Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/497

 ARTICLES OF EXPORTATION. 481 vernments, when they have acquired the confidence of the natives, to institute a mint or assay-office, for the purpose of melting gold into ingots, to bear a stamp, declaring the assay of the metal. This is peculiarly called for in a country which contains some of the most productive gold mines in the world; and I know no measure of mere regu- lation which would tend so eminently to the bene- fit and facility of commercial intercourse. The stamp, expressing the quality of the metal, ought to be impressed in one or two native characters, as well as in the Chinese and in the European cha- racter. The coining of gold as money is a mea- sure which cannot be recommended in a country where it is more exclusively an article of com- merce than in any other, and where, consequent- ly, its price must fluctuate more. Silver, be- sides, is in more estimation as money, always re- gulating the price of gold, except where govern- ments arbitrarily interpose to reverse this order. If gold coin expressed only its intrinsic value, it would be immediately exported on every trilling rise in its price, and if it expressed more, it would be of no value beyond the limits of the authority under which it was coined, and would banish silver- from circulation. No other result would attend this measure than subjecting the state to the expence of supporting a coinage, an expence at present in- curred for them by foreigners. With respect to the absolute amount of the gold VOL. HI. H h