in value; since, if not exchangeable, at the
option of the bearer, for metallic value, it at once becomes
depreciated, and drives from circulation the metallic currency by which
it is designated. The lower the value of the notes, or paper currency,
the greater will become the scarcity of the coin. Such would naturally
be the result of the enactment of the States, for they decided on
issuing notes of a very low value. For instance, there were to be

2,000 notes each of twenty sous.
1,000 " " " thirty sous.
1,000 " " " sixty sous.
1,000 " " " one hundred sous.
750 " " " ten livres.
500 " " " twenty livres.
300 " " " thirty livres.
240 " " " fifty livres.

The aggregate amount of these notes was fifty thousand livres.

"The scarcity of gold and silver continued; and the States, on the 21st
of December, 1725, declared that the only metallic currency in
circulation was liards or deniers. They had on previous occasions
prohibited the exportation of this copper money; they now forbade its
importation, under pain of confiscation. In the following year,
perceiving no doubt the futility of their enactments, they allowed, by
their act dated the 19th of September, 1726, a free trade in liards--the
free importation and exportation of this coin. On the same day they
appointed a committee from their body to prepare a representation to his
Majesty in Council, on the subject of the relative value of the coins in
circulation in the Island. This representation was adopted by the States
on the 25th of November, 1726. The ulterior sanction by Council of the
recommendation of the States was the occasion of serious commotions and
discontent in the Island. The avowed object of the States in their
request to the Crown was to prevent the exportation of gold and silver
coin from the Island, and to encourage the exportation of liards to
France, which they asserted passed in Jersey above their intrinsic
value, and with which they were very much burdened--reasons among the
very worst which could be given, or upon which a legislative enactment
could be based.

"An Order in Council, dated the 22nd of May, 1729, was issued, approving
of the proposed alterations in the currency by the States; and it was
accordingly ordered:--