49. CURRENCY, COINAGE AND LE GAL TENDER. Interesting as it would be to trace the history of the currency and coin age of the, various British provinces from the time when grain and furs were the actual cur rency, down through the card money of de Meulles, the ordonnances of Bigot and the Army Bills of 1812 to the present satisfactory system, such a task is quite impossible within the limits set for this article. ((Broadly speak ing,)) says Chalmers, °the currency history of Canada consists in the transition from the French icu to the silver Spanish dollar, and from the Spanish dollar to the gold dollar of the United States. But this transition has reference exclusively to the standard coin; the characteristic feature of Canadian currency, both in the 17th century and at the present day, is paper.* During the French regime a special colonial coinage was struck in France, but until the period when the chartered banks began to provide a stable medium of exchange, we find a large proportion of the currency consisting of the gold and silver coins of various countries, passing current and made legal tender at rates which were changed from time to time in the hope of keeping coin within the country. Brit ish, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Mex ican and American coins were all legal tender, while for the first 50 or 60 years after the British conquest the actual currency of old Canada consisted chiefly of Spanish silver and some British gold, together with paper, more or less doubtful in value, issued by merchants, private bankers and others.
By ordinance of 1777, followed up by acts of the legislatures of Upper and Lower Canada in 1796, the Halifax currency, with the Spanish dollar valued at five shillings, or four to the pound currency, was made the standard of the country, and new rates were established at which different coins should pass current. The British guinea, which appears to have been the gold coin most in use, was worth 11 3s 4d cur rency. The Halifax currency, it will be ob served, was to sterling money in the proportion of 10 to 9, #10 currency being the equivalent of #9 sterling. In Lower Canada, however, ac
counts were for many years afterward kept in livres and sots, six livres being equal to one Spanish dollar, while in Upper Canada the York (or New York) currency was more or less in use, its basis being the Mexican real, known in North America as the York shilling, eight of which went to the dollar. Its use, however, was prohibited after 1 July 1822. With many attempts at change, and with varia tions in the ratings of different coins from time to time, the Halifax currency, which, it must be remembered, was a money of account only, re mained as the legal currency system until 1853, when, after previous consultation with New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, a decimal system having as its unit a dollar equal in value to the American dollar was introduced and placed on an equal footing with the Halifax currency, and the British sovereign was made full legal tender at $4.8667. On 1 Jan. 1858, the decimal system was finally adopted as that in which all public accounts should be kept, and since that date Canadian currency has been on a gold monometallic basis, with a unit of value equal to the gold dollar of the United States.
On 1 July 1867, the Dominion of Canada came into being, uniting in one Confederation the provincet of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New .Brunswick; currency, coinage and legal tender were thereafter under the sole con trol of the Dominion Parliament.
The first Federal Act dealing with the stand ard of value and the metallic currency was passed in 1868. It declared that it was desirable that the currency of Canada should be assimi lated to the basis agreed on at the monetary conference held in Paris earlier in the year, and also that it should be of the same value as the metallic currency of the United States. It pro vided, however, for the continued use of the old gold eagle of the weight and standard of fine ness then existing, together with its multiples and halves, was made legal tender, each coin at its face value.