The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1803-04-01 00:00:00

letters of the English merehante, tbutuncleg to their
correspondents 44 thet the exclange it more and
more ameliorated, Isecat6e the balaace of coniinerce
jc entirely in favour of England."
But what is this more than the favourable balance
of commerce in a conetry where the circulating
medium consists of paper-money,' In a country where
we constantly see the price of every article of gold
and silver, greater in proportion than the nominal
value of the money.
This fat remarkable, and produces a result
very importent in the affairs of your country ; and
yogi shall judge of it. . The Bank, in order to ren-
der the public disi s crested, with regard to the ques-
tion of the forced bilis, and to pacify the smell con-
sumers, mechanics, and the lower orders, pays hills
in money, which do not exceed one pound sterling.
It is then obliged to purchase the metal for•which it
has occasion, in order to convert it into money ;
thus, an ounce of slyer (troy weight) professing
to weigh eleven pennyweights two grains, converted
into money, is issued to the public for ss. Cd. ster-
ling, but en ounce of silver in ingots, if the same
weight, is taken in trade as ss. ed.
Consequently the value of an ingot of silver is
six-pence sterling an ounce more than that of mo-
ney.
This difference (about 10 per cent.) is a pure loss
to the Bank, when it is obliged to coin money to
pay its bills ; that is to say, it must give abort !Mg.
sterling in bills, crowns, or shillings, which is in
other terms a depreciation of 9 or 10 per cent. on
time Belk bill. (though the exchange of these hills
should be made at par, wish regard to money,)
depreciation, the effeet of which must he necessarily
felt, either when die rate of your exchange is
abandonee to its natural course, or on the value of
your merehandite.
If your balance of commerce was really as ft-
viwable as you would induce a belief it ee the price
of precious metals would obtain a level with the
value of your money, by the more abundant im-
portation of those metals which, in that easy, would
be sent to you at the expence of the Continent to
acquit. the balance ; whereas, oa the contrary, it is
only by the efforts of extraordinary expellees that
you can suceeed in procuring that quantity of pi-
astres and ingots which are indispensably necessary
for you.
Your Ea:.t India Company will discharge this
year, in India, a debt of three'or four millions ster-
ling ; for that purpose it must collect a cargo of
piastres, for which it must offer a price of 651 the
ounce, or .ss. 6d. (2.i
The prohibition of exporting to France wrought
gold and silver, materially interferes with the views
and the wants of the Company ; it must seek other
markets ; it is necessary those markets should be
abundantly furnished, and that they should possess
the means of a r-ompt conveyance. I contemplate
in this much time lost, and expeditions prepared in
Europe, and announced in India, postponed by the
pressure of events to a distant period, the least in-
convenince will be that ref raising the value of these
piastres, the whole amount of the expence of con-
veying them by the loug- voyage they must be sent
by any other passage but that of France, you may
calculate the encrense of value at nearly three per
cent.
Now the value of money with which you carry on
your affairs being appreciated at a just rate, it ap-
pears to me evident, that foreigners, informed with
regard to their own interests, will calculate on the
advantages which may result to them from aeling in
direel opposition to your combinations.
Thus when you endeavour to draw money from
the Continent by circulations which tend to substi-
tute your paper for its-specie, the banks of the Con.
tinent will rejea that paper as your banks rejected
the paper of France.
At a certain period the Bank of England refused
to discount the hills of exchange drawn from
France, however respeclable were the signaturess
to them ; the Dank of France, on the contrary, in-
discriminately discounts the paper drawn from Eng-
land, or other countries, provided the signatures
present an acknowledged solidity. Perhaps we are
nearly arriving at the moreent when the re.,:nts of
the bank of Paris will honour it by infusing the na-
tional spirit into the spirit of calculation.
But if you seem anxious to withdraw the sums
that are due to you from some places in Europe,
your debtors by the .renewal of their enjoyments
will endeavour to retard the payment in the well-
founded hope of being able to .acquit their debts at
a later period at a better rate of exchange.
Finally, if you attempt to engage your creditors
on the Continent to leave their capitals a little longer
in England, by presenting to them the alluring
prospeet of a more adru►taageous chenge, they will
have the good sense to prefer the certainty to the
uncertainty—the aetual price of the moment to a
chimerical price.
May not your Poblic Funds, which are now at
62, experience a still greater depression?—ll e re-
menther having seen there at I-8.
Your exchange, which is now at C 5 livres 2 sops
on Paris, may tall, by the force of events, to a rate
which may become iiiinous to thole who have re-
mittances to make to the Continent.
We remember having seen them at ee livres 5
sols—Slay not your merchandize, destined for the
markets of Europe, and by which you are to provide
funds, find the ports to which they are destined shut
against them
From ail this I conclude, by entreating vou to sell
out my stock in the course of the day, and remit me
the ruivueit as scion as poesible to such place, where
you shill he of opinion the. exchange will be most
favourable to me.

(1) he: object is considerable, for on the Ist February
1403, there wa. a eirculat'ams of 3.2J4,5301. sterling in bil!s of
above the amount of five is .unds.
H) Tor dittercnce which is to be remarked between the
price of ris.l4l in ingots v. ith reference to F.sigrids mysey, and
that of tb4 ptastre, pmvm, that the •aloe of I:llgeish ruutiey is
ac II p As:qv/es:Mt 2 gr.uns, while the piastres are 10 penny-
weighss ; that if to gay, an ounce of saver in ingot contains
t:64 grains of pure silver, but a:►ouace ut piastres conc.'-
k.ili grains of pure silver.

- -
KEMBLE plays Rulla after the Holidays at
Drury-Tane.
A Paper of yesterday asserts, that all French mili-
tary and naval 'otticrs now in England, have re-
ceived orders from General ANDILLOSSI to repair to
their corps 'and ships. without delay ! The former
are to join their *regiments where they are. quartered
or cantoned ; the latter to .appear at lircst and the
minor ports opposite to England, particularly flush-
Pig, where, as it is said, a great number of flat-hot-
Lorded' boats are in ictidins>s tor a urtain Expedition.

-4.

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