5396. MONEY, Unit of.—
The plan reported
by the Financier [Robert Morris] is
worthy of his sound judgment. It admits,
however, of objection in the size of the
Unit. He proposes that this shall be the
1440th part of a dollar; so that it will require
1440 of his units to make the one before
proposed. He was led to adopt this by a
mathematical attention to our old currencies,
all of which this Unit will measure without
leaving a fraction. But as our object is to
get rid of those currencies, the advantage
derived from this coincidence will soon be
past, whereas the inconveniences of this
Unit will forever remain, if they do not altogether
prevent its introduction. It is defective
in two of the three requisites of a
Money Unit. 1. It is inconvenient in its application
to the ordinary money transactions.
Ten thousand dollars will require eight figures
to express them, to wit, 14,400,000 units.
A horse or bullock of eighty dollars' value,
will require a notation of six figures, to wit,
115,200 units. As a money of account, this
will be laborious, even when facilitated by the
aid of decimal arithmetic: as a common
measure of the value of property, it will be
too minute to be comprehended by the people.
The French are subjected to very Iaborious
calculations, the livre being their ordinary
money of account, and this but between
1-5th and 1-6th of a dollar; but what
will be our labors, should our money of account
be 1-1440th of a dollar? 2. It is neither
equal, nor near to any of the known coins in
value.—
Notes on a Money Unit. Washington ed. i, 166.
Ford ed., iii, 450.
(1784)
See Dollar.
