Cour
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the principal advantage of legal tender Standard, that of steadiness, over it being rendered the value of all pecuniary Contracts doubtful and uncertain.
With respect to the reluctance or hesitation of the Chinese to take the dollars of Mexico and South America I would observe that that hesitation, or refusal can be only commensurate with the fear or fancy and value which is given, in some cases varying preference.
The Provinces of China, to the dollars of Carolus and Ferdinand, cannot alter the obvious certainty which must always subsist between the intrinsic value of the Dollar, because that of Sycee Silver can readily be refined, as the former may be and converted into the latter.
The Troops serving at this Station can, I apprehend be paid only with Mexican Dollars, and Rupees, which, if the proclamation in question had not been issued, might have proved the occasion of considerable dissatisfaction and complaint. On this ground only, if none other existed the proclamation was probably deemed expedient & necessary.
It appears by a paragraph in a printed paper from Macao, in May last that at that date Republican Dollars were at 6 @ 7 per cent discount, compared with Ferdinand Dollars.
A Tael weight is equal to 37.784 grams Troy. A Tael of Sycee 100% fine is, therefore, equal to 37.784 grams of pure Silver, and as a dollar contains 24.4 grains of pure silver or 1.58 grams, 656.24 Taels of Sycee are of the same intrinsic value as 1000 dollars. But at Canton, when Republican Dollars are at 7 per cent discount, 1000 of those Dollars are worth only 930 dollars of the coinage of Ferdinand, Hence 1000 Mex dollars = 930 Ferd? dol? = 65624/100 of Sycee or, which comes to the same thing, by weight of Sycee Silver are deemed equal.
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Miguel Laboa Gottlie