The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-12-28

Among the most interesting aud convincing
testimony In favor of assimilating the coinage
of all nations was that OF Mr.. Alfred Field.
now of Birmingham, formerly of New York,
whose experience in trade with the United
States enabled him to make the practical ad-
vaptages of such change very striking. Mr..
Field showed the commission an invoice OF hts
own goods Just shipped to New York. 1t cou-
tanned four hundred and twenty-one different
pieces, charged in English currency; and each
of these has to be reduced by the Importer,
separately, to America, money ana an estimate
York Now, the total value OF this lot of goods
was e253 sterling, or Sl225-an average Of less
than three dollars at each of the rates calcu-
lated. Now, the trouble and time required for
this are a serious obstacle to trade and large
addition to the cost oil such articles TO the con.
sumer.
MIR. Fields illustration from the Halifax trade
is still more striking. Goods are bought in
Birmingham by tous, cWts., quarters, aud
pounds at so many g. p. per ton; duties are
paid in Halifax In gold dollars and cents; ex.
penses are paid In the local currency, in which
les. make 81 sterling, and books and bank
accounts are kept in dollars while Customersibuy
in the local currency, or in sterling, or in deci-
NAL currency, as the case may be; perhaps
"tons, cwts., quarters, and pounds sold say at
G15 Ijs Cd. per ton. Halifax currency Now,
he inquiries, 81 should like you to conceive what
is the amount of labor involved in that; do you
think that any man does that for nothing ~
In practice, says Mr. Field importers not only
have to keep more clerks, but they have to
charge a percentage to cover the risks of MIS-
takes in such complicated calculations. Be-
sides, the business of brokers in exchange and
foreign coin Is now a very large andSproitable
one; and its profits arc largely NJ ere hndrauce
to trade growing out of differences in the cur
1enCy OF different countries. In some of these
points all the commercial witnesses agreed. The
conviction was strong in their minds that the
practical effect of different currencies as a
hindrance to trade is far greater than is COM
lytbeheved-far greater than any one, who
has not observed it on large scale and for a
long time, can imagine. But large number of
these gentlemen insisted that the reduction of
the British sovereign and of the American half
eagle to the value of 25 francs the only change
really necessary, and is so easy and obvious that
it ought to be adopted, without attempting any
more radical reform.
Mr.. Bagehot the editor of the Economtsl
stated in q very clear light the necessity of hav-
ing one money Of account in all nations, as more
important even than q uniform coinage. But
he objected earnestly TO the franc as too small
for the unit of monetary system; preferring
the sovereign, or the proposed new sovereign OF
twenty-five francs, as the basis of new decimal
system IN rejecting the franc the Commission
agreed with him. II should like" he says, "to
make it condition of this country adopting the
twenty-five franc apiece and making it the unit
of account. that other nations should do the
same" The unit OF account is, in my mind,
the primary matter, and everything else is
secondary to it.n
The Blue Book before us contains very full
information on the present state of coinage
everywhere; on the Importance ofa single stand
ard, and that of gold, for money values; on the
advantages of a Uniform proportion of alloy in
coin, which all agree ought to be rather one
tenth, as in France AID the United States, than
one-twelfth as in England; on the proprety of
charging mintage or a seignorage for coming
the precious metals: and on the measures neces-
sary to secure uniform values, and to obtain
protection against fraud if an international
coinage be adopted. But the report is essen
tlallys preliminary, and contains no positive
recommendation for immediate legislation. 1t
will doubtless lead to further and general dis
cussion of the subject in England, and perhaps
in all the nations interested.