[Letter] 1866 April 28,9 Birch Grove, Rusholme, Manchester [to] Frederick Hendricks
9 Birch Grove
Rusholme
Man
28 April, 66
My dear Sir
I have now had
your tract on Currency
several days, and must
express both my thanks
for it & the pleasure
with which I have already
read most of it. As the
subject is one I have not
studied much as yet I
shall have to go more
carefully into it before
pretending to understand
the merits of any treatise
on so complicated subjects.
Certainly you make a
more plausible case out
than I could have expected.
It is really curious how
easily the coins are made
commensurable.
A few points occrur to
me as likely to involve
difficulty as for instance
can one nation trust the
coinage of another?
Then again if we are to
uphold the sovereign as
our unit through thick
& thin must we not give
up the notion of an universal
currency. This no doubt is
what you do but supposing
we gave up the soverign some
time or other ; & in our
colonies we have done so
already, might not the
dollar have a chance of
supremacy-any coin
as an universal unit might
be better than a number
of units.
There however are only
off hand notions & may
be disfused by a closer
reading of your tract
which I hope soon to
have occasion for.
Believe me to remain.
Yours very truly
W. S. Jevons
Frederick Hendricks, Esqe.