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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 65

The Right of Issuing Money Belongs to the State

The Right of Issuing Money Belongs to the State.

In constitutional law the right of coining has always been held to be one of the peculiar prerogatives of the Crown, and it is a maxim of the civil law that monetandi jus principus ossibus inhœret (the right of issuing money is an essential of the Government). The late Professor Jevons in his admirable work on "Money" (p. 308), says:—"As to the right to issue promises, it no more exists than the right to establish private mints. For oar present purposes that alone is right which the legislature declares to be expedient to the community at large. As almost every one has long agreed to place the coinage of money in the hands of the executive Government, so I believe the issue of paper representative money should continue to be practically in the hands of the Government, or its agents acting under the strictest legislative control M. Wolowski in his admirable work on banking has maintained that the issue of notes is a function distinct from the ordinary operations of a banker; and Mr Gladstone hat allowed that the distinction is a wholesome and vital one." He also says (p. 341):—"We must deal with the paper currency in an analogous manner, and regulate it both more and less than hitherto. Private issues should disappear like private mints, and each kingdom should have one uniform paper circulation, issued from a single central State depart- page 9 ment, more resembling a mint than a bank." In the debate in -the imperial Parliament occasioned by the great crisis in May, 1866,