DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22140#0348
33^
INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL HISTORY.
to have been so evenly proportioned that no very serious variation
arose in the traditional ratio which had been established among
them. It is absurd and false to say that no variation arose, but
it was easy, within the comparatively narrow limits of the fluc-
tuation for the governments of countries which used—I must
say, more nominally than really—a double currency, to check the
depreciation of either by limiting the issues of their respective
mints, the operation affecting, of course, the circulation of that
country only which adopted such limitations.
The United Kingdom was the only civilized community which
had adopted a gold standard. It was said in the eighteenth
century that this change was primarily brought about by the
trade of the East India Company, and that this was owing to the
fact that gold was under-valued in Hindoostan. It became, there-
fore, a profitable trade to export silver to the East, and import
gold. I have pointed out how the mints of the Georgian era
lent themselves to this tendency. But silver and gold coin were,
for a long time, equally legal tenders, gold at £^ 17s. iod. the oz.,
silver at 5s. 2d., when the two were supposed to be in cqni/ibrio, i.e.,
at a small fraction over 15 to i.1 In 1774, when the Govern-
ment was about to recoin worn and light money at the public
cost, a restraint was put on the legal tender of silver coin by tale,
to a maximum of ^25, and after the resumption of cash payments,
when silver money was made a mere token, the limit was per-
manently put at 40s.
Now shortly after this resumption, the Spanish colonies of
Mexico, Chili, Peru, and some other Equatorial settlements in
America, revolted against the authority of Spain, and after a
short struggle achieved their independence. Great hopes were
entertained that a new and most important field of British trade
would be opened to the United Kingdom. It was on this occasion
that Canning uttered his celebrated vaunt, that he had called in
the New World, to redress the balance of the Old. Canning had
1 According to Ruding, "Annals of the Mint," from Henry I. to Edward I.,
the ratio was 1 to 9. From Edward III. to Mary Tudor, between 1 to 12 and
1 to II. During the seventeenth century, srom 1 to 12J to 1 to 13. In the
eighteenth century, 1 to ^xliWo' tne "se from tne seventeenth century being
39tV2s per cent.
INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL HISTORY.
to have been so evenly proportioned that no very serious variation
arose in the traditional ratio which had been established among
them. It is absurd and false to say that no variation arose, but
it was easy, within the comparatively narrow limits of the fluc-
tuation for the governments of countries which used—I must
say, more nominally than really—a double currency, to check the
depreciation of either by limiting the issues of their respective
mints, the operation affecting, of course, the circulation of that
country only which adopted such limitations.
The United Kingdom was the only civilized community which
had adopted a gold standard. It was said in the eighteenth
century that this change was primarily brought about by the
trade of the East India Company, and that this was owing to the
fact that gold was under-valued in Hindoostan. It became, there-
fore, a profitable trade to export silver to the East, and import
gold. I have pointed out how the mints of the Georgian era
lent themselves to this tendency. But silver and gold coin were,
for a long time, equally legal tenders, gold at £^ 17s. iod. the oz.,
silver at 5s. 2d., when the two were supposed to be in cqni/ibrio, i.e.,
at a small fraction over 15 to i.1 In 1774, when the Govern-
ment was about to recoin worn and light money at the public
cost, a restraint was put on the legal tender of silver coin by tale,
to a maximum of ^25, and after the resumption of cash payments,
when silver money was made a mere token, the limit was per-
manently put at 40s.
Now shortly after this resumption, the Spanish colonies of
Mexico, Chili, Peru, and some other Equatorial settlements in
America, revolted against the authority of Spain, and after a
short struggle achieved their independence. Great hopes were
entertained that a new and most important field of British trade
would be opened to the United Kingdom. It was on this occasion
that Canning uttered his celebrated vaunt, that he had called in
the New World, to redress the balance of the Old. Canning had
1 According to Ruding, "Annals of the Mint," from Henry I. to Edward I.,
the ratio was 1 to 9. From Edward III. to Mary Tudor, between 1 to 12 and
1 to II. During the seventeenth century, srom 1 to 12J to 1 to 13. In the
eighteenth century, 1 to ^xliWo' tne "se from tne seventeenth century being
39tV2s per cent.