No. 370.
Mr. Bassett to Mr. Fish.
Legation of
the United States,
Port au
Prince
,
March 9, 1874.
(Received March 31.)
No. 286.]
Sir: The official journal of the Haytian
government, Le Moniteur, in its issue of the 21st ultimo, contained from the
minister of finance an instruction (inclosure 1) charging the controllers of
public moneys, (administrateurs,) who are subordinate
to him, not to accept the new American trade-dollar in payment of duties or
other taxes, thus practically prohibiting for the moment the circulation of
that sterling coin here. Recently several thousand dollars of that type have
been imported into this country, and the minister’s instructions to his
subordinates was calculated to create considerable inconvenience and
confusion in our commerce, especially as there is now confessedly a scarcity
of specie, which has become practically the only circulating medium in
Hayti.
Immediately after the appearance of the order in Le Moniteur, several
merchants sought information from me on the subject, and I lost no time addressing to the minister of foreign
affairs a note (inclosure 2) inviting his attention to his colleagues’
notice in the official journal, plaining
the nature and the value of the trade-dollar according to the terms of our
“coinage act of 1873,’ and especially making a favorable comparison of it
with other American silver coins, which, for many months before the
importation of the trade-dollar, constituted almost the only types of money
in use here.
The minister sent me an acknowledgment (inclosure 3) of my note on [Page 602] the 28th ultimo, in which he
expressed the hope that his colleague would not fail to do what was
requisite under the circumstances. In Le Moniteur of the same date both my
note to him and his response thereto were published. In the same journal of
the date of day before yesterday, the 7th instant, the minister of finance
inserts a” second order, (inclosure 4,) addressed, like his first one on the
subject, to the controllers of public moneys, (administrateurs,) and charging them that as the government had
since the publication of his first order received positive information as to
the trade-dollar, that coin is henceforth to be accepted by them and their
subordinates for one dollar specie.
By the proceeding above outlined on the part of this legation, I think that
the public here has become convinced of the reliable nature and full value
of the trade-dollar, and that thus our commerce in Hayti has been saved from
some temporary inconvenience and annoyance. It seems to me a just cause for
satisfaction and gratification that our coinage is gradually gaining
preference in other countries, and that after all, our national good name
and honor may be carried and made familiar in our types of money to the
firesides of men all over the world.
I am, &c.,
[Inclosure 1 in No.
280.—Translation.]
The secretary of state for finances and commerce gives notice to the
administrators of the republic that a new piece of American money,
called the trade-dollar, has just been introduced into this country,
where it circulates for one dollar specie.
This piece not being comprised in the schedule of moneys compared with
the European dollar (a la piastre d’Europe) to
serve for the collection of taxes to be made in the treasuries of the
republic, every treasurer must refuse to accept it in the collection of
duties or other taxes which he will have to make until the legal
standard or the intrinsic value of this new money be definitively
fixed.
[Inclosure 2 in No. 286.]
Mr. Bassett to
General Lamothe.
Legation of the United States,
Port au Prince
,
February 23,
1874.
General: In the official journal, Le Moniteur,
of Saturday’s date, which I have just received, I find a notice
addressed by your honorable colleague of the department of finances to
the administrators of the republic, advising them that “a new piece of
American money called the trade-dollar has just been introduced into
this country, where it circulates for one dollar specie,” and that as it
is “not comprised in the schedule of moneys compared with the European
dollars (a la piastre d’Europe) to serve for the
collection of taxes to be made in the treasuries of the republic, every
treasurer must refuse to accept it in the collection of duties or other
taxes which he will have to make until the legal standard or the
intrinsic value of this new money be definitively fixed.”
The circulation of American silver coins other than the trade-dollar has
not only been acquiesed in but wisely encouraged by your government, and
I am most happy now to be able to lay before you facts which must remove
any doubt or suspicion into which your honorable colleague may have
fallen as to the nature and the value of the coin of which he speaks in
Le Moniteur.
The American trade-dollar is regularly coined at the mints of the United
States according to the act of Congress approved February 12, 1873, and
commonly known as the “coinage act of 1873,” and is of the full value of
one dollar specie. The thirteenth section of that act provides “that the
standard for both gold and silver coins of the United States shall be
such that of one thousand parts by weight nine hundred shall be of pure
metal and one hundred of alloy.” Section 15 of the same act declares
that [Page 603] the silver coins of the
United States shall he a trade-dollar, a half-dollar or fifty-cent,
piece, a quarter-dollar or twenty-five-cent piece, and a dime or
ten-cent piece; and the weight of the trade-dollar shall be four hundred
and twenty grains troy; the weight of the half-dollar shall be twelve
grams and one-half gram.”
From these references to our “coinage act of 1873” it is seen that all
our silver coins are of precisely the same degree of purity; that is,
that they all contain exactly the same proportion (nine-tenths) of pure
metal, and that, while the trade-dollar weighs four hundred and twenty
(420) grains, the dollar, in two half-dollar pieces, weighs only
twenty-five grams, or (the gram being taken at fifteen grains and four
hundred and thirty-three one-thousandths (15 433/1000) of a grain troy)
three hundred and eighty-five and eighty-three one-hundredths (385
83/100) grains troy; so that the trade-dollar and the half-dollar piece
both being of precisely the same metal, the former weighs thirty-four
and seventeen one-hundredths (34 17/100) grains more than a dollar of
the latter, and the trade-dollar, instead of being under the value of
the accepted dollar in other silver coins, actually contains about
thirty-one and three-quarters (31 ¾) grains troy of pure silver more
than a dollar in two fifty-cent pieces.
Trusting that these explanations will be sufficient to remove all doubts
as to the genuineness and the value of our new trade-dollar,
I avail, &c.,
[Inclosure 3 in No.
286.—Translation.]
General Lamothe to
Mr. Bassett.
Bureau
of Foreign Affairs,
Port an
Prince
,
February 28,
1874.
Mr. Minister: I have had the honor to receive
your letter concerning the notice inserted in Le Moniteur by my
colleague of the department of finance, respecting the American piece of
one dollar called “trade-dollar,” and recently imported into this
country.
I have duly appreciated the considerations which you have submitted to
me, as well in regard to the intrinsic and legal value of the
trade-dollar as United States money as in regard to the expediency of
rectifying most promptly the opinion which has here become current on
this point.
I take very good note of this communication, which I have already
submitted to my colleague of finance, and I hope that he will not fail
to do what is requisite in this circumstance.
I seize this occasion to renew, &c.
JH. LAMOTHE,
Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs, &c.
[Inclosure 4 in
286.—Translation.]
[Circular No. 238.]
The Secretary of Finance and
Commerce to the Administrators of the
Finances of the Republic.
Port au
Prince
,
March 6,
1874.
Messieurs: By my notice inserted in the
official Moniteur of the 21st February last, I prohibited you from
receiving in payment of customs-dues and other taxes, until its
intrinsic value was known, the new American dollar called trade-dollar,
which circulates in the country for one dollar specie.
The government having since received positive information on this
subject, I invite you to announce officially to the treasurers of your
respective arrondissements that they are authorized to accept in their
collections the above-named dollar for one dollar specie.
The secretary of finance and
commerce,
C. HAENTJENS.
