1805.] M€ér. Barrow’s Defence againft the Edinburgh Reviewer. 505 
port, whofe whole population before was un- 
der 20,000. The bills drawn by govern- 
ment were not circulated and brought zz 
competition with the common currency, but 
were given tothe merchants im exchange 
Sor tt—nor for the purpofe of payimg the 
foldier, but of purchafing his ration. The 
colonift had no knowledge of Englith bills ; 
they were confined chiefly to the Englith 
merchants, and fent home as remittances 
for goods purchafed in England, the pro- 
ductions of the colony being lefs fuitable 
to make their payments in. Thefe bills, 
as I have obferved, were firft iffued at par 
with the currency, but becoming as much 
an article of merchandize among the Eng- 
jith, who had remittances to make, as any 
thing eife, they foon bore a premium, pro- 
portioned to the demand for them, from 
five to thirty per cent. 
par, for the benefit of individuals, when 
that profit could fairly and honourably be 
applied to the public fervice, would have 
been a criminal neglect in thofe who were 
intrafled withthe government. Lord Mac- 
artaey, therefore, deemed it expedient to 
fix the premium at twenty per cent. or, 
more correctly {peaking, to fuffer it to 
proceed no higher, for the reafons I have 
alieady ftated. It may be faid that where 
there exifts a gain, a lofs muft be meurred 
fomewhere. The merchant, no doubt, 
took care to cover the per centage which 
he paid for his bills, by a proportionate 
advance on his goods; and thus the ex- 
change might operate as a trifling indirect 
tax on the general confumer of foreign 
articles, which the increafed profperity of 
the colony very well enabled them to pay. 
I fhall not difpute with the Reviewer on 
the general principle of a paper currency ; 
but, I can affure him, none of his con- 
clufions apply to that currency which is 
in univerf4l circulation at the Cape of 
Good Hope. ‘There being no other cir- 
culating medium to come in competition 
with it, and the quantity too fmall for the 
population, it fuffered no depreciation; 
and government gained by the peculiar 
civcumitances exifting in the fettlement. 
As the Reviewer takes no notice of the 
fecond article of profit to government, 
arifing out. of the importation of fpecie 
Sor the payment of the troops, I thall only 
obferve, that the nominal value of the dol. 
Jar in the Cape of Good Hope had been, 
for time immemorial, fixed at five fhillings 
(the rate at which it was iffued to the fol- 
dier) ; and as the firft coft in England did 
not exceed four fhillings and four-pence, 
the Reviewer could not, confitently, deny 
the fair profit arifing to government on 
‘*Monrury Maa. No. 123. 
To iffue bills at’ 
the importation of fpecie. Had he, in 
faét, noticed this article, he would have 
been obliged to fink the obfervations he 
has thought proper to make with refpeét 
to the payment of the troops in colonial cur- 
rency and debafed money, vecaule, under 
this head, it clearly appears they were not 
paid in any thing elfe than pecie. 
But on the fubject of the third article 
he is extremely indignant ; but his igno- 
rance is in fome degree excufable, as I 
have mezely fiated the faét, without en- 
tering into any explanation, in the follow- 
ing words: * The government alfo fent out 
about 4000l. of copper-money, in penny- 
pieces, which were circulated at two pence, 
from whence was derived another profit of 
4oool.”” Inftead of repeating the un- 
juft and illibera! conftruétion which he 
puts on this tranfattion, I fhail content 
myfelf by fhewing, not only its fairnef, 
but, the general advantage that refulted, 
from it. The great inconvenience expe- 
rienced by the colonifts from the want of 
afmaller fabdivifion of their circulating 
currency, was an evil which engaged the 
attention of Lord Macartoey at an early 
period of his government. The leatt de- 
nomination of the paper currency was 
fixpence ; fo that how finall a yuantity fo- 
ever might be wanted of any article of 
confumption, it became neceffary to pur- 
chafe to the value of fixpence at the 
very leaft, when one penny might have 
anlwered the purpofe equally as well, 
His Lordhhip, therefore, fubmitied, for 
the confideration of his Majetty’s. minif= | 
ters, a plan for fupplying the colony with 
a particular coinage of {mall filver money, 
from a penny upwards to fixpence ; on 
which, in order to fave time, they fent out 
the copper-pieces above-mentioned. Thee 
pieces,on the fuggeftion of the policeinagif- 
trates (who were intrufted with the tights 
of the’citizens) to Sir George Younge, 
were iffued at the rate of two-pence each, 
This was done for the following reafon: 
The Danes, Swedes, and Americans, trada 
ing to India and China, were in the prac. 
tice of buying up, at exorbitant high rates, 
all the {pecie, of every denomination, they 
could colleé&t at the Cape; and copper 
being a valuable article of merchnandize in 
India, where it is, at leaft, worth fifty per 
cent. more than in Europe, would have 
been taken in exchange for European 
goods, and carried away by thefe people, 
if it had been made current even at turee 
half-pence the piece; they, therefore, 
propofed, in order to fecure it to the co- 
lony, that its nominal and current value 
fhould be two-pence, And -in adopting 
(eee thig 
