬ 
ferring, properly by bills or notes. See Bit.l of Ex¬ 
change, vol.iii. p. 29—37. The balanceof the money 
of different nations. The thing given in return for fome¬ 
thing received.—Spend all I have, only give me fo much 
time in exchange of it. Shakefpeare. 
If blood you feek, I will my own refign ; 
O fpare her life, and in exchange take mine. Dry den. 
The thing received in return for fomething given.—The 
refpedl and love.which was paid you by all, who had the 
happinefs to know you, was a wife exchange for the 
honours of the court. Dryden. —The place where mer¬ 
chants meet to negociate their affairs ; as the Royal Ex¬ 
change of London ; the Mint, for the exchange of plate or 
bullion for currentcoin; the Stock-Exchange, or any place 
of barter: 
No thing, no place is ftrangc, 
While his fair boforn is the world’s exchange. Denham. 
EXCHA'NGE, among merchants, is the mode by 
which thofe of one country pay the debts due by them 
to thofe of another, without the politive tranfmiffion of 
fpecie or bullion. The means of doing fo are facilitated 
by thofe reprefentatives of money called Bills of Ex¬ 
change, for which fee vol. iii. p. 29 — 37. 
The comparative value of the refpedtive currencies of 
different countries is the foundation of Exchange. This 
value is eftimated by the weight and purity of the gold 
and filver coin of each country, and is called the par, or 
equality of exchange. The rate of.exchange, that is, the 
adlual price for which the money of one country is fold in 
another, though founded on the par, varies according to 
the circumftances in _which the two countries may be 
placed. It is affedted principally and legitimately by the 
adlual balance of trade between the two countries, and 
Vol. VII. No. 4x1. 
E X C 97 
the consequent neceffity of remittances to difeharge the 
debts which may have been contradled between them. 
But this effedt will not be ferioufly felt if the general ba¬ 
lance of trade is at the time in favour of the country hav¬ 
ing occafion to remit. In that cafe, feme other country 
muff be indebted to it, and from which a transfer of debt 
may be made with greater advantage. To afeertain or 
difeover that country, is the objedt of what is called the 
Arbitration of Exchange. See Arithmetic, vol. ii. p. 180. 
Thus, if a merchant in London is indebted to another in 
Paris, and the exchange at London on Paris diredl is 25 
livres, 8 fols, per pound fterling; on Hambro, 35s. 6d. 
per pound fterling; and that at Paris on Hamburghls at 
197 livres per 100 marks banco—he would purchafe a 
bill on Hamburgh and remit it to Paris to be negociated 
there at 197, which would produce to him as many 
livres tournois, as though he had been able to obtain a 
bill on Paris diredt at the exchange of 26liv. 4s. 6d. per 
pound fterling : thus availing himfelf of the general ba¬ 
lance of trade when the particular balance was againft him. 
The political fituation of any country, and the opinion 
which may be entertained of the fafety of property there, 
will alfo for the time aftedt the rate of exchange. An 
habitual depreciation of the currency, or the fubftitution 
of paper-money for fpecie, will alfo reduce the exchange of 
any country, and that redudlion will conform itfelf, from 
time to time, to the eftimated depreciation, and continue 
until the depreciation is at an end. Such was the cafe 
when the light gold was current in this country. No 
fooner was it called in and recoined, than the exchange 
refnmed its former ftate. The fame effedl was produced 
in France, from the depreciated and worn ftate of the 
coin of that country about the fame period. Thefe cir¬ 
cumftances (hew the natural tendency of exchange to place 
itfelf on a level with the abfolute, not the nominal, value of 
the currencies of the country to w'hich it refers. If any 
thing were required to render this fuel ftill more clear, 
we need only refer to the very rapid decline of the ex¬ 
change betw’een Paris and London, during the period of 
the forced and cxceffive circulation of ajfignats, Which in a 
(hort time fuffered a depreciation of 70 or 80 per cent, 
and when fpecie could no longer be obtained at any rate 
for this nominal money, all commercial negociation be¬ 
tween the countries ceafed. Paper-money having now 
entirely difappeared in that country, the exchange has 
returned to its former ftate. 
It might be infilled upon that the prefent currency of 
England rs a paper one, and that our exchange has not 
fuffered in coniequence of it. True : but it is not a forced 
and excefiive currency ; it is one fupported by the unani¬ 
mous voice and general confidence of the people. Neither 
gold nor filver can purchafe more of any commodity than 
the fame nominal fum tendered in Bank of England notes. 
It is therefore not a depreciated currency : it keeps pace 
with the fterling value of our coin. It is not, however, 
to be difguifed, that paper currency cannot refill an attack 
with the fame power as that of gold and filver. Should 
our fituation ever become fuch as to excite the alarms of 
foreigners for the liability of our government, and the con- 
lequent danger of their property, or even our ability to 
fuftain the current value of our paper, each caufe will 
operate in addition to the others, and the depreciation 
would be fatal. But fo long as our paper currency is 
upheld by ourfelves, and the political fituation of the 
country continues to allure to foreigners the fafety of their 
property in our hands, the courfe of exchange will never 
be affedled by the preceding caufe. It is otherwife in 
Ireland ; there a depreciation has been effected. From 
the determination of the people of the north to receive 
guineas only for their produce, two courfes of exchange 
have been made between that country and England, to 
a difadvantage of 10 per cent, to the fouthern par f ^ 
which receives Irifti bank notes; thus proving a depre¬ 
ciation of the notes to that extent: and in fadt it is af- 
ferted, (1804,).that, for fome time part, 110 guineas in Irifti 
bank notes have been given- in Dublin for 100 guineas in 
C c ~ fpecie ! 
