COMPARATIVE VIEW-Continued. premium Upon Amsterdam, 12 Rates of Exchange at London, December 22d, 1829, for bills at short sight. guilders per pound sterling; real par, 12.09 guilders, difference, equal to per cent. Standard gold, £3 178. 9d. per ounce, including all charges, (except premium here) equal to a bill at sight, at, The following paper from the London Times of the 25th February, 1830, was received after the report was prepared; as it contains the views of a highly intelligent person, whose pursuits have led him to practical acquaintance with the monetary system of Great Britain, it is deemed worthy of appending; its chief importance in the present inquiry, is in the declaration that a silver currency may be maintained in England, and made a tender for all payments with gold, at the ratio of gold to silver at the French mint, 1 to 15.5. Mr. Baring was, however, well aware that gold commanded a premium in France, and did not circulate equally with silver, but he probably took into consideration, that making silver a general tender for payments in England, at the ratio proposed, would create a new demand for it, and, consequently, raise the price and bring it in the market into more near conformity with the mint ratio; hence he did not consider it necessary to fix the mint ratio according to the existing market prices. The idea of a silver coinage for payments generally, and another at a higher ratio for small payments, seems to be new, but the retaining the token coinage must have been suggested rather with a view to compromise with the pride and prejudice which support the existing system of silver tokens, than to affect any visible public good. Mr. Baring maintains the doctrine, that silver is the most fit metal for a standard measure of property, both as respects the safety of banks and the public convenience. But the answers of Mr. Baring are also important in showing that the establishment of gold as the exclusive measure of property in England, is not satisfactory, and although there is little probability of a change of the plan while its authors are in power, unless some convulsive panic shall derange their monetary system; yet that other counsels may prevail, and produce a change which might disappoint all the expectations now entertained from alteration in the mint ratio of the United States should the plan suggested by Mr. Baring be adopted, and the ratio fixed at 1: 15.5 in England. That proposed in the foregoing report for the United States of 1: 15.625, estimates silver still so much above its market value that there will probably be ample room for the rise of prices which the proposed change in England would produce without endangering the silver currency. PARLIAMENTARY PAPER.-COIN. (Extract from Minutes of Evidence taken before the Committee for Coin, at the Board of Trade, April 26, 1828.) ALEXANDER BARING, ESQ., M. P.-Examined. Q. Is it your impression that it is possible and desirable to maintain in this country a silver currency as a legal tender, founded on the proportion of silver to gold established in the currency of France, or something very near it; at the same time that we maintain our present silver currency, which is obviously not in that proportion, and that there would be an advantage in that system? A. I have always thought so, and certainly think so still. I have n doubt about it. Q. Would you execute that by issuing silver coin of the same denominations as the present silver coin, but of a different standard, or by confining it to a silver coin of a new denomination? A. It is quite clear that, if it were desired to have a silver coinage, all of the same weight and quality, the present silver coinage must be called in entirely; but I can see no difficulty whatever in the co-existence of a silver coinage as a legal tender, in the proportion, or nearly the proportion, now existing in France, with the present silver coinage remaining as a token, and provided the limitation continues as to the amount with this precaution, I feel quite confident there can be nothing to prevent those two silver coinages existing together. Q. Would you put them under the same denomination? A. No, I think I would not. You might take one of two plans; you might either call in the present silver currency, and put the whole on the same footing, which would be a considerable expense, and I think an unnecessary one, or you might continue the silver now out, which now exists as a token silver coinage. There would be then the present gold coin and the new silver coin as legal tenders, and as they would not be interfered with by the token coinage, and as there is a considerable profit on the coining the latter, it might be continued as a measure of economy, and as a means, in some degree, of defraying the expenses of the Mint. When any additional token coinage should be wanted, I do not see any objection to keeping the shillings and sixpences and halfcrowns as at present. In that case, I should propose that the 58. pieces should be called in, and that the silver coin for legal tender should be confined to crown pieces; or, if it should be preferred, for the purpose of making a decimal division of the pounds, 28. pieces might be substituted. In that case you might leave the few 58. or 28. pieces is not material, only, that if you make them 58. pieces, then you would have to call in the 58. token pieces which are at present out. Q. The circulation of the country would consist of a silver coinage of tokens, being of a legal tender only to a limited amount; and a silver coinage being a legal tender to an unlimited amount; and a gold coinage. A. Exactly so. Q. What are the advantages which you contemplate from the additions to our present currency, of a silver coinage co-existent with the token silver issued in the manner you have described? A. In speaking of the advantages, I of course set aside entirely any question of altering the intrinsic value of the standard, because, even supposing that any advantage would result from that to the country, as it would be in itself an act of dishonesty to do so, I set aside that part of the question, as presuming it not to be in the contemplation of Government. It is undoubtedly true, that, looking at the old law of this country, since the time of King William, when, in given proportions, 1 both gold and silver might have been taken to the Mint, and at the present price of silver, the existing standard is raised, I should say, nearly 4 per cent. by the omission of silver upon the settlement of our standard as it now exists. If gold and silver were concurrent legal tenders of the old Mint regulations, silver would at present be the practical standard of the country, as the debtor always acquits himself in the cheapest metal he is enabled to do so by law. Gold was his cheapest payment, and therefore the practical standard of the country at that time; in consequence of subsequent variations in the price between gold and silver, silver would be so now. Comparing, therefore, the intrinsic value of our double standard as it existed from the period of the act of King William, down to (I believe) 1778, when silver was prevented from being sent to the Mint, with what it now would be if the same system had been suffered to continue, I say that an alteration has been made in favor of the creditor and against the debtor, in the proportion of about 60 to 62. The calculation is simple and undeniable. Previously to the law of 1778, any person might send a pound weight of silver to the Mint, and claim, in return, 628., which were then (being of full weight) a legal tender to any amount. This pound weight, or, in other words, the 628. he might now purchase for 60s. of our present money, and I believe even a fraction lower. If, therefore, our old law had continued, silver would now be our practical standard; and the charge of all debt, whether public or individual, would be lighter by 32 per cent.; exclusive of that, farther relief to the debtor which arises from the greater cheapness of money, resulting, in my opinion, from the facilities afforded to all operations of credit by the double standard. This part of the subject is not, like the other, susceptible of any precise estimate; but my own opinion is, that the two considerations taken together, make a difference, little if any thing, short of 5 per cent. It may be proper here to add, that, at the present price of silver, what I call the token silver coin, is coined at a profit of full 10 per cent. the pound of silver, costing 60s., being coined into 66 token shillings; and experience has shown that money for small change, limited in amount, and in the amount for which it is a legal tender, may exist most usefully, and without affecting the value of the standard of the country. Although I have taken the liberty of stating my view of this so much contested subject, I presume your Lordship's question to apply to my opinion of the advantages of a double standard, regulated according to the present intrinsic value of the gold coin; for although injustice may have, and in my opinion has, been done to the debtor by the exclusion of silver, and although that injustice, being more than compensated by the depreciation of paper for so many years, only came fairly in play from the period of Mr. Peel's bill; yet, a sufficient time has elapsed to make it both inexpedient and unjust to return to any adjustment of an error so long gone by. I proceed, therefore, on the presumption that there is no intention to |