Page:Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies, from the papers of Thomas Jefferson - Volume 1.djvu/154

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The proportion between the values of gold and silver, is a mer cantile problem altogether. It would be inaccurate to fix it by the popular exchanges of a half Joe for eight dollars, a Louis for four French crowns, or five Louis for twenty-three dollars. The first of these, w r ould be to adopt the Spanish proportion between gold and silver ; the second, the French ; the third, a mere popular barter, wherein convenience is consulted more than accuracy. The legal proportion in Spain is 16 for 1 ; in England, 15 1-2 for 1 ; in France, 15 for 1. The Spaniards and English* are found, in experience, to retain an over proportion of gold coins, and to lose their silver. The French have a greater proportion of silver. The difference at market has been on the decrease. The Finan- cier states it at present, as at 14 1-2 for one. Just principles will lead us to disregard legal proportions altogether ; to enquire into the market price of gold, in the several countries with which we shall principally be connected in commerce, and to take an average from them. Perhaps we might, with safety, lean to a proportion somewhat above par for gold, considering our neighborhood, and commerce with the sources of the coins, and the tendency which the high price of gold in Spain has, to draw thither all that of their mines, leaving silver principally for our and other markets. It is not impossible that 15 for 1, may be found an eligible proportion. I state it, however, as a conjecture only.

As to the alloy for gold coin, the British is an ounce in the pound.; the French, Spanish, and Portuguese differ from that, only from a quarter of a grain, to a grain and a half. I should, therefore, prefer the British, merely because its fraction stands in a. more simple form, and facilitates the calculations into which it enters.

Should the Unit be fixed at 365 grains of pure silver, gold at 15 for 1, and the alloy of both be one twelfth, the weights of the coins will be as follows.

Grains. Grains. dwt. Grains.

The Golden piece containing 243 1-3 of pure metal, 22.12 of alloy, will weigh 111.45

The Unit or Dollar, .365. . 33.18 . . 1614.18

The half dollar, or five tenths, 182 1-2. . 16.59 . . . 87.09

The fifth, or Pistereen, .73. 0.63 . 3 7.63

The tenth, or Bit,. 36 1-3 . . 3.318 . . . 115.818

The twentieth, or half Bit, 181-4. . 1.659 ., 19.9

The quantity of fine silver which shall constitute the Unit, being settled, and the proportion of the value of gold, to that of silver ; a table should be formed from the assay before suggested, classing the several foreign coins according to their fineness, declaring the worth of a pennyweight or grain in each class, and that they shall be lawful tenders at those rates, if not clipped or otherwise di minished ; and, where diminished, offering their value for them at the mint, deducting the expense of re-coinage. Here the Legisla-