Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 1Jefferson, Thomas
History
Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 1
Jefferson, Thomas
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1865
1. As to the Dollar, events have overtaken and superseded the question.
It is no longer a doubt whether the people can adopt it with ease; they
have adopted it, and will have to be turned out of that, into another
track of calculation, if another Unit be assumed. They have now two
Units, which they use with equal facility, viz. the Pound of their
respective state, and the Dollar. The first of these is peculiar to each
state; the second, happily, common to all. In each state, the people
have an easy rule for converting the pound of their state into dollars,
or dollars into pounds; and this is enough for them, without knowing how
this may be done in every state of the Union. Such of them as live near
enough the borders of their state to have dealings with their neighbors,
learn also the rule of their neighbors: Thus, in Virginia and the
Eastern States, where the dollar is 6s. or 3/10 of a pound, to turn
pounds into dollars, they multiply by 10, and divide by 3. To turn
dollars into pounds, they multiply by 3, and divide by 10. Those in
Virginia who live near to Carolina, where the dollar is 8s. or 4/10 of
a pound, learn the operation of that state, which is a multiplication
by 4, and division by 10, _et e converso_. Those who live near Maryland,
where the dollar is 7s. 6d. or 3/8 of a pound, multiply by 3, and divide
by 8, _et e converso_. All these operations are easy, and have been
found by experience, not too much for the arithmetic of the people,
when they have occasion to convert their old Unit into dollars, or the
reverse.
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