The Sun.
London, England, 1853-08-18 00:00:00

DECIMAL COINAGE;

The select committee appointed to take into con-
sideration, and report to the house, the practica-
bility and advantages, or otherwise, that would
arise from a decimal system of coinage, and to
whom several petitions were referred, and who
were empowered to report their observations, to-
gether with the minutes of evidence taken before
them, to the house, have considered the xnatters to
them referred, and have agreed to the following
report
" Your committee, in pursuance of the duty entrusted
to them, of taking into consideration and reporting upon
the practicability and advantages, or otherwise, of adopt-
ing a decimal system of coinage, have proceeded to exa-
mine such witnesses as appeared to them most capable of
giving information upon the subject of their inquiry.
"The question being one which, from its peculiar char-
acter, and the importance of the principles involved in it,
required to be examined with much care, it has been the
objectof your committee to obtain evidence of as varied a
character as possible from witnesses whose opinions may
carry weight with them, as respects not onlythe theoretical
but the practical bearings of the subject. Amongst the
witnesses whose evidence is appended to this report there
will, accordingly, be found the representatives of the
scientific opinion of the country in relation to a system
of coinage based upon the decimal principle, together
with others who, from their social position, their busi-
ness occupations, or their interest in the question, have
been led to eicamine into the practical inconveniences
attaching to the existing system of coinage, and to seek
for practical means of remedying them.
" It may be premised that all the witnesses examined
by your committee concur in the opinion that great ad-
vantages attach to a decimal system, as compared with
the present system of calculation, and that the only
points on which any difference of opinion was expressed
by them relate to the precise basis which should be
adopted, and the practical measures to be employed for
introducing the decimal system, so as to produce the
least amount of temporary inconvenience, and the smal-
lest extent of unwillingness to encounter the change on
the part of the classes who are the most likely to be
affected by it.
" With regard to the inconvenience of the existing
system the evidence is clear and decided. The system is
shown to entail a vast amount of unnecessary labour,
and great liability to error, to render accounts needlessly
complicated, to confuse questions of foreign exchanges,
and to be otherwise inconvenient.

" On the other hand, the concurrent testimony of the
various witnesses is to the effect that the adoption of a
decimal system would lead to greater accuracy, would
simplify accounts, would greatly diminish the labour of
calculations (to the extent of one-half, and in some cases
four-fifths, according to Professor De Morgan, who has
made the question his especial study), and, by facilitating
the comparison between the coinage of this country and
other countries that have adopted the decimal system,
would tend to the colvenience of all those who are
engaged in exchange opezatio 2s, of travellers and others.
An important benefit would be derived in several depart-
ments of the public service, and in every branch of in-
dustry, from the economy of skilled labour which would
result from the proposed change ; at the same time that
the education of the people generally would be much
facilitated by the introduction into our schools of a sys-
tem so directly calculated to render easy the acquiremeot
of arithmetic.

"A further evidence of the value of a decimal system
is to be found in the fact of its very general adoption in
the different countries of the world, not only in the case
of money, but also as respects weights and measures.
Your committee are not aware of any instance in which
a country, after adopting the decimal system, has aban-
doned it. The tendency, on the contrary, has inva-
riably been in the direction of a further adoption of the
system, the most recent instance being that of Portugal,
where the mode of reckoning has long been based on the
decimal system, and where a decree has been published
within the last few months, providing for the introduc-
tion of the French decimal metrical system of weights
and measures. Dr. Bowring explained to your commit-
tee the decimal system that obtains in the vast empire
of China, and produced an instrument, a description of
abacus, there called the `swan pan.' That instrument
shows the ease with which a decimal system may be ap-
plied, and the great advantages which it confers, as is,
in fact, practically proved by the extraordinary facility,
with which Chinese boys make any arithmetical calcula-
tions.

"Even in this country, where the decimal system is
not supposed to exist, your committee have ascertained
that it is already practically adopted to a certain extent.
The late governor of the Bank of England has informed
your committee that it has been found advisable in that
establishment to employ a decimal system of weights in
their purchases and sales of bullion, instead of the old
system of troy pounds, ounces, pennyweights, and grains,
and that great advantage has resulted from the change,
and Parliament in the present session has passed an act
to legalise the new weights. The Master of the Mint
has also announced the intention of introducing the use
of those weights at the Mint as soon as possible. Pro-
fessor De Morgan mentions that many teachers, as well
as himself, always use the decimal system in actual
teaching, by giving their pupils a short rule for trans-
posing the common money calculations into the decimal
form, and then, when the answer is obtained, re-trans-
ferring them to pounds, shillings, and pence. The great
waste of time entailed by its being necessary to perform
these operations of transfer and re-transfer, in addition
to the calculation itself, is obvious, and yet the advan-
tage of the decimal system is found to be so great that,
for the sake of employing it, it is worth while to incur
the extra labour of those operations.
" With regard to the other and more difficult part of
the question referred to them—namely, the practicability
of introducing the decimal system, it appears to your
committee that the obstacles are twofold in their nature.
The first arises from the difficulty which is always found
to exist in inducing the mass of the population to depart
from standards with which they are familiar, and from
modes of calculation to the defects of which usage has
reconciled them. The second obstacle arises from the
necessity of re-arranging the terms of all pecuniary ob-
ligations, depending either on legal enactment or private
contract, expressed in those coins which, in the event of
a change in our monetary system. would cease to have
legal currency. This second obstacle, although appa-
rently the most practical and most serious in its nature,
is probably not so important in actual fact as the other,
owirg to its more tangible character, and the opportu-
nity which it therefore presents of considering and grap-
pling with its details. But an obstacle of so undefined a ,
nature as vague popular feeling, based upon habit and
association, and not upon reason, cannot be dealt with
on any general and abstract principles, and your com-
mittee therefore purposely abstain from seekingto fetter
the discretion of the Executive on that part of the sub-
ject.
"Your committee have endeavoured to ascertain the
probable feeling of the public, especially of the working
classes, in reference to the proposed change ; first, by
examining witnesses who may be considered to be well
acquainted with their feelings ; and, secondly, by means
of the analogy to be drawn from previous changes of a
somewhat similar character. As respects the first point,
several witnesses who have very extensive dealings with
the poor, and some of whom are accustomed to take as
many as 1,000 farthings per week over the counter, have
expressed their opinion that if the farthing were altered
from its present value (the 1-960th part of the pound
sterling) to the 1-1000th part of the pound, in accord-
ance with the decimal subdivision, no prejudice would
be raised against this slight decrease of four per cent. in
the value of the farthing, provided they were made to
understand that they could, on the other hand, get 25
of the new coin for 6d., where they now get 24. All the
traders examined also stated, as the result of their ex-
perience, that competition invariably causes the quan-
tities of the articles sold to adjust themselves without
difficulty to the value of the money received for them.
"Your committee have also taken evidence as to the
difficulty experienced on occasions when the coinage of
any country has been changed, and would especially
refer to the cases of the United States and of Ireland.
In the former country the old system of pounds, shil-
lings, and pence, has been entirely superseded by the
decimal system of dollars and cents, and no inconvenience
appears to have attended the change. The principal diffi-
culty with which your committee have now to contend
will be the substitution, in lieu of the penny, a new cop-
per coin, hereafter described, of which the present shil-
ling will contain 10 only instead of 12. In the case of
Ireland, where 13 Irish pence made an English shilling,
for which 12 English pence were substituted, a prejudice
was originally felt on the part of the poorer class es, in
consequence of their believing that, as they only got 12
pence for a shilling, where they formerly received 13,
they sustained a loss of a penny in every shilling.
soon found from experience, however, that the injury
was imaginary.
"The other difficulties to which your committee have
referred, viz., those of a practical
number of
character, arising
from the necessity of a re-adjustment, a large
existing contracts and obligations based upon the pre-
sent system of coinage, are not, in their opinion, in-
superable ; but the present point of view from which to
consider them must, of course, depend in some degree
on the exact system which may be adopted. b
" The first question to e decided is, what shall be
the unit of the new system of
coinage ; and your com-
mittee have no hesitationin
recommending the present
pound sterling. Considering that the pound is the pre-
sent standard,
vaanlduether f •
e ore associated with all our
ideas of money
, and that it is the basis on which
all our exchange transactions with the whole rest, would,
it appears to
.nfiyour committee that any alteration of it
would lead to
infinite complication and embarrassment
in our commercial dealings
; in addition to which it for-
tunately happens that its retention would afford the
means of introducing the decimal system with the mini-
mum of change. Its tenth part already exists in the
shape of the florin and two-shilling piece, while an alter-
ation of four per cent in the present farthing will serve
to convert that coin into the lowest step of the decirna,
an
scale which it is necessary to represent by means.To
of
actual coin, viz., the thousandth part of a pound
this lowest denomination your committeNearerptoose, in
give
order to mark its relation to the
funit of
the name of mil. The additionnd onganaclotion
ttiroleubhenncadlrleeddtha
cent, of the value of 10 mils,
part of the pound, or the 10th n i parts
n nocfestahaeryfltoorirne,p
rweosielnldt
serve to complete the list
the moneys of accoun, owniliiiisc.h would accordingly be
pounds, florins, cents and. . .
~ Other proposals, having in view the adoption of a
different unit, have been brought under the notice of
your committee. Of these, the one recommending the
retention of the present farthing as. the basis of a. new
system of coinage, leaving its relation to the existing
penny untouched, presents the greatest amount of ad-
vantage. The large number of payments which are now
expressed in pence would remain unaltered, and a great
portion of those daily transactions in which the mass of