privileges. Upon the same, or a like reason, the king has also the and confer prerogative of conferring privileges upon private persons. Such as granting place or precedence to any of his subjects, as shall seem good to his royal wisdom: and according to the regulations of the statute passed respecting it :k or such as converting aliens, or persons born out of the king's dominions, into denizens; whereby some very considerable privileges of natural-born subjects are conferred upon them. Such also is the prerogative of erecting corporations; whereby a number of private persons are united and knit together, and enjoy many liberties, powers, and immunities in their politic capacity, which they were utterly incapable [ 273 ] of in their natural. Of aliens, denizens, natural-born, and naturalized subjects, I shall speak more largely in a subsequent chapter; as also of corporations at the close of this volume. I now only mention them incidentally, in order to remark the king's prerogative of making them; which is grounded upon this foundation, that the king, having the sole administration of the government in his hands, is the best and the only judge, in what capacities, with what privileges, and under what distinctions, his people are the best qualified to serve, and to act under him. A principle, which was carried so far by the imperial law, that it was determined to be the crime of sacrilege, even to doubt whether the prince had appointed proper officers in the state. V. Another light, in which the laws of England consider is the arbithe king with regard to domestic concerns, is as the arbiter of commerce. By commerce, I at present mean domestic commerce only. It would lead me into too large a field, if I were to attempt to enter upon the nature of foreign trade, its privileges, regulations, and restrictions; and would be also quite beside the purpose of this work, inasmuch as no municipal laws can be sufficient to order and determine the very extensive and complicated affairs of traffic and merchandize; neither can they have a proper authority for this purpose. For, as these are transactions carried on between subjects of independent states, the municipal laws of one j4 Inst. 361. 31 Hen. VIII. c. 10. 1 Disputare de principali judicio non 1 oportet; sacrilegii enim instar est, du- 5. The king ter of com. merce, [ 274 ] and thus the king estab. and fairs, will not be regarded by the other. For which reason the affairs of commerce are regulated by a law of their own, called the law merchant or lex mercatoria, which all nations agree in and take notice of. And in particular it is held to be part of the law of England, which decides the causes of merchants by the general rules which obtain in all commercial countries; and that often even in matters relating to domestic trade, as for instance with regard to the drawing, the acceptance, and the transfer, of inland bills of exchange.m With us in England, the king's prerogative, so far as it relates to mere domestic commerce, will fall principally under the following articles. First, the establishment of public marts, or places of lishes marts buying and selling, such as markets and fairs, with the tolls thereunto belonging. These can only be set up by virtue of the king's grant, or by long and immemorial usage and prescription, which pre-supposes such a grant." The limitation of these public resorts, to such time and such place as may be most convenient for the neighbourhood, forms a part of economics, or domestic polity; which, considering the kingdom as a large family, and the king as the master of it, he clearly has a right to dispose and order as he pleases, subject, however, to all-existing rights.o regulates weights and measures. Secondly, the regulation of weights and measures. These, for the advantage of the public, ought to be universally the same throughout the kingdom; being the general criterions which reduce all things to the same or an equivalent value. But, as weight and measure are things in their nature arbitrary and uncertain, it is therefore expedient that they be reduced to some fixed rule or standard: which standard it is impossible to fix by any written law or oral proclamation ; for no man can, by words only, give another an adequate idea of a foot-rule, or a pound-weight. It is therefore necessary to have recourse to some visible, palpable, material standard; by forming a comparison with which, all weights and measures may be reduced to one uniform size : and the prerogative of fixing this standard our ancient law m Co. Litt. 172. Ld. Raym. 181. 1542. n 2 Inst. 220. Mr. Justice Coleridge's note. vested in the crown, as in Normandy it belonged to the duke. This standard was originally kept at Winchester: and we find in the laws of king Edgar, near a century before the conquest, an injunction that the one measure, which was kept at Winchester, should be observed throughout the realm; and this Winchester standard was adopted and regulated by many subsequent statutes, down to the reign of George the fourth, when it was superseded, and a new attempt made to introduce a uniformity of weights and measures, which came into operation on the 1st of January 1826. Several statutes have since been passed for effecting this desirable object; and by this the imperial standard yard, pound, gallon, and bushel, are fixed and are rendered uniform throughout the United Kingdom; and models and copies of these and their parts are deposited at the Chamberlain's Office, Westminster, and sent to London, Edinburgh, Dublin, and other places. But by the last act, weights and measures verified and stamped at the Exchequer at Westminster are declared legal, although not similar in shape to those required, (s. 4). And all local and customary measures, and also heaped measures are abolished, (s. 6 & 7). currency, Thirdly, as money is the medium of commerce, it is the [276] king's prerogative, as the arbiter of domestic commerce, to To settle the give it authority or make it current. Money is an universal medium, or common standard, by comparison with which the value of all merchandize may be ascertained: or it is a sign, which represents the respective values of all commodities. Metals are well calculated for this sign, because they are durable and are capable of many subdivisions: and a precious metal is still better calculated for this purpose, because it is the most portable. A metal is also the most proper for a common measure, because it can easily be reduced to the same standard in all nations: and every particular nation fixes on it its own impression, that the weight and standard (wherein consists the intrinsic value) may both be known by inspection only. As the quantity of precious metals increases, that is, the more of them there is extracted from the mine, this universal medium or common sign will sink in value, and grow less precious. Above a thousand millions of bullion are calculated to have been imported into Europe from America within less than three centuries; and the quantity is daily increasing. The consequence is, that more money must [277] be given now for the same commodity than was given an hundred years ago. And, if any accident were to diminish the quantity of gold and silver, their value would proportionably rise. A horse, that was formerly worth ten pounds, is now perhaps worth twenty; and, by any failure of current specie, the price may be reduced to what it was. Yet is the horse in reality neither dearer nor cheaper at one time than another: for, if the metal which constitutes the coin was formerly twice as scarce as at present, the commodity was then as dear at half the price, as now it is at the whole. and coining money, mining the materials. : The coining of money is in all states the act of the sovereign power; for the reason just mentioned, that its value may be known on inspection. And with respect to coinage in general, there are three things to be considered therein; the materials, the impression, and the denomination. With regard to the materials, sir Edward Coke lays it and deter- down, that the money of England must either be of gold or silver and none other was ever issued by the royal authority till 1672, when copper farthings and half-pence were coined by king Charles the second, and ordered by proclamation to be current in all payments, under the value of six-pence, and not otherwise. But this copper coin is not upon the same footing with the other in many respects, particularly with regard to the offence of counterfeiting it. And, as to the silver coin, it was enacted by a temporary statute 14 Geo. III. c. 42, that no tender of payment in silver money, exceeding twenty-five pounds at one time, should be a sufficient tender in law, for more than its value by weight, at the rate of 5s. 2d. an ounce. But now by the 56 Geo. III. c. 68, gold is made the only legal tender for payments within the United Kingdom exceeding 40s. As to the impression, the stamping thereof is the unquesThe impres- tionable prerogative of the crown: for, though divers sions. $ 2 Inst. 577. bishops and monasteries had formerly the privilege of coining money, yet, as sir Matthew Hale observes, this was usually done by special grant from the king, or by prescription which supposes one; and therefore was derived from, and not in derogation of, the royal prerogative. [ 278 ] Besides that they had only the profit of the coinage, and not the power of instituting either the impression or denomination; but had usually the stamp sent them from the exchequer. Until very recently the offence of counterfeiting the coin of the realm was punishable with death, but this punishment, in accordance with the general mitigation of our penal code, has recently been changed to transportation.a mination. The denomination, or the value for which the coin is to pass current, is likewise in the breast of the king; and, if The deno. any unusual pieces are coined, that value must be ascertained by proclamation. In order to fix the value, the weight and the fineness of the metal are to be taken into consideration together. When a given weight of gold or silver is of a given fineness, it is then of the true standard,b and called esterling or sterling metal; a name for which there are various reasons given, but none of them entirely satisfactory. And of this sterling or esterling metal all the coin of the kingdom must be made, by the statute 25 Edw. III. c. 13. So that the king's prerogative seemeth not to extend to the debasing or enhancing the value of the coin, below or above the sterling value: though sir Matthew Hale appears to be of another opinion. The 1 Hist. P. C. 191. a 2 Wm. IV. c. 24. b This standard hath been frequently varied in former times; but was for many years past thus settled. The pound troy of gold, consisting, since the 18 Hen. 8, of twenty-two carats (or twenty fourth parts) fine, and two of alloy, was divided into fortyfour guineas and an half of the present value of 21s. each. But since 1816 the pound troy of standard gold has been coined into 46 sovereigns, or 461. 14s. 6d. And the pound troy of silver, consisting of eleven ounces and two pennyweights pure, and eighteen pennyweights alloy, was divided с into sixty-two shillings. (See Folkes Spelm. Gloss. 203. Dufresne, 1 Hal. P. C. 194. U |