Note 20 — PART III. OF EXCHANGE.
Reading edition
There occurs another considerable difficulty to be removed, before the real par of exchange can be exactly determined from the price of bullion, to wit, the uncertainty of weights, and the multiplicity of them.
Every nation in Europe has a different weight, I might almost say every city. This has proceeded, in a great measure, from the inaccuracy with which they have been made formerly. I think it is highly probable, that many, at least, of the principal weights in Europe, have derived their origin from the same standard; although they are now considerably different. Those I am best acquainted with are the following, of which I shall here set down a short table, reduced to troy grains, according to the best calculation I have been able to make.
One ounce troy contains 480 troy grains.
One ounce Paris, or poids de marc, 473
One ounce Holland troes 473.27
One ounce Colonia 449.33
These are the weights used in the mints of England, France, Holland, and Germany.
If therefore we should call the troy ounce 100, the proportion of the rest will be as follows:
Troy 100
Paris 98.541
Holland 98.597
Colonia 93.61
I have chosen to reduce to ounces; because it is the denomination in which the proportion of weights is best preserved.
These ounces I apprehend to have been originally taken from the old Roman pound, which was the weight adopted by the Emperor Charles the Great, who applied himself much to the establishing a general standard of weights in his dominions.
In the examples I have given, we see how the Colonia ounce deviates more than any other from the average on the whole.
This ounce is very near equal to the old Saxon ounce, established in the English mint at the Norman conquest, and there preserved, until Henry VIII. substituted in its place, the troy weight. This circumstance makes it probable that the Saxon ounce came originally from Charles the Great, who first conquered the Saxon nation, and drew them from a state of absolute barbarity. The rude manners of the Saxons may have occasioned this great deviation.
The difference, therefore, in those ounces, I ascribe to the progressive error of those who have made weights, and from the neglect of preserving a proper standard.
The best remedy for this inconvenience, would be, for any one mint to form a weight, ad libitum, and to send a most accurate copy of it to every mint in Europe: to mention, at the same time, the exact proportion between the weight sent, and that observed at their own mint: to beg of the other mints an equal communication of the proportion between the weight sent, and their several standards: and last of all, to publish in the news-papers of all commercial towns, every market day, as is done at Amsterdam, the price of fine gold and silver, according to this new weight made for the purpose. This weight may be called the mint-weight of Europe; and from the universal utility which would follow upon such a regulation, it probably might be followed: were this to happen, it might be a step towards establishing an universal conformity of weights every where.
While matters stand on the present footing, it is necessary to be informed of three particulars. First, Of the proportion of the different mint weights. Secondly, Of the regulations by which the coin is made. And lastly, Of the exactness of the mints in following the regulation. Every mistake in any one of these three articles, is an impediment to the just determination of the real par.
I acknowledge that, in fact, exchange business goes on smoothly, notwithstanding all the difficulties we have been enumerating. It may therefore be asked, in what would consist the great advantage of so scrupulous a nicety?
My answer is, that exchange business will always go smoothly on, as long as exchangers gain, and that trade is not interrupted.
But trading men consider their own interest only; and I am configuring the interest of an intelligent state, which wants to promote the good of the whole community, without occasioning any hurt to the interest of individuals.