In the reign of Henry the Eighth, a statute was passed legalising interest to the extent of 10 per cent., under James the First it was lowered to 8 per cent., under the republic to 6 per cent., and in the time of Queen Anne to 5 per cent., and the usury laws were not altogether abolished till 1839. As regards Scotland, interest was altogether illegal until the Reformation. In 1587 it was legalised up to 10 per cent. This Act was repealed in 1552, but revived in 1571, the effect of rendering interest once more illegal having been to raise it from 10 to 14 per cent. Subsequently, in 1633, the legal rate was reduced to 8 per cent., and in 1661 to 6 per cent. In Ireland, interest was forbidden until 1635, when it was legalised up to 10 per cent., reduced in 1704 to 8 per cent., in 1722 to 7 per cent, and in 1732 to 6 per cent. The Statute of Anne, above alluded to, applied to the whole kingdom. In 1818, a Committee of the House of Commons was appointed, which reported strongly against the usury laws, but even then so strong was the popular prejudice that not until 1839 was it rendered legal to charge a higher rate of discount than 5 per cent. According to the Code Napoléon, 6 per cent. was the highest legal rate on commercial loans, and 5 per cent. on those on real property. In the United States, again, the rate is fixed by law, and varies in the different States, being, for instance, 8 per cent. in Alabama and Texas; 7 per cent. in New York, South Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin; 5 per cent. in Louisiana; and 6 per cent. in most of the other States. It is unnecessary to say that these restrictions are quite inoperative. It is very remarkable that so many civilised countries still fail to appreciate the simple statement of Locke, that it is in vain to go about effectually to reduce the price of interest by a law; and you may as rationally hope to get a fixed rate upon the hire of houses or ships as of money.'

We are generally told in histories of banking, as, for instance, in that by Gilbart, that the first national bank was that of Venice, founded in the year 1157, but I agree with Mr. McLeod, that this institution was not at first, in any sense, a true bank. The State being deeply involved in debt, its creditors were formed into a corporation and the debts made transferable like our consols. It was not until 1587 that the institution began to take money on deposit. The depositors received a credit on the bank's books equal to the actual weight of the bullion placed there, which the bank undertook to keep intact in its vaults, and to repay to the depositor at any time, or to transfer to anyone else.

The earliest real bank was that of Barcelona, founded in 1401. In this case, the city funds were made responsible for any moneys entrusted to the bank, which not only received deposits, but exchanged money and discounted bills. The bank of Amsterdam was founded in 1609. The so-called bank of St. George, at Genoa, dates back to 1407, but does not appear to have done genuine banking VOL. VI.-No. 33.

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business until 1675. The bank of Stockholm, which commenced in 1668, was the first bank in Europe to issue bank notes, which until that time were totally unknown in the West, although, as we have seen, they had long been in use in China.

Our coinage, however, is far more ancient than our banking system, in so far at least as our present information goes. Our ancestors, before the arrival of the Romans, are generally regarded as mere barbarians. Nevertheless, they were already acquainted with the art of coinage, which, as shown by Mr. Evans in his excellent work on The Coins of the Ancient Britons, appears to have commenced in Kent about 200 to 150 B.C., and to have spread over the south-east of England to Devonshire on the west and northwards as far as Yorkshire. The principal mints appear to have been at Camulodunum and Verulamium. The original coins were copies of Gaulish imitations of the staters of Philip of Macedon, which have a head of Apollo on one side and a chariot and horses on the other (fig. 5). Gradually, however, the execution became worse and worse, as shown in the illustrations (figs. 6-8), until at length no one looking at one of these coins for the first time would be able to tell which side was meant for the head of Apollo and which for the chariot and horses. The fact that the dies were much larger than the coins assisted in contributing to this result. Some of our coins are inscribed, and in one series we find the name Cun,' short for Cunobeline, the Cymbeline of Shakespeare, from whose name one learned antiquary has absurdly supposed that our word' coin' was derived. Other interesting inscribed coins are those of Commius, supposed to be the Atrebatian mentioned by Cæsar; of Tincommius and Eppilus the sons of Commius; of Tasciovanus the father of Cunobeline; of Dubnovellaunus, probably the Damno Bellaunus of the inscription of Augustus at Ancyra. I ought to add that among the latter coins are various curious types of purely native origin. Nay, not only had the ancient Britons a native coinage, but they were so civilised as to have attained the art of forgery, the false coins being of base metal plated over with gold or silver.

After the conquest, the native British coinage was replaced by Roman coins, great numbers of which have been discovered, and some of which are said to be even now occasionally met with in circulation. After the departure of the Romans, the Saxons, about the sixth century, commenced striking stycas, or half-farthings, and sceattas, from which comes our proverbial expression, paying one's shot.'

Our mode of reckoning by pounds, shillings, and pence, was introduced in Saxon times, the 1. being a pound of silver, though the penny, theth of 1., was the largest silver coin actually struck.

The 'penny' is the most ancient representative of our coinage. The name first appears in the laws of Ina, King of the West Saxons,

who began to reign in 688. The figure of Britannia on our present specimens was copied from a coin of Antoninus.

The mark was originally Danish, but is said to have been intro ́duced here by Alfred: it contained at first 100, and afterwards 160 pennies. It was never struck, but was only a money of account. Throughout Norman times, the halfpenny and farthing were, as a rule, not separate coins, but halves and quarters of the penny very neatly cut. Though some Saxon halfpence are known, these coins were not struck in any quantity till the reign of Edward the First. Our gold coins recommenced under Henry the Third, who coined gold pieces intended to pass for twenty pence. Edward the Third struck gold florins, current for six shillings. This coin being found inconvenient, he issued the 'noble,' sometimes called the 'rose noble,' worth six shillings and eightpence, or half a mark. This, with its half and quarters, was our only gold coin till the angel' of Edward the Fourth.

Groats and half-groats were introduced by Edward the Third. They received their name from the French 'gros,' a large piece. It was one of the charges against Wolsey that he put his cardinal's hat on the money struck in the archiepiscopal mint at York. The shilling' was first struck by Henry the Eighth. The silver crown, halfcrown, and sixpence, commenced under Edward the Sixth. The sovereign of twenty shillings was first struck by Henry the Seventh. The guinea commenced under Charles the Second, in 1663, and was so called from the Guinea gold from which it was made: it was withdrawn in 1815, when the sovereign and half-sovereign were again issued. In the middle ages the coinage was constantly deteriorated by having the edges clipped, now prevented by the milling of the edge, a process first used in 1560. The unsatisfactory state of the coin led to the use of 'tradesmen's tokens.'

But in addition to the deterioration of the coinage by wear and by clipping, the standard was gradually reduced by successive sovereigns. The denomination, weight, and fineness of silver coins have, however, remained unchanged since the time of Elizabeth; but the pound sterling, and its relation to the silver coinage, was not finally fixed until 1717. Gold was not adopted as our legal standard of value until 1816. Silver and copper, as everyone knows, are now token coins, and only legal tender to a limited amount, i.e., the copper coins up to a shilling, and silver coins to forty shillings. The mint price' of silver is 5s. 6d. an ounce Troy, i.e., the ounce of silver is coined into 58. 6d. The standard' of silver is 37 parts of silver to 3 of copper. The quantity of copper and silver coin issued is regulated by Government according to the supposed requirements of the country, but any one can take gold to the mint and have it coined into sovereigns free of expense. Practically, however, this is never done, because the Bank of England is always ready

to give coin for bullion, charging 1d. an ounce, which is rather less. than the loss of interest which would result from the time required for coinage. The sovereign is composed of 22 parts gold and 2 copper: most of those now in circulation are much worn, but when new they contain 113-001 grains of gold, and weigh 123.274 grains. An ounce of gold is therefore coined into 31. 178. 10d., which is generally termed the mint price of gold.

We sometimes hear surprise expressed that there should be a fixed price for gold. Gold, it is said, should be allowed to follow its. market price. But when we are told that the mint price of gold is always 31. 178. 103d. an ounce, all that is meant is that an ounce of gold is coined into 3l. 178. 10d. The price of gold is fixed in gold, or, in other words, sovereigns are always of the same weight. Sir Robert Peel asked his opponents the well-known question, "What is 17.?' and the simple answer is, that 17. is a certain quantity of gold, verified by the stamp of the mint.

There appears to be much uncertainty as to when, or by whom, coins were first struck in Ireland and Scotland. As regards the former country, they are never mentioned in the Senchus Mor, which is said to have been compiled about A.D. 440, in which when the precious metals are alluded to, which is but rarely, this is always by weight. Such is indeed the case even to a much later date. Thus in 1004, Brian Boroimhe offered twenty ounces of gold on the altar of St. Patrick at Armagh, though coins are said to have been in use as early as the ninth century. The earliest Scotch coins are supposed to belong to the time of Malcolm the Third, about 1050 A.D.

The derivations of the words relating to money and commerce are interesting and instructive. Pecuniary' takes us back to the times when value was reckoned by so many head of cattle. The

word money' is from moneta, because in Rome coins were firstregularly struck in the temple of Juno Moneta, which again was derived from monere, to warn, because it was built on the spot where Manlius heard the Gauls approaching to the attack of the city. Coin' is probably from the Latin cuneus, a die or stamp. Many coins are merely so-called from their weight, as for instance our pound, the French livre, Italian lira; others from the metal, as the 'aureus; the 'rupee' from the Sanscrit 'rupya,' silver; others from the design, as the angel, the testoon, from teste or tête, a head; others from the head of the state, as the sovereign, crown; others from the proper name of the monarch, such as the daric, from Darius, the Philip, Louis d'or, or the Napoleon.

The dollar or thaler is short for the Joachimsthaler, or money of the Joachims valley in Bohemia, where these coins were first struck in the sixteenth century. Guineas were called after the country from which the gold was obtained, and the franc' is an abbreviation of the inscription Francorum Rex. The 'sou' is from the Latin

solidus. The word shilling appears to be derived from a root signifying to divide; and in several cases the name indicates the fraction of some larger coin, as the denarius, halfpenny, farthing, cent, and mil. The pound was originally not a coin, but a weight, and comes from the Latin pondus. Our pound was originally a pound of silver, which was divided into 240 pennies. The origin of the word penny is unknown. Some have derived it from pendo, to weigh, but this does not seem very satisfactory. Our word sterling' is said to go back to the time of the Conquest, but the derivation has been much disputed. Some have supposed that it was first attributed to coins struck at Stirling, but for this there is not the slightest evidence; others, that the name was derived from coins having a star on the obverse, but no coins which could have given rise to such a name are known. The most probable suggestion is that it has reference to the Easterling, or North German, merchants.

Early English bankers seem to have been all goldsmiths as well as bankers, and it is, perhaps, just worth mentioning that in my own firm, as in several others, we still use certain books which are specially known as the 'Goldsmiths.' Sir Walter Bowes, a goldsmith of the 16th century, is recorded by Herbert in the history of the Goldsmiths' Company as having lent Henry the Eighth 300l. Another great goldsmith of this period was Sir T. Gresham, the founder of Gresham College and of the Royal Exchange, which was opened by Queen Elizabeth on January 23, 1570. Even Alderman Backwell, who lost 295,9947. 168. 6d., when the Exchequer was closed by Charles the Second, was a retail jeweller, and Pepys records on December 24, 1660: I went to chuse a payre of candlesticks to be ready for me at Alderman Backewell's.' Mr. Price in his interesting paper on Early Goldsmiths and Bankers' gives several accounts current appertaining to this period, and still in existence at Messrs. Childs', including for instance one for Prince. Rupert for plate, dishes, candlesticks, &c. The oldest of our existing banks are probably Messrs. Childs' and Messrs. Martin's. In the reign of Elizabeth there was a goldsmith named John Wheeler, from whom the business passed to William Wheeler junior, and subsequently into the hands of their apprentices, Messrs. Blanchard and Child, whose names appear in the Little London Directory, 1677.' Sir Josiah Child, although he subsequently became a banker himself, attacked our profession with more vigour than common sense in his new 'Discourse of Trade.' He says 'this gaining scarcity of money proceeds from the trade of bankering, which obstructs circulation, advances usury, and renders it so easy, that most men as soon as they can make up a sum of from 50l. to 100l. send it in to the goldsmith, which doth and will occasion while it lasts, that fatal pressing necessity for money visible throughout the whole kingdom, both to prince and people.' Sir Francis Child, called by Pennant the father of the profession, is said to have been the first to lay aside entirely the goldsmith's business