Mr. Beresford thought the issue of private bankers in Dublin to be £700,000.* He calculated that Waterford and the surrounding district, had in circulation £200,000. Cork, three times as large as Waterford, he estimated at £600,000. 200,000. Clonmell, Kilkenny, and other small places; Tuam and its neighbourhood 200,000. To the north of Dublin, very little, except Dublin paper, circulates, and that chiefly of the Bank of Ireland. The people of the north require one-sixth part of the Bank of Ireland along with any private paper which they receive. From this statement it may be concluded, that the issues were then about £3,000,000. I know, that the issues of private bankers in Ulster are, at present, about £400,000. But it is to be recollected, that in this province, the notes of the Bank of Ireland circulate freely; and in some counties, Derry in particular, the case is the same with the notes of the private bankers of Dublin.+ I, therefore, am of opinion, that the circulating medium of Ulster amounts to £1,000,000., independently of the specie which still remains. I have taken credit in the account of the Bank of Ireland notes of these issues. They again circulate to the north-west, and as far as Sligo; and to the west, till they interfere with the paper issued by the banks of Tuam, Galway, and Birr. The western part of Leinster is principally confined to Dublin paper. I have heard the amount of the issues of three Dublin bankers stated at a very large amount. In 1804, Mr. Beresford thought they were £700,000.; Mr. Roach mentioned £1,000,000.; according to my estimate, they are at present £1,000,000. The failure of the Kilkenny, New Ross, and Cotter's Cork bank, proved that the issue of the southern banks was much larger than the calculation of Mr. Beresford ; although I am inclined to think, that his estimation for Waterford, making the amount £200,000., is near the truth. In that district he includes Kilkenny and Youghal. I should now state the paper circulation of these districts at £250,000. Wexford Clonmell, Fermoy, Mallow, and the city of Cork, cannot be less than 100,000. 1,000,000. 200,000. 120,000. * Page 105. + MAY 20th, 1810, BELFAST.-Full one-half of the notes in circulation in Ulster are Dublin notes, and chiefly those of the Bank of Ireland. AUG. 28th, 1809. ENNISKILLEN.-Circulating medium here is Dublin notes, which are subject to constant forgeries, that occasion great loss to the VOL. II. poor. 2 C Galway, which issues the whole circulating medium of Connaught, and where Lord French's Tuam bank is, probably, the largest Silver notes may amount to, but cannot exceed £200,000. 100,000. The guineas in circulation, as I have stated under that head, must be very few. Guineas, unstamped dollars, forged notes, and bills of exchange, must all add to this amount. Having mentioned the data on which I have founded these calculations, the reader will be able to form his own opinion of the amount of those items which have not been filled up. As far as I can judge, the amount of the circulating medium in paper is now about £6,305,000., independently of bills of exchange. In coin, it cannot be three millions; perhaps, nine millions for the whole is too large a calculation; and, indeed, in comparison with that of Great Britain, it appears extravagant. But it must be recollected that a poor country requires, in proportion, a greater amount than a rich one; because its capital circulates at a much slower rate,* which overcomes, in my opinion, the circumstances in opposition of tally payments not requiring a circulating medium. Circulating medium, in this respect, is similar to profit; a much larger per centage is acquired on a small capital than on a large one; so in the circulation of a poor country, consisting of a collection of small capitals, a much larger per centage profit will be made, than in a country in a more forward state of commercial intercourse. A wealthy nation obtains that credit which is denied to a poor one; and the universal establishment of banking liberates a quantity of circulating medium, which countries that are without it, require to remain unemployed+ until it be wanted. Ireland, to a certain degree, possesses these banks, and in the opinion of some, they are too numerous. But so long as transfers are only settled by tally, so long shall I consider that the banks of that country are not upon such an established system, as to allow them to interfere much with the circulation of the country. ' "This shews the necessity of some proportion of money to trade, but what proportion that is, is hard to determine; because it depends not barely on the quantity of money, but the quickness of circulation; the very same shilling may at one time pay twenty men in twenty days, at another rest in the same hands one hundred days together; this makes it impossible exactly to estimate the quantity of money needful in trade.” Locke's Works, ninth edit. vol. iv. p. 23. "By the assistance of these banks, whether public or private, the nation has obtained a variety of resources for procuring money upon sudden demand, and for turning it to an immediate account as soon as the demand is over; so that the quantity of current specie which must ever lie unemployed in the hands of an individual, has been rendered more and more insignificant." Professor Millaron the Advancement of Manufac tures, Commerce, and the Arts, edit. 1803, vol. iv. p. 113. Sir William Petty says, that in 1672, interest in Ireland was ten per cent, it is now by law six per cent. but it is not confined to this rate in any part of Ireland. In the commercial province of Ulster, 1s. per month for a pound, paid monthly, is common; and in large transactions, nothing is more usual than advertisements, offering a douceur, to be paid down, for the loan of money at legal interest; and in the account which I have transcribed of the manner in which the late discount offices in Belfast and Cork transacted their business, it will be observed, that sometimes much more than legal interest was paid. CHAPTER XVII. WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. IT would be a useful object of legislative interference, to equalize the weights and measures of the United Empire; but one which would require considerable industry to carry it into execution. Formerly, a cubic foot of water was assumed as a general standard for liquids, and weighed 62 lbs. ; this cubic foot multiplied by 32, gives 2,000, the weight of a ton: hence, eight cubic feet of water made a hogshead, and four hogsheads a ton, in capacity and denomination.* Dry measures were raised on the same model: a bushel of wheat, assumed as a general standard for all sorts of grain, also weighed 62 lbs. ; 8 of these bushels made a quarter; 4 quarters a ton in weight. Coals were sold by the chaldron, supposed to weigh a ton, or 2,000lbs.; hence a ton in weight is the common standard for liquids, corn, and coals. If this analogy had been preserved, it would have prevented much of the present confusion: it may reasonably be presumed, that corn, and other commodities, both dry and liquid, were first sold by weight, and that measures, for convenience, were afterwards introduced, bearing some analogy to the weights before used. The word ton is applied both to weight and liquid measure, because the same quantity of liquid is a ton, both in weight and measure. Hence the word quarter may be also explained: Bishop Fleetwood+ judged that it signified the fourth part of some weight, and not of any measure; and it seems to signify the fourth part of a ton, or 2,000lbs. 1 The origin of our weights is the grain of wheat, gathered in the middle of the ear; 32 of these, well-dried, make a pennyweight; 20 penny-weights an ounce ; 12 ounces a pound Troy ;§ and hence arose our £. of account, consisting of 240 pence, or in silver, one pound Troy weight, and is lighter by three quarters of an * Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 453, p. 457. Phil. Trans. abridged, vol. ix. p. 459. + Chronicon Pretiosum, p. 72. § Stat. 51 Hen. III. 31 Edw. I. 12 Hen. VII. ounce, or 360 grains, than the Saxon pound, discontinued by Henry VII. The pound avoirdupois was legally established by the 24th of Henry VIII.; the particular use to which it is applied is the weighing of butchers' meat in the market. How or when it came into private use is not certainly known ;* it contains sixteen ounces. The discussion of all the points connected with this subject I shall not attempt; my intention being only to hint at the beautiful simplicity of the origin of weights and measures, as a foundation for the reasoning of those who may hereafter be inclined to reduce to order the confusion which at present exists. The following tables will exhibit the state of Ireland in this particular. Mr. Croker had it once in contemplation to bring the subject before parliament; and he would certainly render an important service to the public, by yet pursuing his plans. Phil. Transactions, vol. 65, part i. art. 3. |