Page:Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies, from the papers of Thomas Jefferson - Volume 1.djvu/59

 43

the consideration of the necessity of establishing a standard of value with us, and of the adoption of a money Unit. He proposed for that Unit, such a fraction of pure silver as would be a common mea sure of the penny of every state, without leaving a fraction. This common divisor he found to be 1-1440 of a dollar, or 1-1600 of the crown sterling. The value of a dollar was, therefore, to be expressed by 1440 units, and of a crown by 1600 ; each Unit con taining a quarter of a grain of fine silver. Congress turning again their attention to this subject the following year, the Financier, by a letter of April 30, 1783, further explained and urged the Unit he had proposed : but nothing more was done on it until the ensuing year, when it was again taken up, and referred to a committee, of which I was a member. The general views of the Financier were sound, and the principle was ingenious on which he proposed to found his Unit ; but it was too minute for ordinary use, too labori ous for computation, either by the head or in figures. The price of a loaf of bread, 1-20 of a dollar, would be 72 units.

A pound of butter, 1-5 of a dollar, 288 units.

A horse, or bullock, of eighty dollars value, would require a no tation of six figures, to wit, 115,200, and the public debt, suppose of eighty millions, would require twelve figures, to wit, 1 1 5,200,- 000,000 Units. Such a system of money-arithmetic would be entirely unmanageable for the common purposes of society. I pro posed, therefore, instead of this, to adopt the Dollar as our Unit of account and payment, and that its divisions and subdivisions should be in the decimal ratio. I wrote some Notes on the subject, which I submitted to the consideration of the Financier. I received his answer and adherence to his general system, only agreeing to take for his Unit one hundred of those he first proposed, so that a Dollar should be 14 40-1 00, and a crown 1 6 Units. I replied to this, and printed my notes and reply on a flying sheet, which I put into the hands of the members of Congress for consideration, and the Com mittee agreed to report on my principle. This was adopted the ensuing year, and is the system which now prevails. I insert, here, the Notes and Reply, as shewing the different views on which the adoption of our money system hung.* The divisions into dismes, cents and mills is now so well understood, that it would be easy of introduction into the kindred branches of weights and measures. I use, when I travel, an Odometer of Clarke s invention, which di vides the mile into cents, and I find every one comprehends a dis tance readily, when stated to him in miles and cents ; so he would in feet and cents, pounds and cents, &c.

[* See Appendix, note F.]