Notes on the State of Virginia (1802)/Query 21
QUERY XXI.
THE weights, meaſures, and the currency of
the hard money? Some details relating to
exchange with Europe?
Our weights and meaſures are the ſame which are fixed by acts of parliament in England. How it has happened that in this as well as the other American ſtates the nominal value of coin, was made to differ from what it was in the country we had left, and to differ among ourſelves too, I am not able to ſay with certainty. I find that in 1631 our houſe of burgeſſees deſired of the privy council in England, a coin debaſed to twenty five per cent. that in 1645 they forbid dealing by barter for tobacco, and eſtabliſhed the Spaniſh piece of eight at ſix ſhillings, as the ſtandard of their currency; that in 1655 they changed it to five ſhillings ſterling. In 1680 they ſent an addreſs to the king, in conſequence of which, by proclamation in 1683, he fixed the value of French crowns, rix-dollars and pieces of eight at ſix ſhillings, and the coin of New-England at one ſhilling. That in 1710, 1714, 1727, and 1762, other regulations were made, which will be better preſented to the eye ſtated in the form of a table as follows:
| 1710. | 1714. | 1727. | 1762. | |
|
Guineas |
— — | 26ſ. | ||
|
British gold coin not milled, coined gold of Spain and France, chequins, Arabian gold, moidores of Portugal |
— — | 5ſ. the dwt. | ||
|
Coined gold of the empire |
— — | 5ſ. the dwt. | — — | 4ſ3 the dwt. |
|
English milled ſilver money, in proportion to the crown, at |
— — | 5ſ10 | 6ſ3 | |
|
Pieces of eight of Mexico, Seville, and Pillar, ducatoons of Flanders, French ecus, or ſilver Lois, cruſados of Portugal |
3¾d. the dwt. | — — | 4d. the dwt. | |
|
Peru pieces, croſs |
3½d. the dwt. | — — | 3¼d. the dwt. | |
|
Old British ſilver coin not milled |
— — | 3¾d. the dwt. |
The firſt ſymptom of the depreciation of our preſent paper-money, was that of ſilver dollars ſelling at ſix-ſhillings, which had before been worth but five ſhillings and nine pence. The aſſembly thereupon raiſed them by law to ſix ſhillings. As the dollar is now likely to become the money-unit of America, as it paſſes at this rate in ſome of our ſiſter ſtates, and as it facilitates their computation in pounds and ſhillings, & e converſo, this ſeems to be more convenient than its former denomination. But as this particular coin now ſtands higher than any other in the proportion of 133⅓ to 125, or 16 to 15, it will be neceſſary to raiſe the others in proportion.