Divide this by 14, and you have the number of aces of fine gold contained in a florin of this currency, 191.65⁄14 = 13.69. Here then is the exact weight of the fine gold contained in one florin of the currency in riders. [Sidenote: To put the ducat upon a par with riders it should circulate for 5 florins 4⅛ stivers.] Let us now examine how much a ducat ought to pass for, in order to be upon a par with the currency of the riders. We have seen that a marc of fine gold is coined into 71.687 ducats. That number of ducats, therefore, to be upon a par with the riders, should be worth 374 florins. Divide, therefore, this last number by the first, you have 374⁄71.687 = 5.217 florins, which is a little more than 5 florins 4⅛ stivers. [Sidenote: Utility of not fixing the denomination of ducats.] Were the States, therefore, to give a fixed denomination to ducats, they ought to be put at that value; but the trade of Holland requires that this coin should be allowed to fluctuate, according to circumstances. The great demand at present (1761) for _gold_ to send to the armies preferably to silver, on account of the ease of transportation, has raised the value of that metal, perhaps ¼ _per cent._ above what it would otherwise be. If then ¼ _per cent._ be added, it will bring the ducat to the present current value, to wit, 5.4⅜ florins. If, therefore, in order to bring the currency of ducats upon a par with the riders, they were fixed at 5.4⅛ florins, it is very plain, that no more would be sent away in payment at that rate, because of the present advanced value of gold; consequently, none would be coined; the mints would be stopped, and the armies would be paid in guineas and Portugal gold; the melting and recoining of which keeps all the mints in Holland in constant occupation. This, besides employing and giving bread to a number of hands, multiplies the Dutch currency, at a time when they have so great occasion for it. Let us next examine the proportion of the metals in the coin. [Sidenote: How to find the proportion of the metals in the coin of Holland, and a wonderful phænomenon in the value of ducats.] Here we must adhere closely to the regulations of the mint above mentioned, and only determine what the proportion of the metals would be, were the coin of Holland, both gold and silver, of standard weight, and were it the practice to pay for the metals at the mint, indifferently in either species. But neither of these suppositions are to be admitted: First, because the silver coin is not of its due weight; and in the second place, because the mint never buys gold bullion but with gold coin, nor silver bullion but with silver coin. This is the infallible consequence of a coinage ill regulated in what relates to the proportion of the metals, which ought respectively to be put into the same sum, in the two different species.