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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 14.: ricardo to [malthus] [A Note on the Jamaica Exchange] - The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 6 Letters 1810-1815

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14.: ricardo to [malthus] [A Note on the Jamaica Exchange] - David Ricardo, The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 6 Letters 1810-1815 [1810]

Edition used:

The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, ed. Piero Sraffa with the Collaboration of M.H. Dobb (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2005). Vol. 6 Letters 1810-1815.

Part of: The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, 11 vols (Sraffa ed.)

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14.

ricardo to [malthus] 5
[A Note on the Jamaica Exchange]

The Par of Exchange with Jamaica is stated to be £140 - currency for £100. The dollar is current in Jamaica for 6/8 currency consequently 420 dollars are also equal to £100 - sterling. But that this is not the true par is obvious, a dollar being worth and containing only as much pure silver as 4/3¾ sterling;—420 dollars therefore are only of equal value with £90. 11. - sterling in silver, or to the same quantity of gold if the market and [mint]1 prices of gold agree. 463.72 dollars or £154. 11. 6 currency are the true par of £100 - sterling in silver,—but if gold be considered as the standard of English currency whilst silver is legal tender to any amount in Jamaica the par of exchange must vary with every alteration in the relative value of the precious metals and now that gold is 16 times the value of silver the par must be £164. 2 - in Jamaica currency or 492.34 dollars. The price of a bill in Jamaica now is from 5 to 2½ pct prem ṃ on 140 their estimated par, supposing it 5 pct. the price of a bill is £147 more than £17 - under the true par, or rather less than 10½ pc. in favor of Jamaica. At the same time Jamaica finds it advantageous to export Dollars to England the exchange being only nominally in her favor, but really unfavourable to the amount of the expences attending the exportation of money. £147 - Jamaica currency the price for a bill, or which is the same thing 441 dollars each weighing 17 dwt. 8 grains* will at the present price of dollars in England sell for £113 - sterling making dollars a more advantageous remittance than a bill by 13 pct., from which however must be deducted all the expences attending the exportation of the dollars. In considering the value of gold 16 times that of silver, the price of dollars being 5/11 pr. oz and standard silver 6/1 pr oz, gold must be £4.17. - pr. oz. This is actually its value if the price of doubloons which are now £4. 13. 6 pr. oz be taken as the standard, but it is probable that the price of standard gold which has not lately been quoted is rather below this price. It would appear then that the computed exchange with Jamaica is 10½ pct. unfavourable to England, that the real exchange is really 13 pct. in favour of England, and that these two added together will be within 3 or 4 pct. of1 the depreciation of the currency of England reckoning the price of standard gold at £4. 17. -.2

[5 ]MS (in Ricardo’s handwriting) in R.P.; not dated, signed or addressed. Paper watermarked 1806.

This appears to be a draft of the ‘account of the Jamaica Exchange’, sent by Ricardo to Malthus, probably just before their meeting of 9 July, and discussed by Malthus in the next letter. Malthus made use of the information which it contains in his second article on bullion in the Edinburgh Review, Aug. 1811, pp. 453–4.

[1 ]Omitted in MS.

[[*] ]This is the mint weight of the dollar, but it is probable that the actual weight of the current dollar may be under this standard.

[1 ]Replaces ‘between 3 or 4 pct. of’, which in its turn replaced ‘about equal to’.

[2 ]‘and which diffce. may be accounted for by a deficiency in the actual weight of the dollar’ is del. here.