THE DECIMAL SYSTEM IN FRANCE.
British Museum, 16th November 1855.
San—Frequent reference has been made by writers on the subject of Deci- mal Coinage to the supposed facility with which a decimal system has been introduced in France, as proving that a decimal system of coinage and ac- counts might with equal facility be introduced into this country. But it ap- pears to me that thew who attempt such a comparison must have had a very imperfect idea of the method of keeping accounts previously in use in France, or they would have recognized, that far from furnishing a case in point as regards England, the circumstances of the two countries in relation to coinage and accounts, and the degrees of facility of converting the old into the new, are so entirely different as to afford ground of contrast rather than of comparison. At the close of the last century, accounts were kept in France in livres, (or francs, for the latter name was then even frequently used,) sole or sous, and deniers, names derived from the libre, solidi, and denarii of the Romans. The livre, like the English pound, originally represented a pound-weight of silver ; of which the ea or sou, like the English shilling, was the twentieth part ; and of this again the denarius' like the English penny, was the twelfth. But the value of the French Here had gradually, deteriorated to so much greater an extent than that of the English pound, that in 1798 the coin of that name was worth no more than about nmepence English; its twentieth part, the ad or sou, in value nearly equal to the English halfpenny, had become the measure of all the smaller business transactions, and the denier existed only in name. By a law 7th Germinal, an xi, (28th March 18030 a slight change was made in the weight and fineness of the livre, solely in order to render that coin an exact and even weight of the new al- lay: it was directed that a " franc" should contain 5 grammes of silver of the fineness of nine-tenths ; and by this change the value of the franc was increased by about one-eightieth. It was also decreed that this franc should be divided into decimes, or double-sous, instead of into twenty sous as before, and that the decime should be divided into 10 centimes. In this new system both the livre and the sou (the actual current coins) remained as before, and bearing the same relation to each other, with the exception of the slight alteration in the intrinsic value of the former • the former under its pre- viously well-known denomination of a franc, and latter retaining in com- mon parlance its popular name of sou but converted in accounts into 5 centimes. Thus the only practical difference consisted in the sou now con-
sisling of 5 centimes instead of 12 deniers as before the change . but this different* could scarcely have been felt in the ordinary transactions of 1110, both centimes and denier's being simply moneys of account, and of very trivial importance in the daily traffic of the community.
Yet small as wairthis change, it was attended at the time with very con- siderable difficulties ; and even now, at the distance of niece than half a CM` tury, it is by no means universally adopted in France either in accounts or still less in the great mass of ordinary retail dealings. As long as the old livres remained in circulation, whenever they were tendered in place of a franc it became a constant source of contention which party was to be the loser by the bargain • one or the other must be so, as there was no coin to represent the actual difference, and the debate frequently ended in the weaker party giving 2 centimes or one-fiftieth part of the value (instead of one- eightieth) over and above the Here ; or, as a centime was a rarity seldom seen, a livre and a sous were combined to represent a franc, and thus the re- ceiver obtained 3.1 per cent beyond the real value of the new coin as com- pared with the old. Even to this day, although in Paris and other large towns written accounts are kept in francs and centimes, (for this d6cime is universally neglected,) this is by no means uniformly the case in the pro:- vinces, where accounts arc still frequently kept and presented in livres, sole, and deniers, as of old; of the existence of which custom I have proofs in bills in my own possession. And in Paris itself, as well as everywhere else throughout France, the prices of most of the common and smaller articles are still constantly expressed in sons; as must be well known to every Eng- lishman who has visited France. For those who have not, it will be suffi- cient to quote the striking fact, that the universally-read Galinagnis M i es- senger s marked—not half-a-franc, not 5 deuimes, not 50 centimes, but-
" price 10 sore"; and to call their attention to an ordinance of the present year prohibiting the crying of articles in the streets by the son. So difficult is it to change the habits of a people, even where the change involves no reel or practical difference.
When the Assemblee Geniirale referred the question of alloy, together with the system of weights, measures, and coinage, to the Academy, the commie,. sioners named by that body in. their report upon these subjects recommended the universal adoption of a decimal system, on the sole ground that the deci-_ mel scale formed the basis of the common arithmetic; allowing at the acpse time, that for practical purposes the decimal is much inferior to the &Wee eimal. They feared, however, to recommend so grand an innovation as would have been involved in the substitution of the duodecimal scale in. arithmetical calculations; although it must be admitted by all candid in- quirers that this superiority of the duodecimal scale is a strong argument favour of those who are opposed to the change of our present system of coin- age and accounts, of which the duodecimal element forms so essential a part. It should be observed, however, that not only was the denier in the older French system the twelfth part of a sou, but that even after the change several of the older coins having duodecimal values were for a long time re- tained; such as the coins of three or six livree, which were decreed on the 12th September 1810 to be worth respectively 2f. 55c. and 5f. 80c., silver coins of 6, 12, and 24 sous, which were decreed on the 10th August in the same year to be worth respectively 25 centimes, 60 centimes, and 1 franc, and gold coins of 24 and 48 !lyres. These coine'gradually disappeared -, but it was only by decrees, of the dates of 10th July 1845 and 20th April 1852, that the lest of those coins, which were regarded as incompatible with a complete decimal system, such as the silver coins of 25 and 75 oentimes and of 1 franc 50 cen- times, were finally withdrawn from circulation. As regards actual circuits, lion, the son or piece of 6 centimes may almost be regarded as the lowest coin, for the pieces of 2 and 3 centimes directed to be coined by the decree of the 28th March 1803 have never been issued ; and the single eentime is so rarely to be met with in circulation, that on a visit to France in September of the present year, I observed a quantity of them in a money-changer's window at Boulogne, and in another in Paris, marked " centimersone penny each." The only place, I believe, where it is possible to obtain centimes as currency, is the toll-gate of the Pont des Arts; whither the curious resort to obtain a change of four centimes out of their sou, the tariff for crossing the bridge being one centime.
From the foregoing observations it will be seen, that although the French system of coinage and accounts up to the commencement of the present cane tury was, like our own, based upon divisions by 20 and by 12, the latter divisions had for all practical purposes almost wholly disappeared, by the deterioration of the pound to leas than a twenty-fifth part of the value of the English ; and that the two practical coins of currency, the franc and son, continue to bear exactly the same relation to eaoh other ; and that inas- much as that relation was exactly 20 to 1, the conversion to a decimal sys- tem afforded the greatest possible facilities. And yet we have seen, that with all those advantages, and with all the weight and influence of a can. tralized government acting constantly and directly upon the remotest dis- tricts as completely as upon the capital itself, in neither the one nor the other has half a century sufficed completely to effect so simple a change. If I might be permitted to make a suggestion to the Royal Commissioners to whom the question of a decimal coinage is referred, it would be strongly to urge upon them before collecting viva voce evidence upon the subject, to study carefully al the circumstances connected with the change of system in France, in the United States of America, and in other parts of the world, in order that they may be able to appreciate and to correct if necessary the evidence given before them, as it appears to me to have been in a great mea-
sure the deficiency of this kind of knowledge in the Parliamentary Coin- omitteqetuvi4.ich has rendered necessary the appointment of a Royal Commission f In
Previous page
