PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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Reference :-
C.O.
882
3
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
ourrency laws were so defective as to call for their repeal, nor were the reasons assigned by Bir A. Gordon sufficient in themselves to justify the change that he proposed. It is not apparent that either the banks or the late Governor were aware that the embarrassments from which they sought relief had their origin in the depreciation of the metallic currency, adopted almost exclusively, though without legal sanction, in the Colony; that this was then, and still is the case, however, a brief review of the law and practice of the Island, as bearing upon this question, will make clear.
4. By an Order in Council, dated 23rd March, 1825, the standard of the United Kingdom was established in Mauritius, except that the legality of the tender of silver for gold was not limited in the Colony, as in this country, to 40s.; and, by Colonial Ordinance No. 3 of the same year, it was directed that all duties and taxes should be levied and received, and all public accounts kept and rendered in British sterling money. The same Ordinance further enacted that 4. of British silver money should be legal tender for one current dollar of the Colonial money of account, and provided for the legal circulation of certain foreign coins at rates specified therein. another Order in Council, dated 1st February, 1843, the latter part of this Ordinance was superseded, and the foreign coins were thence- forward constituted legal tender, according to their intrinsic worth measured by the gold stan- dard of the United Kingdom.
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5. Under these arrangementa British silver coins were legal tender without limit as to amount, and, as they were of much less intrinsie value than all the other coins recognized by law, and generally could only be exchanged for the gold they represented by being sent to England, they became practically the ruling cumency of the Island, to the exclusion of the more valuable
coins.
6. The rupee furnished the sole exception to this rule, and that only to a limited extent. The Indians and persons trading with India, of whom no large a portion of the community is. oqmposed, persisted in regarding the rupee as the equivalent
of two shillings; but being of greater valos, though still overrated, it formed an availa medium of remittance to India, and na a natuoni consequemos, whenever the rate of amalanga ross above a certain point, rupees began to dimppesz from circulation. This state of things seema to
have continued with certain fluctuation until 1852, when, in defarence to wishes that had hem expressed, an Order in Council was passed the 18th of October of that year, by which,
ing the rule long before established in the United Kingdom, the amount legnily payable in British silver coim was limited, for each tranmotion,
10 403.
7. Although, at fiunt sight, this messure might appear all that was needed to place the currency
of Maurikims on a sound basis, yet in practice it had no effect, for whether from apprehensions of the result of a drain of gold, or of the dimonition which a strict compliance with the Owder in Council would have entailed in respect of com- tracts and engagements previously excinand into, and in favour of which ne sxception was manda, appeurs that both the Imperial and the Culcesis Governmenta continued to receive their duss make their Colonial disbursements in the depře. ciated silver coins, or in notes, prastically conver- tible into such coins only, and that their example was followed by the banks, the commarsial body, and the community at lange. By the ineft conmemá of all concerned, the law was, and is still, disre. garded. Contracts and engagements of all privaás individuals, though ordinarily expressed in dollars and 'ceria, which have no actual existence in the inland, are fulfilled by the payment, without limit,
of two rupess or of four English shillings to the dollar of account. Thus, the Order in Connell of 1851, instead of being allowed to current the unsatisfactory nerangements that had
in the Colony, has only increased the mainai possible inconveniences incident to making them illegal.
&. I am notwithstanding of opinion currency lawn now in urinimas are not mimpted to the requirements of the Oniony, and
that the state of things which
during
my years throughout