3 Aug. 1801

Eden

Simple Computation

6

76

In France, besides silver money more various than ours, (viz. Crowns, Half

Crowns, Shillings, sixpences, and threepences) I remember having, in inferior

money, five different pieces in my pocket at the same time: Penny pieces,

three-farthing-pieces, halfpenny pieces, farthing pieces and half-farthing

pieces. These were embarassments – not mounted upon a great mass attended with

no embarassment (as in the case of the shillings pence and farthings for

interest mounted upon a principal of 12:16ss) but composing frequently the whole

of the sum to be transferred on each occasion from hand to hand – transferred –

and made up out of such elements by computation – among the poorest and most

illiterate of the people.

In America, the silver paper monies, circulating under a continually varying

discount, as compared with silver metal monies of the same denominations, must

in their mixture with these undepretiated monies, have given rise, to

computations, attended I should think with every degree of intricacy that can be

ascribed to the proposed Annuity Notes.