There seems to have been a tendency at the beginning of the last century to publish commercial tables in copper-plate, probably with a view to secure the advantage which stereotype has since secured in a better form. Thus we have the "arithmeticall tables" of C. Barden (Roy. Soc. library) without date • Lostau's Manual Mercantile,' second book never published), London, 1733; Rev. G. Brown's Arithmetica Infinite, London, 1717 ; the two last being multiplication tables, with multiples of numbers and fractions useful in money trans actions, arranged under heads. The following may be mentioned as containing hints which might even now be useful :-Benjamin Webb, ' Tables for Buying and Selling Stocks,' London, 1759; also The Complete Annuitant, or Tables of Interest,' London, 1762; Hayes's Moneyed Man's Guide,' a table for computing dividends, London, 1726. The French have a large number of tables answering to our ready reckoners, under the names of Bareme (a word of the same use with them as Cocker with us), &e. We have seen one of them of the decimal character, in which a metal plate with rectangles pierced in it serves, on one being placed over the integers of the number given, to make another separate those of the number to be found.
Commercial tables of any real power are rendered impossible in practice by the use of shillings, pence, and farthings, except by an extent of matter which makes them very expensive. If, indeed, the rule for decimalising the parts of a pound [COMPUTATION) were well learned and properly used, some of the older tables, which have fallen entirely into oblivion, would certainly be revived with effect. Two of those presently mentioned will certainly be reprinted when the time comes ; Brown's Arithmetica Infinite,' and Webb's Tables for Buying and Selling Stocks.' The main part of the former is the first nine multiples of the decimal, which expresses any number of farthings in a pound. Thus, under 7s. 81d. are .3854166 . . . and its multiples up to nine times. The latter has the multiples necessary to find the quantity of stock which answers to any sum of money, and vice versd, at different prices. These are both pocket tables, and their places are supplied at present by works of much greater bulk and less extensive use.
We now give a very condensed account of a few mercantile tables. We take them merely because we happen to have examined them, without any selection. Such a list, meagre as it is, both in amount of works and in description, may be of much use to one who is contem plating the construction of a table. He may be warned that tables exist which he should consult before he settles his plan ; for those we have quoted may suggest the expediency of looking out either for themselves or for others resembling them ; or he may receive a hint even from so brief a description as ours. There will appear, in so short a list as this, sufficient evidence of the never-ceasing attempt to bring decimal * fractions into tabular connection with our mixed money. There has never been any lasting success with the world at large ; and we must continue, in our commercial arithmetic, at per petual war with our own first principles, until we are wise enough to decimalise our coinage, and ultimately our weights and measures.
In the following list, the letters Q., 0., or D., for quarto, octavo, and
duodecimo or under (referring to size, and not to mode of printing), precede the date and begin the description of each work : 0. 1613, London : Richard Witt, Arithmeticall Questions ; ' com pound interest. Q. 1619, Leipsic : EM newel metzhar gerechnetes Rechenbuch ; ready-reckoner, tables of multiplication of prices. D. 1629, London (2nd edition, many editions) : William Webster, Webster 's Tables ;' small tables of simple interest. D. 1632, London: John Bill, Accompts cast up ; ' ready-reckoner, simple multiplication of integer numbers up to 100 times ; the earliest English ready reckoner we know of. 0.1633, London : Robert Butler, The Scale of Interest ;' tables of discount and present value. 0. 1668, London : John Newton, The Scale of Interest' (see Logarithms, 1668). 0. 1677, London : Michael Dary, interest Epitomized ; ' small tables of compound interest ; a rare and remarkable book in other respects. D. 1682, Amsterdam : J. Sarfatti Pina, De Lichtende Koopman's Fackel;' multiples of money in facilitation of exchanges. D. 1686, Cam bridge [Mabbot]: Tables for Renewing and Purchasing of the Leases of Cathedral Churches •)• and Colleges ; ' reprinted almost down to our own time (to 1808 at least) under the name of Newton, because it has Newton's certificate of approbation of the method. Mr. Edlestou, who has found the name of the writer in his researches into Newton's biography, says that he was manciple, a caterer, of King's College. In the treasury of Trinity College, he adds, is a table and explanation, in Newton's handwriting (1674-5), of the fines for renewing years lapsed in a lease for 20 years. It is entitled, Tabula redemptionalis ad reditus Collegii SS. Trinitatis accomodate, and gives seven years' purchase for the whole lease, and one year for seven years lapsed. This allows the lessee upwards of 13 per cent. This table was employed till 1700, when Bentley introduced 10 per cent. tables ; but the "greediness for present sealing money" compelled n return to the old system. Dr. Smith, in 1742, reintroduced the 10 per cent. tables, which became 9 per cent. in 1750. Newton's table is published in the ' Journal of the Institute of Actuaries' for January, 1861, vol. lx. No. 42. 0. 1603, London : W. Leybourn, Panariihmologia .... all performed by tables ready cast np ; ready-reckoner, multiples of prices, &e. D. 1707, London: John Smart, Tables of Simple Interest . . . . also Tables of Compound Interest;' the first edition of these celebrated tables. D. 1710, London : John Castaiug, ' An Interest Book . . . ; ' interest per year reduced to days by tables. 0. 1711, London: E. An Index to Interest ; ' units, tens, and hundreds of pounds principal, reduced to interest for each number of days in the year. D. 1718, —: Geo. Brown,' Arithinetica Infinitar all farthings under one pound reduced to decimals, with the first nine multiples of each (the whole in copper-plate ; the figures very rough, as if put in by the author's own hand). Q. 1726, London: John Smart, ' Tables of Interest, Discount, Annuities ; ' the second edition, and the best. D. 1726, London: Richard Hayes, The Money'd Man's Guide;' tables of dividends on sums proceeding by eighths of a pound, at — per cent.