212

Tables of Ancient Coins ,

For Instance, suppose one Pound pay every Moment at the rateos 6 per Cent. per annum , then is r= t 06; which substituted in theSeries gives the Terms as in the Margin, whose Sum1,00000000 is i,o6i 8; 654 equal to the Value of 1 Pound

6000000 with it’s Interest at the End of the Year. And180000 as 1 is to this Number, so is any other Sum let3 600 out to Interest, to that Sum which it amounts to54 at the End of the Year. For if the Sum let out

—--—— be 10.000000/. it will be found to amount to

1,0618.3674 10,618 3 65,4/. that is 10.618365/. 8 s.

This Problem is likewise solv’d by a' Table ofLogarithms, as follows,

Multiply r into ,4342.9448 viz. the Reciprocal of the

Hyperbolick Logarithm of to; and the Product will be the Loga-rithm of the Number requir’d, which will be found by the com-mon Tables.

High rates of Interest are an Indication of the Scarcity of Mo-ney ; but this Reason will not operate so strongly in the case ofthe Roman, Citizens, as it would in other Cities of Europe at this Day.For,

1. It is plain there was a great deal of Credit at Rome, wheregreat Men could run in debt such vast Sums, as appear in theChapter of Debts and Estates, even as far as half a Million with-out any other visible fund but their personal Merit, and hopes ofpreferment in the Commonwealth.

z. The Usorers or Money-changers being a sort of a seandalousemployment at Rome, is another reason for the high rate of Inte-rest. For where a Trade or Profession is exercised clandestinely,and not in a legal manner, it must be exercised with more Fraudand Extortion, and indeed those money Scriveners deem to havebeen little better than our Pavin-brokers.

3. The Romans do not seem to have known the secret of PaperCredit, and Securities upon Mortgages, as far as I know, or atleast to the degree it is practised now-a-days, which makes as itwere a Multiplication of the Species of Money.

4 The