1804.] 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
REPORT of the COMMITTEE of the 
HOUSE of COMMONS, appointed to en- 
quire into the STATE of IRELAND, as 
Za ifs CIRCULATING PAPER, ifs SPE- 
CIE, 47d CURRENT COIN, and the EX- 
CHANGE between that PART of the 
UNITED KINGDOM and GREAT BRI- 
TAIN, with their OBSERVATIONS and 
OPINION thereupon. 
OUR Committee having reported to 
the Houfe from time to time, the 
evidence and information laid befare them, 
are now to report fuch obfervations and 
opinions, as have occurred an the matters 
committed to their enquiry ; and they will 
firft proceed on the exchange between 
Great Britain and Ireland, which, for the 
clearer arrangement of fo intricate a fub- 
ject, they will canfider under the follow. 
ing heads; 
uft. As to the fa& of an unfavourable 
exchange exilting, and to what extent. 
2d. As to the caufes which have cre- 
ated it. 
3d. As to the remedies which can be 
yeforted to, for either removing or allevi- 
ating the inconveniences arifing from it. 
To elucidate the firft point, tables of 
the flate of exchange, for a long feries of 
years, between Dublin and London, have 
been produced by John Puget, Efq. from 
the books of his houfe; accounts have alfo 
been obtained of the (tate of exchange be- 
tween Be'faft and London, for a few years 
pall, differing from the former, fometimes 
even fo far as 10 per cent.; but this dif- 
ference is fully accounted for. In Belfatt 
the bills of exchange are purchafed by 
guineas, in Dublin by bank of Ireland 
and other bankers’ notes; and if the ex- 
change between Great Britain and Ireland 
be ftated as it actually exifts, where cui- 
neas are the circulating medium, your. 
Committee would be inclined to think that 
the exchange is now and actually bas been 
in favour of Ireland; but if it is to’ be ci- 
timated by the rates which prevail where 
paper is the circulating medium, the ex- 
ehange appears to be now, and to have 
been fince 1798, uniformly againft Ireland, 
and to have rifen to a degree wholly un- 
precedented ; the former they would call 
the real, and the latter the nominal rate ; 
and the difference between them arifes, as 
far as your Committee can form a judg- 
ment, from the depreciation of the circu- 
lating paper. They are the more induced 
to this opinion, by obferving that the va- 
riations in the price of guineas in Ireland, 
@r, in other words, the rate of the depre- 
Montuty Mac, No. 118. 
Report of the Committee on the Stateof Ireland. © | 95 
ciation of the circulating paper, keeps 
pace, in general, with the difference be- 
tween this real and nominal exchange. It 
is true, that fome doubts have been enter- 
tained, whether the price of guineas has 
not rifen above their intrinfic value in 
confequence of their fearcity, accafioned, 
ift, by the act impofing a reftriétian on 
their iffue; 2d, by quantities being hoard- 
ed; and 3d, by the conftant demand for 
them from the north of Ireland, where 
the payment of rents, purchafe of Inen,. 
and almoft all money tranfaétions, are car- 
ried on chiefly, if not folely, by {pecie ; 
but if a perfon poffeffed of a guinea, can 
get for it a guinea baok of Ireland note 
and alfo two fhillings, and if the perfon 
who wants the guinea is forced to give in 
addition to the bank of Ireland .cuinea 
note two fhillings to obtain the gold, it. 
feems evident that the paper being by fo 
much of le!s value than the guinea, is by 
fo much depreciated, more efpecially when 
exchange is the object of enquiry, whigh 
between any two countries is generally, if 
not always, eltimated on the value of 
{pecie or bullion; and the guinea in Rag. 
land and in Ireland being the fame coin 
current in each country, feems to be the 
true fiandard, to which circulating paper. 
fhould be referred for comparifon of va- 
lue. It is not to be fuppofed, that by any 
circumitances guineas can be rendered io 
per cent, higher in Ireland than in Eng- 
land, when the expence of conveying them 
fiom one country to the other. does not 
amount tox per cent.; but further,-the 
circulating paper of Ireland feems equally 
depreciated, when compared with a bank 
of England note; for though a note of 
each bank may profefs to reprefent the 
{ime quantity of gold, the man wh» wants 
to obtain the latter, will find the former 
as much inferior in value to it as it is to 
a golden guinea, and he muft give the 
fame addjtional fum to obtain it as to ob- 
tain the guinea. The caufts of this de- 
preciation of Irifh paper, and its effects 
upon exchange, your Committee will poft- 
pone, until they fliall enrer on the {econd 
part of the arrangement they have point- 
ed out; and in proceeding with their en- 
quiries into the prefent real fate cf the 
exchange, whether it be unfavourable or 
not (o Ireland, they wifh the Houfe to 
keep diftingt in their view the confideration 
of «n exchange being favourable or other- 
wife, trom that of the degiee or rate ia 
which it is fo, j 
Exchange becomes unfavourable to any 
country, when that country, being ia debe 
to another op the whole.fum of its moncy 
F tran- 
