and are worn 4.29 troy grains light of their standard weight.f
The pound troy contains 5760 grains. This, according to the standard, is coined into 62 shillings; consequently, every shilling ought to weigh 92.9 grains. Of such shillings it is impossible that ever standard bullion should sell at above 62 pence per ounce. If therefore such bullion sells for 65 pence, the shillings with which it is bought must weigh no more than 88.64 grains standard silver; that is, they must lose 4.29 grains, and are reduced to 1⁄65 of a pound troy.
But it is not necessary that bullion be bought with shillings; no stipulation of price is ever made farther, than at so many pence sterling per ounce. Does not this virtually determine the value of such currency with regard to all the currencies in Europe? Did a Spaniard, a Frenchman, or a Dutchman, know the exact quantity of silver bullion which can be bought in the London market for a pound sterling, would he inform himself any farther as to the intrinsic value of that money-unit; would he not understand the value of it far better from that circumstance than by the course of any exchange, since exchange does not mark the intrinsic value of money, but only the value of that money transported from one place to another.
The price of bullion, therefore, when it is not influenced by extraordinary demand (such as for the payment of a balance of trade, or for making an extraordinary provision of plate) but when it stands at what every body knows to be meant by the common market price, is a very tolerable measure of the value of the actual money-standard in any country.
A pound sterling worth at present no more than 1638 grains troy fine silver, according to the price of bullion;
If it be therefore true, that a pound sterling cannot purchase above 1638 grains of fine silver bullion, it will require not a little logic to prove that it is really, or has been for these many years, worth any more; notwithstanding that the standard weight of it in England is regulated by the laws of the kingdom at 1718.7 grains of fine silver.
and according to the course of exchange,
If to this valuation of the pound sterling drawn from the price of bullion, we add the other drawn from the course of exchange; and if by this we find, that when paper is found for paper upon exchange, a pound sterling cannot purchase above 1638 grains of fine silver in any country in Europe, upon these two authorities, I think, we may very safely conclude (as to the matter of fact at least) that the pound sterling is not worth more, either in London or in any other trading city, and if this be the case, it is just worth 20 shillings of 65 to the pound troy.
shillings coined at 65 in the pound troy, would be in proportion with the gold,
If therefore the mint were to coin shillings at that rate, and pay for silver bullion at the market price, that is, at the rate of 65 pence per ounce in those new coined shillings, they would be in proportion to the gold: silver would be carried to the mint equally with gold, and would be as little subject to be exported or melted down.