THE POUND STERLING

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 159, 31 March 1920, Page 7

THE POUND STERLING

What is the pound sterling—that majestic entity in praise of which Sir Robert Peel once kept the Houso of Commons spellbound for a full hour, though now sadly fallen from its high estate? Sterling, as some fervid patriots will grieve to knov.% has besn derived from Eastorling, a name for the Hanseatic merchants, states a writer in the "Manchester Guardian" But the pound was originally nn actual pouiiff weight in silver—s7oo grains of a standard of fineness fixed at 025 in lMflnnd was coined into 210 pence Over a long neriod tho standard was maintained, but it fell grievously under tho earlv Tudors, and by 1551 it had fallen as low as 25Q Nine years afterwards Elizabeth undertook its reinstatement. "a indeed weighty and great-," sa.vs Cnnulen, "which neither Edward VI could nor Mary durst attempt." Elizabeth proceeded on generous lines. She called in the old money, and even 1 'v.'i'son was given the nominal value of the base coin in the new good coinage the State bearing the loss. Thus 'lie coinage of England was reinstated, and. since English silver was lietfnr ,nul purer than that of other nations it was necessary to issue enasJmcnts against trafficking in Che coin or nioltfne if down, just as similar enactments are enforced now in respect of the sovereign. Another coinage crisis canin in IlWi owimr lo the fact that all the new mill, ed money went overseas where tt had a. real value, and the clipped, bad old mourn- stared in England, where it had a' fictitious value. This process went "•1 until at Jnst. no one knew what was tho purchasing power of any one of n dozen coins in his jiossession. Locke.and Montague solved the problem anew, and id ISI6 the gold (standard with the nold sovereign was enthroned. The word "pound" was retained, but it no longer has any actual relation to fncts.