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

• - QUERIES.
I. What is the denomination of the Tokens you
be issued ?
2. What is the average weight of each species ?
13. By how many dwts. in every twelve ounces, is
t 4
metal of which they are composed inferior to
. ndard Silver ?
4. What is the average intrinsic value of each
species ? •
' :5. Are there any Local Tokens circulated in your
4mediate vicinity, besides those you have issued, and
by whom ?
rma
!0. What doyen compute to be the total value of
Ifeimlll Tokens circulating within the district in
you reside?
' ! 7. What proportion do the Local Tokens bear to;
Half-Crowns, Shillings, and Sixpences, that are in
Circulation near you ?
'll-.: Whist do you toneeive to be the average in.
tvinorc.iralue of these Half-Crowus,Shillingsland Six-
Pene,l4 ?
tl.' Are there many Tokens of the Bank of Eng-
' land circulated in your 'vicinity ?
10. ifas it been common .to refuse change- for a
Bank Note, unless a large proportion of Copper is
1 taken ?
I 11. Have you known a premium given to get silver
I for a Twenty Shillings Bank Note ?
12. Has there been any attempt to issue paper
Notes or Tickets under the value of Twelve Shil.
/ lii ?

ings.
13. Have you not known Master-Manufacturers
pay their workmen's wages with paper tickets, un-
der the circumstance of a shop being established in
the neighbourhood where the workmen were fur-
nished with goods in exchange for those tickets?
14. Where this has occurred, has it not been cus-
tomary for the retail trader to settle his accounts
monthly or quarterly with the Manufacturer, by
whom the tickets were issued?
15. Is there a disposition to petition the two
Houses of Parliament at their next meeting, for the
repeal of the Act which has recently passed, prohi-
biting the circulation of Local Tokens ?
To J. B. Monck, Esq. Reading.

Sept. 1, 1819.

My Lonn,—lt is with peculiar pleasure, that, in
obedience to your Lordship's wishes, I hasten to
address myself to you on the subject of your very
polite and condescending letter. Connected as the
matter of currcucy is both with the honour and safety
of the country, I have thought it my duty to pay
as much attention to it as I am able, however dry
and distasteful it may be. In this pursuit my princi.
pal guides have been Locke, Adam Smith, the late
Lord Liverpool, the Report of the Bullion Commit-
tee, and, I may add, my Lord, your own writings,
which are inferior to none of the preceding. The
,'great lesson inculcated by all is the necessity of ad.
hering faithfully to the national standard, under all
I temptations and extremities, and a warning against
'the fatal delusion of substituting in the room of the
coin of the realm a compulsory paper currency.—
' There is a►► eud of all security in property and con.
tracts, if the national standard may be debased at
the will of the Bank of England, and if the subject
be compelled to take in payment, under paiu of fine
! and imprisonment, their nominal money at par with
the King's real money. The preservation of the
Sinking Fund, however commendable, is not half
I so necessary to Public Credit, nor is so solemn and
sacred a trust, as the preservation of our standard.
The situation of the Stockholder is now perfectly
precarious, and every day growing worse and worse,
as the Bank paper, in which alone he is paid, keeps
falling in cledit, and in value. This gradual dete-
rioration must go on, until the Bank are compelled
to fulfil their engagements, and to pay again in spe.
cie. The Bank at the same time might be permitted
to extend their Capital to the amonnt of six or eight
millions, and the subscriptions to this New Capital
should be received in their own notes, by which
means six or eight millions of their superfluous notes
would be taken out of circulation. The whole evil
of depreciation might thus be redressed, as on a
former occasion, without any convulsion, and the
loss would fall only, where it ought to do, on the
Company of the Bank of England, who have made
an enormous profit by the enormous issue of their
paper.

The steady and contemptible expedient of paying
the Public Creditor in debased money, has been the
common policy of weak Princes, and weak Minis-
ters,
who think they have thus cured the disease,
when they have only transferred the seat of it., The
bad money, which is issued from the Exchequer to
pay the public creditor, is sure to be paid back into
it again in the shape of taxes. We must go to the
root of the disorder, we must invigorate the whole I
frame and constitution, if we hope to cure our ric.
ketty finances ; otherwise we no sooner set the neck
strait, than the back or shoulders give way and get
awry. It is high time that this system of delusion ,
and ruin were abandoned, that our difficulties,
which are undoubtedly very great, were fairly stated,
and duly weighed, and met with a steady counte- I
nonce, and suitable exertions. In the room of our
present system, a system of finance should be este- !
blished, having good faith, and the sterling standard
for its basis, where increased economy should go
hand in hand with increased taxation, a system solid, I
prospective, permanent, and equal to the emergencies
of the present crisis. fear, that the present Mini-
sters are incapable of executing such a vigorous sys-
tem, not only for want of disposition, but for want'
of that confidence of the people in them, which is
necessary to the complete success of every national I
esferprise. Te your activity, my Lord, and to your 1
intelligence, and. to the splendid virtues of that poli-
tical party, with whom your Lordship's name is often
associated, the country would gladly be indebted for
the restoration of our standard, for the revival of
our drooping credit, and for the triumph of expe-
rience and philosophy over the clamour of the inte-
rested, or 'the ignorant.
Having disburdened my mind in these general ob-
servations, which grow out of the subject of your
letter, and which, therefore, I hope you will par-
don, I will trespass no longer on your valuable
time, but confine myself to the answer of your Que-
ries, one by one, in the order proposed, and to the
best of my ability and present information.
s. 1. I hate issued Forty-shilling Gold Tokeus) LEW-
, crowns and eighteen-peauy Silver Tokens.

THE STATESMAN

- 2. I have expressed on the reverse of all my
Tokens both the weight and fineness of the Gold and
Silver: My Gold Tokens weigh 6 darts. Mgrs. my
half-crown Tokens 6dwts. my eighteen-penny Tokens
4dwts.
3. My Gold is Standard Gold; my Silver is Spa-
wish Dollar Silver.
4'. Estimating Standard Gold at 51. an oz. my 401.1
Gold Tokens are worth intrinsically 345. Estimat-
ing Dollar Silver at 6s. 4d. an oz. my Half-crown
Tokens are worth intrinsically, Is. 11d. my Eighteen.
penny Tokens, Is. 340. In this estimate are left
out of consideration all charges of dies, workman-
ship, carriage, and insurance.
5. I do not know of any other person, who has
circulated Tokens in this neighbourhood.
6. I have coined into Tokens, 70 oz. of Standard
Gold, and 5000 oz. of Spanish Miler Silver. Not-
withstanding the quantity issued, I bevelled within
1 these few weeks large demands on me for Silver
ITokens, which I have not been able to supply.
7. I cannot answer with any certainty this Query. I
But I should guess, that in this Borottgh my Tokens
may amount to one-fourth of the Silver in circula- ',
1 tion. In some villages, lam told, there is nothing
Ito be seen bat my Tokens. Shillings and Sixpences
. may form one-third of the Silver in circulation.
Half-crowns are now seldom visible. 1
8. Of twelve Shillings, a fair sample, I find, that
the lightest weighs ldwt. 18grs. the heaviest 2dwts.
114grs. The mean of the extremes is therefore 2dwts.
4grs. The twelve together weigh 28dwts. 12grs.
making the mean for each 2dwts. 9grs.
Of twelve Sixpences, I find, that the lightest
weighs 13grs. the heaviest ldwt. 9grs. The mean,
therefore, of the extremes, is 23grs. The twelve
together weigh 12dwts. 12grs. making the mean for
etch ldwt. 1 gr.
Taking the highest mean, as the average, 7s. 6d.
in Shillings weighs 17dwts. lOgrs. in Sixpences,
1
idwts. 15grs. in my Half-crowns, 18dwts. in my
Eighteen-penny Tokens, 20dwts.
9. I cannot answer this accurately. But I should
Louess, that about one-third of the Silver in circula-
n consists of Bank of England Tokens.-Bank
Bars begin to disappear.
10. This year, whenever I have applied to per-
sons, whose ocznpations give them a command of
Inver, I have always cemented to take a portion of
kopper in change for notes. Last year, before I be-
gan to issue Tokens, I could obtain no change in
tiny quantity but copper. After my issue of Tokens
silver became abundant.
11. I have never given a premium myself, nor do
I know of any person here who has. Last year, I
desired, that an application might be made to the
Bank of England for change, and the answer giveal
by them was, that they would part with their Tokens
for gold only, but not for paper. The difficulty, or
rather the impossibility, of obtaining by any legal de-
mand
silver for Notes, suggested to me the propriety'
of making myself independent of the Bank of Eng-
land,
by the coinage of Local Tokens.
12. I know of no attempt to do this in this neigh-
bourhood.
13. I do not know of such a practice in this place.
But a most respectable Gentleman, and a Magis-
trate in the County of Bucks, informed me, that he
was forced last year to adopt the plan mentioned in
this Query for the payment of his labourers. To
obviate the trouble of issuing Tickets, he took from
me a small supply of my Silver Tokens, and stands
Godfather to them in the Hamlet, where he resides.
14. It was the custom with the Gentleman above-
mentioned to have his Tickets sent in, when they
amounted to one pound. I have not heard of any
such custom being adopted as yet in this place, or
county.
15. I am not aware of any disposition to petition
Parliament, and I have certainly no intention of in-
terposing at all in this matter myself. The mass of .
I the people, you well know, my Lord, are very in-
-1 adequate judges of depreciation in currency, and
'therefore it is more the duty of Government to pro-
ltect them, and not to impose on their simple and
confiding nature. With the bulk of mankind, a
pound is a pound, and they estimate money by its
external denomination, and not by its intrinsic
weight and fineness. The poor, who are destined
to suffer most by too extended an issue of paper, and:
by the want of small money, are the last who fore-
, see the impending evil, and do not think of it till
I they feel it. I have done one man's part to check
the inundation of Notes, and to furnish this District
with Silver for change. I have, likewise, no doubt .
of the mistaken policy of prohibiting the circulation
lof Local Tokens, in the present circumstances of
our currency ; but, I believe, that nothing will con-
t vince Ministers of their error, but dear-bought ex-
! perience. For this reason, I shall henceforth follow
the tide, rather than uselessly oppose it. Like many
I others, I may soon probably mould myself to the
I rat* of the times, and add my mite to that load of
paper money, which alone it seems the disposition
i of Ministers to foster and encourage.-If, however,
II do issue Notes, I will make them. iu a new way,
, and so as the holders of them. shall have at least au .
equal profit with myself.
i I have now, my Lord, aswercd your
Queries„
as. far as my imperfect means of information will al-
. low me. . ~ ..'": !
I have taken the liberty of publishing, in the
Reading Mercury, both your Lordship's circular
and my answer, that your Lordship's sentiments
may be the more disseminated, and that, where my
• isformatiou is defective, it may, perhaps, be sup-
! plied by others. If any parson shall think it worth
while to favour me with any information. relative to
I your Queries, within his own experience or know-,'
ledge, I will not fail to lay it before you.
I am, with the greatest respect,
My Lord, I,
Your Lordship's most obedient
• And humble servant, ' . 1
JOHN BERKELEY MONCK.
Coley Park, Reading.

Whereas by an Act of Parllment passed in the
last Sessions, it is declared lawful to circulate Gold
and Silver fecal Tokens until the 25th day Of March,
1813, and no longer, I think it my duty to call
the attention of the Public to this Act, and to declare
my readiness to redeem my Wiliest expressed on
' my-Token at all thief.
1 But for the particular convenience. of the holders