Utility of not fixing the denomination of ducats.
Were the States, therefore, to give a fixed denomination to ducats, they ought to be put at that value; but the trade of Holland requires that this coin should be allowed to fluctuate, according to circumstances. The great demand at present (1761) for gold to send to the armies preferably to silver, on account of the ease of transportation, has raised the value of that metal, perhaps ¼ per cent. above what it would otherwise be. If then ¼ per cent. be added, it will bring the ducat to the present current value, to wit, 5.4⅜ florins. If, therefore, in order to bring the currency of ducats upon a par with the riders, they were fixed at 5.4⅛ florins, it is very plain, that no more would be sent away in payment at that rate, because of the present advanced value of gold; consequently, none would be coined; the mints would be stopped, and the armies would be paid in guineas and Portugal gold; the melting and recoining of which keeps all the mints in Holland in constant occupation.
This, besides employing and giving bread to a number of hands, multiplies the Dutch currency, at a time when they have so great occasion for it.
Let us next examine the proportion of the metals in the coin.
How to find the proportion of the metals in the coin of Holland, and a wonderful phænomenon in the value of ducats.
Here we must adhere closely to the regulations of the mint above mentioned, and only determine what the proportion of the metals would be, were the coin of Holland, both gold and silver, of standard weight, and were it the practice to pay for the metals at the mint, indifferently in either species. But neither of these suppositions are to be admitted: First, because the silver coin is not of its due weight; and in the second place, because the mint never buys gold bullion but with gold coin, nor silver bullion but with silver coin. This is the infallible consequence of a coinage ill regulated in what relates to the proportion of the metals, which ought respectively to be put into the same sum, in the two different species.
It would be endless to examine the proportion of the metals, with respect to every species of their coin. It would also be incorrect to examine it as to the ducats; because that species has no fixed legal denomination; and the proportion of the metals is to be discovered by the denomination of the coins only.
Ducats pass current among the people for 5 florins 5 stivers; but with merchants, who buy them as merchandize, their value is continually varying. At present (September 1761) the new coined ducats brought in bags from the mint, which never have circulated, are bought for 5 florins 4⅝ stivers; those which have circulated (were it for a day) fall, from that very circumstance, to 5 florins 4⅜ stivers; which is a diminution of near ¼ per cent. of their value. This phænomenon shall afterwards be accounted for.
Were all the coin of full weight, the proportion would be as 1 to 14.62.
This being the case, we have no method left to judge of the proportion of the metals in the coin of Holland, but by the proportion of fine gold and fine silver found in the same sum, paid in florins of full weight, and in new riders; the one and the other coined according to the regulations of the mint above mentioned.