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37 Cause &c
17
— the only remaining
circumstance
being the incomensurablity
of
the sums in
Navy Bills —
thence the difficulty
of computation
There is another point very material to the purpose
of circulation in respect of which the Navy Bill
is in a very remarkable degree inferior to an Exchequer
Bill. An Exchequer Bill is always for an even
sum £100 (all Exchequer Bills are for the same
sum) a circumstance which of itself affords a great
facility in respect to the calculation of the interest, in
comparison of a Bill for an odd sum such as Navy
-Bills are, they being issued for any sum as it may happen
according to the value of the goods that happen to have
been furnished upon the occasion by the person to whom
the Bill is issued. To this facility is added another
still greater and which seems to have been the result
of design and calculated for the very purpose of this
very advantage: I mean the reckoning the interest
by the day and putting it at an even sum, viz:3d.
making per annum £4-11-6 instead of make
reckoning the interest by the year which would have
rendered the interest per diem an uncalculable fraction
Whereas In the Navy Bill on the other hand the principal
itself is commonly a fraction consisting of an
odd number of pounds, shillings and pence: the interest
per diem consequently a most intractable fraction not to be
computed with any tolerable facilitybut by persons particularly conversant in
arithmetical operations. Who are in the habit of devoting
a great part of their time to arithmetical operations.