A Letter to the Right Hon. Robert Peel, M.P. for the University of Oxford: On the Pernicious Effects of a Variable Standard of Value, Especially as it Regards the Condition of the Lower Orders and the Poor Laws

Front Cover
J. Murray, 1819 - Currency question - 104 pages

From inside the book

Selected pages

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 97 - That the right of establishing and regulating the legal money of this kingdom hath at all times been a royal prerogative, vested in the sovereigns thereof, who have from time to time exercised the same as they have seen fit, in changing such legal money, or altering and varying the value, and enforcing or restraining the circulation thereof, by proclamation, or in concurrence with the estates of the realm by act of parliament : and that such legal money cannot lawfully be defaced, melted down, or...
Page 103 - Bank notes in circulation (all of which were for 51. or upwards) was about 10,782,780*.; and that 57,274,617*. had been coined in gold during His Majesty's reign, of which a large sum was then in circulation. That the annual amount of the exports and imports of Great Britain, on an average of three years, ending 5th...
Page 71 - ... instituting either the impression or denomination; but had usually the stamp sent them from the exchequer. The denomination, or the value for which the coin is to pass current, is likewise in the breast of the king; and, if any unusual pieces are coined, that value must be ascertained by proclamation. In order to fix the value, the weight and the fineness of the metal are to be taken into consideration together. When a given weight of gold or silver is of a given fineness, it is then of the true...
Page 7 - But when they heard this demanded in a court of law as a right, and found it, by sworn Judges of the law, adjudged so, upon such grounds and reasons as every stander-by was able to swear was not law...
Page 15 - As, for example, the physician ; if the poor man be diseased he can have no help without too much ; and of the lawyer, the poor man can get no counsel, expedition, nor help in his matter, except he give him too much. At merchants' hands no kind of ware can be had except we give for it too much. You landlords, you rent-raisers, I may say you step-lords, you unnatural lords, you have .for your possessions yearly too much. For that...
Page 95 - THAT when it was enacted by the authority of Parliament, that the payment of the promissory notes of the Bank of England in cash should for a time be suspended, it was not the intention of Parliament that any alteration whatsoever should take place in the value of such promissory notes.
Page 99 - That the unfavourable state of the exchanges and the high price of bullion, do not, in any of the instances above referred to, appear to have been produced by the restriction upon cash payments at the bank of England, or by any excess in the issue of bank notes...
Page 95 - THAT the Promissory Notes of the Bank of England are stipulations to pay,' on demand, the Sum in Pounds Sterling, respectively specified in each of the said Notes.
Page 53 - That the promissory notes of the said company have hitherto been, and are at this time, held in public estimation to be equivalent to the legal coin of the realm, and generally accept.
Page 95 - That under these laws (which constitute the established policy of this realm, in regard to money), no contract or undertaking for the payment of money, stipulated to be paid in pounds sterling, or in good...

Bibliographic information