Aus. Mints & "an unwarrantable infraction of the Queen's prerogative"

SpacePete · Jun 12, 2016

A flood of sovereigns, arguments against local mints, and great language like "...meddling with matters imperial."

MINTS IN THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES

The discussion which has taken place relative to the establishment of an Australian Mint is a singular instance of the difficulties that may arise in legislating on "imperial" matters for a colony at the other side of the world. When gold was first discovered in Australia, the inconvenience of having no local Mint was very severely felt. The producer of the raw material found the value of his earnings seriously diminished on account of his distance from the seat of manufacture. The stamp necessary to legalize the currency of his gold rose to a most extravagant value.

In order to diminish this discrepancy between the value of coined and uncoined gold, many of the colonial newspapers, especially the Melbourne Argus, loudly clamoured for the establishment; of a Colonial Mint;. Our readers well know how the difficulty was surmounted in this colony by boldly passing, the Bullion Act a measure which was severely denounced by some of our neighbours as an unwarrantable infraction of the Queen's prerogative, by trespassing beyond the limits of local legislation and meddling with matters imperial. In the gold-producing colonies the same object has since been more tardily answered by the importation of sovereigns, and the gold-digger has now no reason to think the price of gold too low. Meanwhile the complaints engendered by the want of a Mint found their way to England, and we now hear that, desirous of accommodating us, the Home Government is willing to allow the establishment of a Mint not only in Sydney, but in any of the Australian colonies that are willing to bear the expense. But by the time that this intelligence has arrived, the condition of affairs is greatly altered. There is now no pressing necessity for the establishment of a Mint. Sovereigns have been sent out to all the Colonial Banks in such quantities as to create a plethora of coined money. The only effect, therefore, of establishing Mints at the present time would be to increase that of which, just now, there is an over-supply, and to add expenses to gold that would acquire no additional value from being held in the shape of coinage.

The London Mint has latterly been so busy in coining sovereigns that there is no want of them in the general currency. Our surplus gold must go in some shape to England ; and to have it coined previously to sending it could only be justified on the supposition that the process could be performed 'here more cheaply than on Tower Hill. The Melbourne Morning Herald, while deprecating the establishment of a Local Mint, very pertinently observes that
"Nothing but an absurd protectionist law, compelling men to have their gold coined here, will prevent merchants from exporting gold in the shape most profitable to themselves ; and this will vastly reduce the quantity of gold which will pass through any local mint that can be established here. The less the quantity coined, the greater will be the expense per cent on that which is, and if our mint were to be a self-supporting establishment, the charge of coining would speedily mount to such a height as would throw the institution almost into disuse. If the mint be not made self-supporting, we shall be simply manufacturing at a loss, under legal compulsion. We have already an ample supply of coin in this country, and sovereigns are still pouring in. Within a very few months we shall be re-exporting gold coin to England, and when this occurs the most obtuse will probably see the absurdity of the contemplated local mint. If so ill-advised an attempt be made, we doubt not the mint would very speedily have to suspend its functions, or to limit them to the less dignified, but under our circumstances more useful, objects of a public Assay Office."

We observe also that the London Times of the 11th of March contains a leading- article on this subject. The writer, although setting out with the idea that Mints might be wisely established in Australia, veers round in the course of his article, and at its conclusion evidently leans to the opinion that the establishment simply of Assay Offices in each colony would sufficiently meet the requirements of the case and be less open to objection.

The. following eulogistic reference is given by our contemporary to the means employed by our own colony to meet the extraordinary emergency which overtook us on the discovery of the gold-fields in Port Phillip :

"It would seem as if the remedy to which the colony of South Australia was driven by the ruin which the gold discoveries of Victoria threatened to bring upon her suggested the best solution of this difficulty. We have said that it is not desirable that bullion should be exported in exchange for sovereigns; or that, as it seems, sovereigns should be manufactured ad libitum in Australia, and forced into circulation here, whenever it may suit the convenience of the colony to export them. If Australian gold is ultimately to find its way to India, China, or Russia, it seems better that it should go thither at once direct, instead of being forced into our market by one derangement of our currency in order to be forced out of it by another. The problem, then, seems to be, to coin and authenticate the weight of gold in Australia in such a manner that it may possess as much as possible the attributes of a universal medium of exchange, and find its way directly from the country where it is produced to those parts of the earth where its presence is most urgently needed. The way to effect this would seem to be, to cast the gold into ingots or tokens, and to authenticate by a stamp their weight and fineness. A little experience of that commodity would soon fix and authenticate its value all over the world, and Australia would have gained an article of universal export and exchange instead of the power of manufacturing the coin of a particular country."
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Aus. Mints & "an unwarrantable infraction of the Queen's prerogative"

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Aus. Mints & "an unwarrantable infraction of the Queen's prerogative"

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