Political Notes. 
155 
ratify them, they become statute laws; if not, they lose their 
efficacy. (See Constitution.) Before a law, passed by the 
Chambers, is enforced, it must be proclaimed by authority of 
the President. This proclamation is made by a public reading 
of the law by a military company in every city, town, village, 
and commune in the Republic. 
CURRENCY. 
' It is the peculiar maxim of Haytian merchants that gold is 
merchandise; fluctuating in value like other articles of com¬ 
merce. That is to say, the relation that gold (called monnaie 
forte or piastres) bears to the currency of the country, (or 
monnaie nationale,) is subject to the ordinary changes of trade. 
The entire retail commerce of the country is carried on in 
national money, of which the standard is the gourde, sometimes 
also called the Haytian dollar. At different times of the year 
the value of the piastre ranges at from twelve to sixteen 
gourdes; but in seasons of political trouble, as when the Revo¬ 
lution was progressing, it has even reached nineteen. The 
most noteworthy fact connected with the national currency is, 
that it chiefly consists of paper money, — bills, of about twice 
the size of American bank notes, of one and two gourdes in 
value. When the rate of exchange, or, as they say in Hayti, 
the value of the piastre, is as one to twelve, a gourde is worth 
85 cents American currency ; and a bill of two gourdes, there¬ 
fore, 161 cents. There are also metallic coins,— four gourdes, 
two gourdes, one gourde, and half a gourde, in silver-alloyed 
pieces; and the one gourdine, (^ gourde,) the gros cob, (of 
which there are 12 in a gourde,) and the petit-cob, (of which 
there are 24,) of copper. The value of one gros cob and one 
petit cob, is called an escalin, of which eight would make a 
gourde ; but, like the pence and shillings of New England, there 
is no coin of the name. Twelve French pounds weight of copper 
money is worth a hundred Haytian dollars. You can do noth¬ 
ing in the retail and internal trade with gold in Hayti. It is 
only the wholesale importing business of the country that takes 
