WHEREAS it has been represented to His Majesty at this Board, by the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, that they have given directions that His Majesty's troops serving in the several British colonies and possessions abroad should, in certain cases, be paid in .British silver and copper money; and that, with a view of securing the circulation of such money in those colonies, it would be expedient that an Order in Council should be issued declaring that in all those colonies where the Spanish dollar is now, either by law, fact, or practice, considered as a legal tender for the discharge of debts, or where the duties to the Government are rated or collected, or the individuals have a right to pay, in that description of coin, that a tender and payment of British silver money to the amount of 4s. 4d. should be considered as equivalent to the tender or payment of one Spanish dollar, and so in proportion for any greater or less amount of debt.
And whereas it has been further represented by the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury that, with respect to the Cape.of Good Hope, where there are not any Spanish dollars in circulation, but where the circulation consists entirely of paper rix dollars and its proportions, and with respect to Ceylon, where the circulation consists of silver and paper rix dollars, as well as of a variety of other coins which are generally received and paid with relation to their value as compared with rix dollars, it would be expedient that a tender and payment of 1s. 6d. in British silver money should be considered as equivalent to a tender and payment of one such rix dollar so current at the Cape of Good Hope and Ceylon respectively, and so in proportion for any greater or less sum; and also that British copper should be made a legal tender in all the British colonies, for its due and proper proportions of British silver money, as by law established in Great Britain, but that no person should be compelled to take more than 12d. in copper money at anyone payment;
His Majesty, having taken the said representation into consideration, is pleased, by and with the advice of His Privy Council, to approve of what is therein proposed; and the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, and the Right Honourable Earl Bathurst, one of His Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, are to give the necessary directions herein, as to them may respectively appertain.
Ceylon Currency British Period 1796-1936 By B. W. Fernando, APPENDIX A.
1939, Colombo; Ceylon Government Press. p.37
Contents Next APPENDIX B