The Sun.
London, England, 1837-12-12 00:00:00

according to their iCiative importance in the market—that 12,
in proportion to the gross value of the entire quantity con-
sumed of each kind of article respectively within a given ter-
ritory—for instance, the United Kingdom. Thus, if it be
found that all the wheat consumed in Great Britain and Ire-
land in a year costs generally almost four times as much as
goes for coal, or wool, or cotton, and more than seven times
as much as goes for iron, these things must be taken in the
same proportions, however small or great may be the scale
on which the list is constructed.

" The following list is constructed on the proportions now
laid down, assuming them to be near the truth, but with slight
deviations, for the sake of keeping the different articles in in-
tegral quantities, wherever this could be done with only a
trifling change in their exact relative proportions. The sums
arising as the value of the whole quantity entered of each dif-
ferent article in the list, at its respective price, are extended
into the ordinary form of money columns, and added together
to exhibit an aggregate amount :-
- Of average
British Wheat l9 qrs., at 445. 6d. per qr. £42 5 6
„ Coals 24 tons, at 10s. Od. per ton, 12 0 0
1r0n..... ......... 21 cwt. at 110 s. Od. „ 515 6
West India Sugar 2 „ at 535. 6d. per cwt., 613 9
Baltic Flax 1 „ at 48s. Od. „ 2 8 0
British Wool l6O lbs. at ls. 4d. per lb. 12 0 0
American Cotton . 236 „ at is. Od. „ 11 16 0
Of medium Congou Tea 30 „ at 2s. Id. „ 3 2 6
Of standard bar Silver. 12 oz. at 4s. 'lad per oz. 219 5*
" " Gold 5 dwt. at 775. 9d. „ 0 19 5*

£lOO 0 34.
The abbe list is made up at the prices current about the
beginning of 1835 ; and, as 19 quarters of wheat were then,
on an average, worth 42/. bs. 6d., and the specified quanti-
ties of coals, iron, sugar, &c. respectively worth 121. 51.
15s. 6d. and 6/. 13s. 9d., wgpmay suppose that, owing to the
continual fluctuation of prices, the relative value of these
commodities would be considerably altered by the Ist of
January, 1836. The 19 quarters of wheat might then be worth
more or less than 421. ss. 6d. ; the 24 tons of coals, more
or less than 12/. ; and so of all the other articles ; but they
might alter relatively and yet remain the same in the aggre•
gate. Some of the items on the list might, in 1836, be above
the prices they bore in 1835, and others below the value they
then held, and yet the whole list, with new prices, might
amount, when added, to just about the same sum of 100/.
And I presume that this would be the case, and that any great
fall in the value of one commodity would exactly be balanced
by the corresponding rise of another, or by the partial advance
of several others, if the circulating medium—the paper or me-
tallic money—bore just the same proportion to the quantity of
goods exchanged for money, or estimated by it in the course of
transfer from hand to hand, and had neither become more scarce
nor more abundant; but that the general sum would have
fellen somewhat below the 1001. Os. 31d. of 1825, if money
happened to have become in any degree deficient, and would
have risen proportionately above that amount were the cur-
rency more expanded at the latter than it was at the former
period, even had there been no change in the relative value of
the different commodities." .

Mr. CROSS next proceds to show that such a list care-
fully made up would truly indicate whether the circulating
money had a tendency to scarcity or abundance ; and to
prove from the example of the grain averages in the Lon-
don Gazette, Bankers' Circulars, and other commercial do-
cuments, that the regular and accurate publication of the
Est he suggests is perfectly practicable.
Here, then," be says," in concluding this part of his sub.
jcct, " is a rule by which it might always be seen whether
there was too much money in circulation or too little. If
such a list were carefully made up, and the prices of the dif-
ferent articles in it regularly altered to correspond with those
current in the general market (the quantities being constantly
fixed), every increase of the sum total of the prices would
give proof of a superabundance, and every falling off in
thet would indicate a deficiency of the circulating miedium.
But this would not avail in nny country which. might hap-

pen like the United States of -America, to adopt the absu
policy of discouraging the circulation of paper money, and
rely for its prosperity on the fancied infallibility of a me-
tallic currency; far it is not possible to regulate the quan-
tity of gold or silver that shall circulate in a country by
any interference of authority, without, at the same time,
altering their value. Possessing intrinsic value, these metals
fluctuate in price, like all other commodities, according as
they are much or little wanted compared with the supply of
them. Consequently, they cannot be procured when scarce
except by being enhanced, nor disposed of when too plentiful
otherwise than by reducing them in price, and, therefore, can-
not, as money, be steady in value.
."I'he same objection applies also to paper motley, founded
on gold or silver. Such a currency cannot be expanded or
contracted as may be required, because, being necessarily
made payable on demand in metallic money, the issues of
notes must bear a certain proportion to the bullion or coin
in reserve to answer all demands likely to be made, else the
paper cannot be maintained at par with the metallic money ;
and, it being impossible to secure always the necessary stock
of gold and silver, for the same reasons that a currency wholly
metallic cannot be kept at any pitch which may be essential to
the steadiness of its value, no paper money founded on it can
be properly under control. This is exemplified strikingly at
present in the wcrking of our own Monetary System. Our notes
are payable in gold on demand, and the Bank of England,
which issues them, is very much drained of its usual stock of
coin and bullion. The consequence is, that the Bank has
been obliged to conti act its circulation of notes to a great
extent, and the commercial and manufacturing interests of the
country have been sacrificed for the time to this necessity."
Both of the existing sorts of currency being in the
opinion of the author objectionable, he proceeds, in the
third letter, to describe a kind of money, which he ima-
gines would answer every requisite purpose :
" Let the Government, at some definite period, abandon
the employment of Bank of England paper-money, and, on
the authority and in name of the nation, issue notes of the
value at the time, really and nominally, of one pound sterling
and upwards, in disbursements for the interest of the na-
tional debt : for the pay, victualling, and clothing of the
at my and navy ; for salaries, pensions, and all other items
of public expenditure. Let these notes have their value se-
cured, not by being convertible into gold or silver on de-
mand, like other paper money, but by being made a legal
tender in the discharge of all debts contracted, previous to
their being issued, in pounds sterling ; or contracted subse-
quently, in the general terms which may be adopted for the
standard money, such as pounds standard, or standard pounds,
and in payment also, of course, of taxes, excise duties, fines,
and all other contributions to the national treasury. The
times appointed for the collection of the public revenue, and
for making payments on account of the public service, would
require to be arranged on such a plan as would provide against
the chance of any derangement of the circulation. Every
considerable flow of money to the Treasury, from the taxes,
customs, and other sources of revenues, would need to be regu-
lated so as to happen only when there was also a flow of the
regular expenditure from it, that would preserve the currency
at its proper level.
" It is this which, in my opinion, would afford a species of
currency susceptible of the most accurate regulation for the
preservation of its value unchangingly ; for, being of paper,
it could be increased, without trouble or expense, to any re-
quisite degree ; and, neither the precious metals, nor any
other particular commodity being demandable for it, its cir-
culation could be maintained to any necessary amount, in-
dependent of the circumstances which often occur to render
a contraction of convertible paper money unavoidable, even
when such contraction is productive of the most grievous disas-
ters. The average list of prices already described (and
which may be termed the Moneymeter, or anythinc, else ex-
pressive of its use as an index of the currency) being open
and intelligible to every body, would enable not only the
Government who issued the proposed paper money, but the
public who gave it currency, and whose interests would be liable
to be affected favourably or otherwise according as it happened
to be managed, to know when it might require expansion or
contraction. And the Government, or issuing party being re-
presentative and responsible, durst never betray the public in
a matter in which the interest of all could so easily be seen.
This is an affair in which there could be no delusion or misap-
prehension. The rule for judging of good or bad manage-
ment would be simple and evident to the mechanic as well as
to the merchant, and might easily be taken cognizance of by
men of every station."
The writer then combats the objection that this would
be a revival of the sort of currency which came into
existence after the Bank Restriction Act of 1797, by
showing that it would be so completely under:regulation as
never to run any chance of being depreciated by over-
issues. He does not contemplate the necessity of prohi-
biting the issue of notes by Joint-stock Companies:—
. The issue of paper money by private bankers or Joint-
stock Companies, even if freely allowed, would naturally be
superseded by the Government paper, at least to the extent of
the public expenditure, since, in all its payments, the Govern-
ment would have an opportunity of putting its own notes into
circulation in preference to all other money. But, whatever
quantity of currency might be required beyond this, to keep
the circulation at its proper pitch, might safely enough, as far
as I can see, be left to be supplied by the notes of private or
corporate banks, with the stipulation only of this condition,
that such notes shall be payable on demand in the Govern-
ment or standard money.
" This, I should suppose, would be a sufficient provision
against the circulation being deranged by any excess of private
notes, and would preserve inviolate that individual freedom
which can hardly be icterfered with or invaded without caus-
ing mischief to ensue, excepting where the finger of justice
points directly and plainly to some necessary restraint or pro-
hibition. But if the issuing of notes by private individuals or
companies must be prohibited, the circulation of Government
notes might be made sufficiently abundant, even when the or-
dinary public expenditure of money might happen to be too little
for the currency, by making extra issues towards reducing public
debt ; or, in countries happily free from such incumbrance,
these issues might be applied to foster education, or to effect
general improvements of any kind."
The following belongs rather to the detail than to the
principle of the plan
It is a consequence from the principle already stated that
the value of each note or bill of this projected currency would
not, after the first establishment of the system, be referable to
any fixed quantities of gold or silver like the pound sterling,
in which, while the nominal worth remains the same, the real
value is always shifting with variations in the exchangeable
value of the commodity.
" The worth of the unit I propose, or the standard pound
of this system, would be a centesimal part of the aggregate
list of commodities, if that happen to he made only loot., or a
thousandth part, if the list embrace an aggregate of 1,000/.
" The quantity of these notes, then, being at all times re-
gulated so that the same number of them shall always be
worth, or capable of purchasing, all the commodities in kind