tainty of getting value for a bill of exchange drawn on an inhabitant of the West Indies, that scarcely any such bills can be said to exist: their payments are accordingly made by bills on Britain, and the exchange is generally high, being from 5 to 15 per cent. or more, in favour of the mother country.

The United States of America are in a similar state of cultivation; the bankrupt laws are introduced into a part only of these provinces, and the scope of American policy is to afford security to the creditor, without enabling him to compel payment from his debtor, until after a process of great length.

Accommodation Bills. By this term are understood bills drawn not on occasion of a real transaction, but for the purpose of affording a temporary supply of money, or accommodation to the parties. Such bills obtain currency for several reasons. It is often difficult to distinguish a real from a fictitious bill even when a bill is considered fictitious, it will still obtain currency, as the holder of it has the double security of the drawer and acceptor. It is as valid as a real bill, the law considering only whether the holder has given value for it, and protecting him in the recovery of that value the shortness of the term also (seldom exceeding two months, and never almost exceeding three) naturally induces persons to think, that although the drawer and acceptor be of doubtful credit, they will not fail quite so soon; and, in the worst event, the holder has the prospect of a double chance of recovery from the estates of both parties.

These circumstances have given a surprizing currency in this country to accommodation bills. They are as adverse, however, to commercial prosperity as real bills are favourable to it. If the negociator of accommodation bills compute the expence of exchange, stamps, the country bank charge, and the loss of his own time, he will find that he pays nearer seven than five per cent. interest for the loan. In nine instances out of ten these bills fail of producing their wished for effect, namely, a relief from difficulties; and the unfortunate merchant, after wasting several of his best years in toil and agitation, is obliged to lay his affairs before his creditors in a much worse state than if he had decided on such a measure in the beginning of his embar rassments. These embarrassments almost always proceed from going beyond his depth. The ambition which leads a man to advance

his circumstances, and the hope which makes him strive by great exertion to avoid a mortifying exposure, are highly commendable in themselves, but the public in this country has much reason to complain of the excess to which they are carried. Accordingly the Bank of England directly discountenances all accommodation paper; they even withold discounts from all brokers and middlemen, and endeavour, wherever they can trace the transaction, to confine their discounts to the direct acceptance of the buyer to the seller.

In the United States of America the banks avowedly sanction the practice of accommodation, and discount bills which they know to be fictitious. They are careful indeed to have at least one good name on these bills, so that they themselves are seldom losers; but the practice creates a serious evil to the country. These bills, when due, must be paid by others of the same stamp; the vortex is endless, and a war with England would produce a general failure among the exporters of American produce.

EXCHANGES, arbitration of, are calculations made to find through what intermediate place it will be most advantageous to draw or remit.

The drawee is the person in whose favour a bill is drawn; the payee means the last holder, or the person to whom payment ought to be made.

III. We shall now give a few examples of the mode of computing exchange with other countries.

To begin with Amsterdam. The par of exchange between England and Holland is 11 florins, or guilders, for a pound sterling. The denomination of money most usual in Holland is that of guilders, stivers, and pennings.

16 pennings make...........1 stiver
20 stivers.......... ....1 guilder.

But by a useless adherence to antiquated rules, another denomination of money is occasionally employed; a practice always perplexing at first, and aukward in some measure even to those who are accustomed to it. This denomination is called Flemish, and is as follows:

12 grotes.....make......1 schilling
20 schillings ...............1 pound Flemish.

Foreign exchanges are stated in this money, and the par with London is 36s. 8. or in other words eleven guilders (ƒ11.)

Prove the preceding operation by reducing ƒ 2668 into sterling, at the exchange of 37. 4 fls. per pound sterling. Before dividing the former sum by the latter, which is obviously the mode to solve the question, both must be reduced to a common denomination. Thus,

f2668 reduced to stivers is 53760

37. 4 fls.......ditto....... 224 And 55760, divided by 224, gives a quotient of 2401. sterling.

Hamburgh. Here, as in Holland, there are two denominations of money; one is the Flemish, which we have already stated; the other is that of marcs, shillings, and pennings lubs.

12 pennings = 1 shilling lubs
16 shillings = 1 marc.

A shilling lubs is equal to two grotes Flemish.

Reduce 150l. sterling into Hamburgh bank money, at the exchange of 35. 4 fls. (Hamburgh bank money) per pound sterling.

As £1 sterling :35. 4 fls. :: £150 multiply by 35 4

1987 marcs 8 shillings lubs. 63,600 And 63,600 divided by 424 yields 150l.

Ireland. The intrinsic difference between British and Irish money is 81. 6s. 8d. per cent,, 121. British making 13l. Irish. The exchange, however, is almost always considerably higher than this.

In reducing a sum in sterling into Irish the operation is easy.

Reduce 3501. sterling into Irish money, at a premium of 14 per cent. The rule is, take the premium on the sterling amount, and adding the two together, the product is the amount in Irish money.

Thus, to......... £ 350 49 add 14 per cent. on 350l. namely. Amount in Irish...... £399

The above-mentioned rules apply in all cases where the rate of exchange is stated at so much per cent.

United States. The denomination of money in America is the most simple of any: their table is briefly,

1 dollar 100 cents.

A dollar is computed worth 4s. 6d, sterling, at par, therefore 40 dollars are equal to 91. sterling.

G

Reduce 1751. sterling into dollars and cents, at par. Multiply by 40, and divide by 9; the quotient is the answer.

£175

40 dol. cts. 9)7000(777 77 65 70, &c.

When the exchange is either above or below par, the rule is still the same: the amount in dollars and cents is first found at par, and the premium or discount is deducted from, or added to that amount.

It is still common to transact business and keep accounts in current money in most of the American provinces, although these currencies are not recognized by law. In New England and Virginia a dollar is worth 6 shillings currency, and 100l. sterling is therefore equal to 1334. currency.

In Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, a dollar is worth 78. 6d. currency, and 100l. is equal to 166l. 2s. 3d.

currency..

Finally, in New York and North Carolina a dollar is worth 88. currency; therefore 100l. sterling is equal to 1771. 78. 9d. currency.

The shortest modes of reducing these currencies into sterling money are the following.

When the dollar is worth 6s. currency, multiply the sum in current money by 3, and divide by 4; the quotient is sterling. When the dollar is worth 7s. 6d. currency, multiply by 3 and divide by 5; and when it is worth 85. currency, multiply by 9 and divide by 16.

West Indies. The difference between sterling money and Jamaica currency is 40 per cent.; 1401. currency being the par to 100l. sterling, To reduce Jamaica currency into sterling, multiply the currency by 5 and divide by 7.

In most of the Windward and Leeward islands 175l. currency is the par to 100l. sterling. The rule in this case is to inultiply the current sum by 4, and divide it by 7.

Exclusive of these permanent differences between sterling and currency, there is also an exchange between the West Indies and the mother country, varying, as already mentioned, from 5 to 15 per cent. It is frequent in the Windward Islands to consi

der in small payments one shilling sterling as equal to two shillings currency, which supposes an exchange in favour of Britain of 12 per cent.

It very often happens that bill payments take place by indirect channels. A Bristol merchant purchasing grain in Holland makes the Dutch merchant reimburse himself by drawing on a mercantile house in London or Amsterdam, or if the Dutch merchant draw on the Bristol merchant himself, he makes it a condition that the bill shall be accepted payable in London. The object of this is to give an easy currency in negotiation to the bill. The Dutch merchant sells his bill on the Amsterdam exchange; where, for one man who wishes to buy a bill on Bristol, he will find twenty who wish to purchase on London. Hence the tendency of all exchange transactions to certain central points. That point is always the principal trading city in the country. Throughout Great Britain a bill on London is preferred to a bill on any other place; and what London is to this country, Amsterdam, in its better days, was to Europe.

Every country town is said to have its par of exchange on London. By this is meant the term or number of days at which the country bank will give a bill on London in exchange for cash. This term is greater or less, according to the distance from London. In Bristol it is twenty-five days, in Liverpool thirty, in Glasgow forty-five, and in the more remote parts of Scotland fifty days.

It is important to know, that a very small matter will amount to an acceptance. If the acceptor write his name on the bill, he must pay it; if he even prefix to his signature a notice that he will not pay it, this very writing binds him to pay it; in short, if the person on whom a bill is drawn, means to decline acceptance, he is not safe in putting the least mark on it, except the number denoting its entry in his bill book.

An explanation of this table, which is taken from the public papers, may be necessary to those of our readers who are not conversant with mercantile topics. Let us suppose a merchant desirous to sell on the Royal Exchange, London, a bill for 1000l. sterling on Amsterdam. The question between him and the buyer is, "How many schillings and grotes per pound sterling are to be paid at Amsterdam?" This is answered by the table, which states, that if the bill be made payable at sight, the rate is only 34 schillings and 9 grotes per pound sterling; but if it be payable at 2 usance, that is, at two months after date, the rate will be 35 schillings and 5 grotes. This difference is in lieu of the interest of the money for the interval.

In the case of Ireland, the rate of exchange is quoted at so much per cent. At the date of the prefixed table, there would have been given on the Exchange of London for 100l. sterling a bill on Dublin for 110. 15s. Irish; or one on Cork, for 1117. 108. Irish.

By the agio of the Bank of Holland is meant the difference between cash and bank money. Formerly cash money bore a premium of 11⁄2, 2, or 21⁄2 per cent.; but since Holland fell under the French dominion, it has been at a discount.

By 1 d. annexed to Paris, is to be understood one day's sight: 24:6 means 24 livres 6 sous per £. sterling. The Madrid exchange is 394d. sterling per dollar of 8 reals plate, or 272 marvedis. The Venetian 52d. sterling per ducat banco. In the Sicilian exchange the term oz., or onzia, signifies an ounce, meaning an ounce of silver.

EXCHANGE signifies also a place in most considerable trading cities, wherein the

merchants, negociants, agents, bankers, brokers, interpreters, and other persons concerned in commerce, meet on certain days, and at certain times thereof, to con fer and treat together of matters relating to exchanges, remittances, payments, adventures, assurances, freightments, and other mercantile negociations, both by sea and land.

These assemblies are, in some countries, held with so much exactness, that the absence of a merchant, &c. makes him suspected of drawing to a failure of bankruptcy, as not being able to stand the change.

The most considerable exchanges in Europe, are those of Amsterdam, and that of London, called the Royal Exchange. See ROYAL EXCHANGE.

EXCHANGE, in law, is a mutual grant of equal interests, the one in consideration of the other; and upon such a conveyance, no livery of seisin, even of freehold, is necessary to perfect it; for each party stands in the place of the other, and occupies his right, and each of them hath already had corporal possession of his own land. But entry must be made on both sides; for if either party die before the entry, exchange is void for want of sufficient notoriety.

Both the estates exchanged should be equal. But not equal value, but only in the kind and manner of the estate.

EXCHANGE-re, is when the holder of a bill finds it not paid by the acceptor, then it becomes necessary to draw other bills upon the parties, which create exchange, and the exchange paid upon that transaction are, by the usage of merchants, chargeable upon the preceding parties to the bill, by way of re-exchange.

EXCHEQUER, from the French eschequier, i. e. abacus tabula luso:ia, is a court of law and equity, established by William the Conqueror, as a part of the aula regis, though regulated and reduced to its present state by Edw. I. and intended principally to order the revenue of the crown, and to recover the King's debts and duties. The court consists of two divisions, viz. the receipt of the exchequer, which manages the royal revenues; and the judicial, which is again subdivided into a court of equity, and a court of common law. The court of equity is held in the Exchequer, before the Lord Treasurer, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Chief Baron, and three puisne

Barons. The primary and original business of this court was to call the King's debtors' to account, by bill filed by the Attorney General, and to recover any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, goods, chattels, or other profits or benefits, belonging to the crown; but now, by a fiction of law, suggesting that the party is a debtor of the King, and is less able to pay his debt, unless he has the aid of the court to recover of his own debtor; any person may be admitted to sue here. An appeal from the equity side of this court, lies immediately to the House of Peers; but from the common law side, pursuant to 31 Edw. III. c. 12, a writ of error must first be brought into the court of exchequer chamber, whence appeal lies to the House of Lords. The exchequer as a court of law is the last of the courts.

In this court suits are generally brought for tythes, although the court of Chancery also exercises considerable jurisdiction in that respect. The Exchequer is also divided into the court for judicial business; and the other, the receipt of the Exchequer, in which the accounts of the revenue are kept, and the money is received: in this branch of the Exchequer there are several offices; such as two chamberlains, the controller of the pipe, the clerk of the estreats, the foreign opposer, the auditors, the four tellers, the clerk of the pells, clerk of the nichils, &c. By stat. 23 Geo. III. c. 82, the offices of the two chamberlains, tally-cutter, usher, and second clerks to each teller, shall, after the death of the present officers, be abolished; and instead of tallies, indented cheque receipts are to be used: also after the death of the auditor, clerk of the pells, four tellers, and two chamberlains, their fees shall be abolished, and their salaries be fixed.

EXCHEQUER chamber. This court has no original jurisdiction, but is merely a court of appeal, to correct the errors of other jurisdictions, and consists of the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Treasurer, with the Justices of the King's Bench and Common Pleas. In imitation of this, a second court of Exchequer chamber was erected by 27 Eliz. c. 8, consis ing of the Justices of the Common Pleas, and the Barons of the Exchequer, before whom writs of error may be brought to reverse judgments in certain suits, commenced originally in the court of King's Bench. Into the Exchequer chamber are sometimes adjourned, from the

other courts, such causes, as the judges, upon argument, find to be of great weight and difficulty, before any judgment is given upon them in the court.

EXCHEQUER, Chancellor of, is in Great Britain, the officer to whom the arrangement of the financial concerns of the conn

try is chiefly entrusted. He causes accounts to be annually laid before parliament of the produce of the taxes, with estimates of the several branches of public expenditure for the ensuing year; and if the amount of the estimated expenditure exceeds the probable produce of the revenue, he adjusts the extent and conditions of the loan with such persons as are willing to advance the same, and proposes to parliament the new taxes which become necessary for paying the interest on the money thus borrowed. On the foundation of the accounts, and estimates submitted to parliament, particular sums are voted for the several branches of the expenditure; and where the ways and means of raising the whole sum wanted have been determined, an act is passed appropriating the specific sums to the various articles forming the supplies which have been granted. order to provide against any unforseen expences, it is usual to grant also a certain sum appropriated to any particular purpose, to be applied to any branch of the expenditure in which there may be occasion for it; this is called a vote of credit, and has increased 'in amount with the progress of the supplies; in the American war it was 1,000,000l. per annum, of late it has generally been 2,500,000l. Soon after the commencement of, each session, an account is laid before the House of Commons, shewing how the money given for the service of the preceding year has been disposed of, and what part thereof remains unpaid. If the ways and means have fallen short of the sum they were expected to produce, the deficiency is made good as an article among the next year's supplies.

In

EXCHEQUER bills, bills or tickets issued by the Exchequer, payable out of the produce of a particular tax, or generally out of the supplies granted for the year, and receivable in all payments to the exchequer. The first bills of this kind were issued in 1697, as a more convenient kind of security than the tallies and orders for repayment then in use, and were partly intended to supply the want of money during the recoinage then undertaken. With this view,