3. To take as a unit the value of one gramme of standard gold, ninetenths fine, to be called a sol, or soldo.*

4. To take as a common measure of value, one decigramme of pure gold.t

To consider these propositions in their order:

It is unfor

In favor of the first, it is urged that it would only require, in the British gold coins, a change of 44-100ths of one per cent., and in the French gold coins, an opposite change of precisely the same small amount, to reconcile them with the Federal coinage; but the Federal coinage, on the other hand, would require to be reduced 3.1-10th per cent. tunate, also, that the change required by this plan, in French gold, is in the direction of increase of weight, while the whole mass of the French coin existing is below standard weight already. The proposer of this plan considers it a recommendation that it provides a coinage in which the weights are expressed by round numbers of grains; the unit weight, 1.62-100ths grammes, being the equivalent, within an infinitesimal fraction, of 25 grains. This relation is, however, unimportant, since it is to be desired that grain-weights shall cease to be used as soon as possible. The second proposition is that which has been adopted in the foregoing Article. Its advantages are, first, that it furnishes a unit bearing a simple relation to the system of metric weights, but which is yet so nearly identical with the dollar of the United States (about 3-10ths of one per cent. less) as to require no account to be taken of the difference.

It presents, secondly, points of near approach to the monetary systems of the nations in every part of the world, whose populations are most numerous, and whose commerce contributes most largely to the increase, of the world's wealth. As a unit of account, it is furthermore likely to prove more generally acceptable than the much larger unit presented in the pound sterling, or the much smaller one represented by the franc.

And, finally, it is a consequence of the long-continued and extensive use in past time of the Spanish dollar, with which this unit is nearly identical, and of the fact that the dollar is to-day the unit actually employed in the commercial dealings of nearly four hundred millions of people, (Dispatch of Secretary Fish, cit. supr.,) that the adoption of this coin as the basis of the international monetary system will introduce no novelty, and will therefore require but little effort to make the system universally intelligible.

The following table has been calculated from data found in the “ Catalogue Officiel" of the Exposition of Weights, Measures and Moneys, Paris, 1867, and in the Report of the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States for 1867; together with information furnished by E. B. Elliott, Esq., Statistician, U. S. Treasury Department.

* Mr. Michel Chevalier, in the Journal des Economistes, Nov., 1868, proposes a gramme of gold of nine-tenths fine as the unit, or a decimal multiple of the gramme. Dr. William Farr, delegate from Great Britain to the Statistical Congress at the Hague, in 1869, in a report made to that Congress, approves this idea, but strongly advocates the decagramme of nine-tenths fine as the unit, which he would call the Victoria.

Proposition of Secretary Fish, in Circular Dispatch to U. S. Ministers abroad, in 1870.

Relations of the Metric Dollar to the principal Gold Coins of Europe. America, North Africa and Japan.

916 1000 986 1000 595 1000 975 1000 880 1000 866 1000 875 1000 870 1000 844 1000 916 1000 898 1000 900 1000 915 1000 875 1000 900 1000 572 1000

The third scheme possesses in many respects the advantages of the one just considered, and is also recommended as being in the strictest sense metrical, since it presents the simplest possible relation to the metric system of weights. According to this, the weight of a mass of coin in grammes has numerically the same expression as its value in soldos. The following schedule shows its relations to various national coins in actual use.

The proposition of the American Department of State, which makes the decigramme of pure gold the unit of account, affords the following relations, which are here introduced for the purpose of comparison:

The objections which may be made to the unit proposed in this Code, are objections which may be urged against the introduction of any international unit of money. They are found in the inconvenience which will be temporarily experienced in those countries in which the change in the standard of value may disturb, to some extent, the adjustment of prices to commodities, and may require special legislation to secure the equitable fulfillment of contracts; and also in the trouble and expense attendant on the calling in of a coinage which the new system may have rendered unserviceable. But these disadvantages are inseparable from the nature of the reform itself, whatever may be the special shape in which it comes; and if the reform is to be accomplished, they must be encountered. No other plan of unification hitherto proposed has justified the promise that its introduction could be effected with fewer temporary disadvantages than must attend this.

What gold coins shall be legal tender.

500. All gold coins, of the value of the dollar, or of multiples of the dollar by the whole numbers, two, five, ten, twenty, or fifty, which may be struck by any nation, and which, in respect to weight and fineness, shall be originally within the limits specified in article 503, and shall not have become diminished by abrasion, fraud or otherwise, below the lowest of these limits, shall be a legal tender at their nominal value for payments of any amount in any place within the jurisdiction' of any of the nations.

See Title VIII.

Silver coinage.

501. Silver coins of the value of one dollar, or any fraction of a dollar, may be issued to facilitate the minor transactions of business; and such coins shall be composed of an alloy, consisting of nine parts of pure silver to one part of base metal, and shall have a weight equal to fifteen times the weight, which, under the provisions of this Code, is prescribed for gold coins of the same nominal value, respectively.

The present ratio of gold to silver, in respect to value at the mints of the United States, is 14.88 to 1, as between the gold coinage and the fractional silver; and 16 to 1 as between the gold coinage and the silver dollar. The silver dollar, being worth more than its nominal value, has nearly disappeared from circulation. The relative value of these metals has largely varied during the last five or six centuries in Europe. Under Henry III. in England, it stood less than 10 to 1; and at the commencement of the coinage of gold under Edward III., in the fourteenth century, it was about 12 to 1. (Mr. E. B. Elliott, in Blake's Report on the Precious Metals. Reports of the Am. Com'rs to Paris Exposition.) To this point it returned, after numerous oscillations, at the commencement of the seventeenth century; after which time it continued on the whole to increase until 1848, when it was 15.83 to 1. This was the culminating point. Since the opening of the Californian and Australian gold fields, there has been a slight reaction; but the effect in this respect of the very large increase in the production of gold, has been much less than might reasonably have been anticipated. Mr. Elliott puts the ratio at present at 15.38 to 1. (Blake's Report, above cited.) It is possibly somewhat less. The French mint ratio, in the case of the silver five-franc piece, is 15.5 to 1. This piece, therefore, has nearly disappeared. The French mint ratio, in respect to the two-franc, one-franc, and fractional silver coins, is 14.38 to 1. The British mint ratio is 14.28 to 1. The ratio, 15 to 1, adopted in this Code, is convenient, and very near the truth; the error being in favor of the preservation of the coin from the melting pot.

What silver coins shall be legal tender, and to what extent.

502. The silver coins issued under the last article, when the same shall, in respect to weight and fineness, be within the limits prescribed in article 503, shall be a legal tender at their nominal value, in any place within the jurisdiction of any of the nations; in the case of the silver dollar, for payments not exceeding ten dollars; and in the case of