The independent., 1903-04-09

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1T brought the art of coinage up to its
present state OF perfection, in order to
prevent any mutilation of the coin.
| am unable to firc any reformation
In the currency, except that the new
pieces were so made that clipping
pairing or filing became impossible
without detection at once. Certainly
nothing new in the science of money
was discovered, except. that bad mon
ey, IL allowed by GcyernMent, would
be used in preference to good.
The great recoinage Of 1886 would
have reduced the volume of money
one-haM IN England IL nothing hst,
been done to ,cOunteract 1T. This was
inevitable, because the old coins con-
tanned only about Lalf of the required
amount OF silver; aid, therefore, two
shillings OF the old money would max,
only one OF the new. THIS would have
caused prices to fall and the falling
prices would have produced panic,
which would have. caused prices to go
still lower. But. the scarcity of mon
ey was soon supplied by the opera
ton OF free coinage, which enabled
the mint to coin for private owners of
silver as soon as the old crown, half
crowns and shillings had been brought
In. melted down and recoined into
smaller amount of money. But the
fact that there was free coinage. in
connection with government coinage
was totally lost sight of by the states
men and philosophers Of the day.
Two years before the great recoin-
age, 1854, the Bank of England was
chartered and organized. This insti-
tuition took all the gold and silver Of
Tered at the legal price-as previously
explained-and then took the gold
and silver. to the. mint and had them
coined into money, 1t also loaned
the government and took its bonds
las a condition of it's charter) for one
million two hundred thousand pounds
at s per cent and received the right
to issue circulating notes to the
amount OF the loan. In fact the loan
was paid by the circulating notes. .
Then the coinage of money and the is
suance of paper money became very,
closely connected, Two years after
wards, in 1886, the Bank loaned the
government as much more, in order
to enable. it to defray the expenses of
the reeGiiiage.. The loss on the old
clipped coins, amounted to one mill
lion two hundred thousand pounds,
and this was borne by the public in
stead of individuals, and had to be
made good by tax ION windows)
which was the beginning of the win.
dow tax in England. The tax pait
the interest and thus made the bonds
good ~ -
There was a great deal of discus
sion in 1896 about making shilling
out OF half a shilling; and they taxed
he people toSenable the government
TO make whole new shilling out
1f each Old half shilling.
Those who are interested in this
subject will find it fully discussed by
John Locke, just two hundred years
before Mr. Bryan received his nomi-
nation for president on a "free" sill |
7er platform. And those who go back |
o the year 1896 will find that gold |
vas not then thought of as stand
ird" OF value, and that silver was al |
ways looked upon as the Standard |
money. Macaulay says that guineas. |
before the great recoinage sold at 80 |
'hillings a piece and that after the |
'ecoinage they sold at 21s Cd a piece.
This shows that gold money (guin-
'as) was bought and sold like mer- |
handise. These guineas, be it re.
nembered, were a legal tender ror
lebts; and. yet, this quality or qualif-
:ation did not prevent them from ris-
ng and falling in price-the word
price" meaning clipped silver mon
" before the recoinage, and silver
DIN of full weight and fineness after
he recoinage.
In 1886 no man, learned or un-
earned, could see any STANDARD"
money or standard oil value outside of
liver; and this continued to be the
ase for more than a hundred years
It least-that is, till the time of Adam
smith and David Ricardo; Smith hay-
ng finished his great work in 1776;
ricardo not seeing it till 1899.
If we haye free coinage, the value
# money is the value of the metal in
he coin, which changes from mo-
nent to moment-or may change, ev-
ry time there is an exchange.