BULLION Tni. question that has of late engaged so large a portion of public solicitude, will lead to a division of this article into two parts of very unequal extent : the first treating het rally of Bullion,—the second of the Bullion contro versy. The latter is entitled to a place in a permanent work, both from its present importance, and from its probable connection with future imprm ements in the state of our money system. It i., justly r( marked, that ameliorations of the most obl ions character, in general, e cape attention until forced un inatddlid by necessity.
The rapid fall in the value of money since 1793, and more particularly within these three or four years, ap pears to us calculated to rouse the attention of the pub lic to the adoption of a different standard, in the adjust ment of contracts of long duration. It is long since Dr Smith told us, that money, as a measure of value, was chielly useful ['tom year to year ; and, in this northern part of the kingdom, we have recently seen, in the case of the clerical stipends, the enactment of an optional re ference to the current prices of corn. Much time may elapse before the adoption of a correspondent rule in the other important transactions which call for it,—the pre sent season of war and political agitation being- highly un favourable to discussions which demand so much length of deliberation ; but it is always one advance towards im provement, to ascertain the origin of past errors. With this view, an enquiry into the causes of the late rise in the price of bullion, may be made the channel of consi derable instruction to us.
I. Bullion may be defined, " Gold or silver in an un coined and unwrought state." Though the quality of bullion in our markets is understood to be of the British standard, the word bullion is of general import, and may be applied to gold and silver, with whatever mixture of alloy. It signifies also these metals in their unalloyed or virgin state ; though they are, in that case, so soft as to be little fitted to receive any permanent shape, and of course are seldom exposed to sale. Our laws, which
prohibit strictly the export of British coin, lay no re straint on the traffic in foreign coin or bullion. After oath has been made before the magistrates, that the specie in question has not been obtained from the melt ing- of British coin, the export may freely take place. Gold being with us the standard metal, the word bullion, when used by itself, is understood of gold bullion. The proportions in a pound or gold of the British standard, arc 11 oz. '2 dwt. pure metal, and 18 dwt. alloy. The standard weight of our guinea is 5 dwt. 91. grains ; but the more ordinary weight, after a coinage has been in wear, is 5 dwt. 8 grains. A guinea below 5 dwt. 8 grains is no longer a legal tender, nor is there any penalty in melting and using it for the purposes of manufacture. It cannot, however, be exported. The standard price of gold is 3/. 17s. 10V. an oz.; the standard price of sil ver is 5s. 2d. an oz. The relative alue of gold to silver is somewla different in different currencies. In ours it is (according to Dr Kelly) as 156,$ to 1 ; in Paris 15-&-, to 1, w Inch is very nearly the same ; in the United States it is about 15 to I ; in Ilamburgh 14.7, and in Amster dam 14.8 to 1.
Until a century ago, silver was the standard metal in our currency, as it still is in the currencies of Holland and Ilamburgh. Since 1717, gold has been our standard. Gold bullion in our markets was, during many years, at a very slight eariation from the coinage price, with the exception of an interval previous to the great recoinage in 1773, when the worn and degraded state of our guineas made uncoined gold comparatively high. It rose, how ever, uo higher than 4!. or 41. Is. per oz., and fell to its proper level as soon as our coin was renewed. But in silver it has unluckily happened, during more than a cen tury, that the market price has exceeded the coinage value of 5s. 2d. an oz. Hence a powerful temptation to melt the coin ; and hence the cause of the sudden dis appearance of the expensive coinage executed in king William's reign.