2251. DOLLAR, Advantages as Unit.—[continued].
In the States where
the dollar is 3-10 of a pound, this Unit
[of the Financier] will be 5-24. Its conversion
into the pound, then, will be by a multiplication
of 5 and a division by 24. In the
States where the dollar is 3-8 of a pound, this
Unit will be 25-96 of a pound, and the operation
must be to multiply by 25, and divide by
96, et e converso. Where the dollar is 4-10 of
a pound, this Unit will be 5-18. The simplicity
of the fraction and, of course, the
facility of conversion and reconversion is,
therefore, against this Unit, and in favor of
the dollar, in every instance. The only advantage
it has over the dollar, is, that it will
in every case, express our farthing without a
remainder; whereas, though the dollar and its
decimals will do this in many cases, it will
not in all. But, even in these, by extending
your notation one figure further, to wit, to
thousands, you approximate to perfect accuracy
within less than the two-thousandth
part of a dollar; an atom in money which
every one would neglect. Against this single
inconvenience, the other advantages of the
dollar are more than sufficient to preponderate.
This Unit will present to the people a
new coin, and whenever they endeavor to estimate
its value by comparing it with a
Pound, or with a Dollar, the Units they now
possess, they will find the fraction very compound,
and, of course, less accommodated to
their comprehension and habits than the dollar.
Indeed, the probability is, that they
could never be led to compute in it generally.—
Supplementary Explanations. Washington ed. i, 171.
Ford ed., iii, 455.
(1784)
