The Statesman.
London, England, 1812-09-08 00:00:00

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GOLD 4111 3 ,sarat .1..be.,a. rokE4vs.
~ -.....-
We have been faroured..with the. falliswinx cerre-
spondeuce on the subject of Cestalteci andi-L citii
Toscana, which we beg leave, to ley. beot?
.our
Readers :
~ ii;. 4
Dunbar itouw, Dunbar, Vie`
it it
Sta,—ln taking the liberty to traustnit tb;jlo ' he
following Queries, which I have sent to ill tills-
suers of Local Tokens in 'hill Majesty's,doefilitbils,
whose address I have been • able JO lelarn, I feel
confident, that you will attrihute.to Me 'tole.
proper curiosity, or wish to,prit intiVthit:isaftre.of;
an undertaking,,iii which I am titoroqhlPieprineetis
that nothing but the necessity or 'the ease, •a" sle:'
sire to promote the convinience of the public, wouls
r• - :. .*:
hate led you to ernlxiik. '. .
....
In the last Session of Parliament, I opposed' the
Bill, intituled " An Act to preieutihe usilitiiind
circulating of piecei of gold mud *liver, or other.
metal, usually, called Tokeus.liv4t such as are la 4
sued by the Banks of England and Ireland respec,:s
tively.-"—Much as 1 could wish for the credit and
welfare of the country that a-general revision should.,
take place of the principles
.upon which our circula-
tion
is now conducted, 1 was then, and .am new per-
fectly convinced, that the measure of annihilating all
Local Tokens in the month of March next, unless it
should.be attended with further arrangements, must
. i
prove highly injurious.
I arn,.indeed, of opinion, that there is just rea-
son to believe, that if this Act is not repealed im-
mediately on the meeting of Parliament, the com-
merce of this country will sustain a most severe
shock. For, in my view of tts subject, it will
deprive the master manufaetureT of the power of
paying the wages of his workmen, and leave the
poorer consumer without the means of dealing
with the retail trader ; whilst it will prove a
source of infinite inconvenience to the community at
large.
That there exists in this country no standard sil-
ver coin of weight and quality, such as can legally
circulate, is a thing universally admitted. In the 1,
Cirrular Letter which the present Earl of Liverpool,
when Secretary of State for the Home Department,
addressed to all the Lord Lieutenants of Counties;
in December, 1804, the rapid deterioration of our
Shillings and Sixpences was admitted, though even
as ear'y as the year-1795 we learn, both from the
late 1-:.irl of Liverpool and from Mr. Darien, that
the silver coin was in a most &graded state.
By Lord Liverpool, in his Treatise on the Coius
of ti,-, realm, the Shillings are said to have been, in '
1798, deficient to the amount of upwards of twenty-
four per Cell:. and the Sixpences to the amount of
more than tilirty-eight percent. when compared with'
the standard coins of the same denomination : whilst
by Mr. l)orien they are described, in his pamphlet,
idite!. d Thoughts on a new Coinage of Silver, as
still more impaired in value; for he represents the i!
Shillings in circulation to be worth only Ei4htpence
Halfpenny, and the sixpences to be reduced to the
value ef Twopence Ilalfpenny. .
We know also from the witnesses examined by the
Irish Exchaege Committee, in 1804, that at that time
Twe.ity-one Shillings of the best silver circulating in
Ireland, was net iu value equal to more than Nine
Shillings of the standard coin of these malls.
To issue silver coin from the Mint in this state of
our silver currency, and'under the circumstance of
the relative value which our Bank Notes bear to Sil-
ver Bullion, could, therefore, only put the public
to great cspeuce, without affording any remedy for
the evils that will necessarily result from the defi-
ciency of small money, which the annihilation of
Local Tokens must occasion. Because, unless the
nature of mankind should • be so far changed as to
produce a universal negligence of their own interest,
all the coin issued would be withdrawn from circula-
tion the moment it appeared.
Neither can the issuing of paper, commonly called
Silver Notes, be regarded as a possible means, un.
der the law as it now stands, of supplying the place
of Tokens; for the isuing of paper, promising to
pay any sum in value below Twenty Shillings, is
provided against by the 48th of the King, cap. 3&
under very high penalties.
There appears therefore, to be no mode, in the pre.'
sent state of our circulation, of protecting the public
from the effects of the want of that species of currency
used in small payments, which the prohibition of Lo-
cal Tokens must produce • for neither the Bank of
England nor that of Ireland, have been able to sup-
ply a sufficiency of Tokens to answer the necessary
demands of the country ; and those in circulation are
issued at a rate that they must be immediately com-
mitted to the melting pot bye trifling fall in the value
of paper, or, as it would he described by many, by a
further small rise in the value of silver.
In this state of things it cannot have escaped your
&isolation., who have practically considered the sub- i
ject, that the abolition of the Local To ens, which I
have been generally issued of a value greater in pro-
portion to their denomination, than. that of our coin i
in circulation, must operate as, a direct encourage-
ment
to those numerous coitiers of false money, who, I
notwithstaittling the prohibitions of. tbe 15th and 16th
of the King, have long carried on a criminal but a
highly profitable trada*,—nhilst it must produce a
degree of pressure upon the retail trader, and of
hardship upon the poorer classes of the community, I
perfectly unparalleled. 1
It is a conviction of the great iiicOevenience and in-
. ..
jury which the nation.at large must sustain, should
this measure be carried into execution in the month
of March next, end a strong impression of the im-
possibility of conducting the business of the country
without Local Tokens, until the Legi;;litture has ef-
fected a general reformatiou in the state of our cur-1
rency, that has induced me to draw up the Queries I-
now submit to y,ou, in hopes that by the general inform.,
ation which the answers will furnish, .• I may. be. 90-
abled to make such a case as Will; prove to Perlis-
meat the necessity of interferipg, to prevent the 'for.
snidable evil with which the public is threatened :7-
awl, I have only to add, that after: ,receiving this ox-
planation of my motives, I trust that you can have no
difficulty in commu nic.ati what appears to be so in.
eessary for the t9ccess 91
,e cat's% ...
I haveihe ; ottonrto lies srp
Your most...elatolieOe bra,mdle 11Priallis,
LAUDERDALE.
• !tee the statement of the extras ti which this trade has hems
env ;led by Mr. CuirtitbOuU, in ha Treatise 08 1W MCI Of
tie Motropelot.