Reply to Mr. Bosanquet's Practical observations ... - University Library

( 27 )
Whichever metal is the standard measure of
value, it will also regulate the par of exchange
with foreign countries, because it will be in that
metal, or in paper currency representing that
metal, that bills will be paid.
In France there are also two metals in
circulation,
and both legal tender to any amount.
The relative value of gold to silver in the coins
of France, previously to the Revolution, was as
15 to 1 (Bullion Report, No. 69'), and is now
L5^ to 1 ;—but we are informed by a letter of
Mr. Grefulhe to the Bullion Committee (No.
56.), that in 1785 an alteration had been made
in
the number of louis which were coined from
a marc of gold, that number having been increased
from 30 to 32. Previously to 1785,
therefore, gold must have been valued in the
French Mint somewhere about 14 to 1. For the
same reasons that the standard of value was subject
to change from gold to silver, and from silver
to gold in England, it would also be subject
to do so in France.
When the relative value of
gold to silver was under 14 to 1, gold would
have become the standard measure of value in
ounce, and the relative market value of silver to gold as 1 to
15.57, and when therefore silver could be profitably coined,
the new silver fresh from the Mint would liave been a legal
tender to any amount.
France,