Guinea (currency)

“ Parliament, to remove this cause of complaint, inserted a clause in the Bill, offering a premium on plate, fixing the price of a guinea at two-and-twenty shillings. Still, however, people imagined that guineas would be scarce, and so gold would rise, and hoarded them up, which made them scarce. But Government worked manfully at the recoining. Mints were set up at York, Bristol, Exeter, and Chester as well as in London, and in less than twelve months the coinage was produced with such success that the English currency, which had been the worst, was now the best in Europe. ”

“ Imports: $63 million (f.o.b., 1994) commodities: foodstuffs, transport equipment, petroleum products, machinery and equipment partners: Portugal, Netherlands, China, Germany, Senegal
External debt: $692 million (December 1993 est.)
Economic aid: recipient: ODA, $NA
Currency: 1 Guinea-Bissauan peso (PG) = 100 centavos
Exchange rates: Guinea-Bissauan pesos (PG) per US$1 - 17,659 (December 1995) , 12,892 (1994) , 10,082 (1993) , 6,934 (1992) , 3,659 (1991) , 2,185 (1990)
Fiscal year: calendar year
Communications ———————
Telephones: 3,000 (1988 est.) ”

“ If the pound weight (troy) of gold be divided into 89 parts, each of them will be equal to half a guinea, so that 12 ounces contain 44 1/2 guineas.—As this favourite coin is gradually disappearing, we think it superfluous to state its accurate proportion of pure gold and alloy:—it has been confidently reported, that English guineas have lately been exchanged on the Continent, and especially in Hamburgh, at from 24 to 25 shillings. ”

“ GUINEA, a gold coin at one time current in the United Kingdom. It was first coined in 1663, in the reign of Charles II., from gold imported from the Guinea coast of West Africa by a company of merchants trading under charter from the British crown—hence the name. Many of the first guineas bore an elephant on one side, this being the stamp of the company; in 1675 a castle was added. Issued at the same time as the guinea were five-guinea, two-guinea and half-guinea pieces. The current value of the guinea on its first issue was twenty shillings. ”

“ Language upon Coins and Medals.
The effect of coin on language is direct, and many words may be found whose origin was a coin, such as Daric, a pure gold coin; Talent, mental ability; Sterling, genuine, pure; while Guinea represents the aristocratic element, and, though out of circulation long ago, “no one who pretends to gentility in England would think of subscribing to any charity or fashionable object by contributing the vulgar pound. An extra shilling added to the pound makes the guinea, and lifts the subscriber at once into the aristocratic world.” ”

“ And, as paper money probably served the purposes of the island every bit as well as gold, nobody was any the worse. By giving up the needless extravagance of using gold coins as counters, and by taking to paper counters instead, Guernsey really got its Market House without cost. The same resource is open to any community already possessing a gold currency, and becoming civilised and self-restrained and sensible enough to arrange to do without gold counters in its internal trade. But Guernsey could not have gone on equipping itself with endless municipal buildings as out of a bottomless purse. ”

“ But after various fluctuations of fortune, when the general peace took place in 1763, he found himself possessed of two thousand guineas prize-money, with the reputation of being one of the best merchant captains in the Port of London.
About that time, a Company there resolved to make an attempt to form a settlement on the west coast of Africa, by founding a harbour and town midway between the Cape de Verd and the river Senegal. In the London and other papers of the day we find many statements urging the advantage of opening up the Guinea-trade ”

“ A single turkey has cost me one guinea and a half; eggs are sold at the rate of five, and European potatoes twelve for six pence. Wine three shillings a bottle. Jamaica rum a crown a gallon. Fish and vegetables are cheap, and fruit almost for nothing. My black boy, Quaco, has often brought me forty oranges for six pence, and half a dozen pine-apples for the same price; while limes and tamarinds may be had for gathering. House-rent is excessively high. A small room unfurnished costs three or four guineas a month; and a house with two apartments on a floor, lets for one hundred guineas yearly. ”

“ The Guernsey pound is either a bank-note for this amount, or 24 francs in French silver, equal to 240 Guernsey pence. Sovereigns are current, taken at the usual rate of 25 francs and 2 pence = 252 pence or 21 shillings Guernsey. So the English sovereign becomes a guinea in French silver and Guernsey bronze.
The people of Guernsey hold by their old system; they find no inconvenience in it; and it is decidedly advantageous to the English resident in the island. ”

“ No foreigner was robbed, and the stock of domestic silver dwindled from year to year, until at the Revolution the golden guinea, which, from its first issue in 1662 down to the accession of William and Mary, had been nominally current for twenty shillings, actually sold in the market for thirty shillings of the money in use. ”

“ The same cause has been the occasion of the ill treatment they have sometimes given to innocent strangers, who have attempted to trade with them. As the Europeans have no settlement on this part of Guinea, the trade is carried on by signals from the ships, on the appearance of which the natives usually come on board in their canoes, bringing their gold-dust, ivory, &c. which has given opportunity to some villainous Europeans to carry them off with their effects, or retain them on board till a ransom is paid. ”

“ The guinea growing business is the newest of the poultry industries. In fact, it may be said of guineas, as of our grandmother's tomatoes, "Folks had them around without knowing they were of any use." The new use for guineas is as a substitute for game. Guinea broilers make quail-on-toast and older ones are good for grouse, prairie chicken or pheasant. The retail price in the large cities runs as high as $1.50 to $2.00 a pair. It will probably not pay to raise them unless one is sure of receiving as much as 50 cents each. ”

“ These natives of Guinea are very wary in driving bargains, and will not willingly lose the smallest particle of their gold, using weights and measures for the same with great circumspection. In dealing with them, it is necessary to behave with civility and gentleness, as they will not trade with any who use them ill. ”

“ This trade was carried on at the hazard of losing their ships and cargoes, if they had fallen into the hands of the Portuguese, who claimed an exclusive right of trade, on account of the several settlements they had made there.A In the year 1553, we find captain Thomas Windham trading along the coast with 140 men, in three ships, and sailing as far as Benin, which lies about 3000 miles down the coast, to take in a load of pepper.B Next year John Lock traded along the coast of Guinea, as far as D'Elmina, when he brought away considerable quantities of gold and ivory. ”

“ Economy ———-
Economic overview: Although possessing major mineral, hydropower, and agricultural resources, Guinea remains one of the poorest countries in the world. The agricultural sector employs 80% of the work force. Guinea possesses over 25% of the world's bauxite reserves. The mining sector accounted for 85% of exports in 1991. Long-run improvements in literacy, financial institutions, and the legal framework are needed if the country is to move out of poverty. Except in the bauxite industry, foreign investment remains minimal. ”

“ In process of time, and as people became gradually more familiar with the use of the different metals in coin, and consequently better acquainted with the proportion between their respective values, it has, in most countries, I believe, been found convenient to ascertain this proportion, and to declare by a public law, that a guinea, for example, of such a weight and fineness, should exchange for one-and-twenty shillings, or be a legal tender for a debt of that amount. ”

“ When it is remembered that the price of provisions at the Yodda Camp is prohibitive, it is not an extravagant assumption to compute that each man must be turning out at least three ounces of gold per week to make it worth his while to remain. There are other workings in the Woodlark Islands, and there are certainly evidences of gold everywhere in the streams of New Guinea. It does not seem likely that the miners are turning their earnings to the best account at the present time. ”

“ A golden guinea was handled by many with that curiosity with which one regards some rare and strange object. Everywhere was the one-pound note, issued for the purposes of restricting cash payments and restoring credit; but so many banks issuing one-pound notes failed to meet their obligations that this medium of exchange was regarded with a very just suspicion, still echoed in the old song that says—
"I'd rather have a guinea than a one-pound note." ”

“ Why money-jobbers are not always ready to give old shillings for new guineas? is easy, from what has been said. They cannot pick them up below the mean value of the currency; because of the great demand there is for them in exchange for guineas; therefore they can gain nothing by providing them for that purpose.
It comes next in order, to solve a similar phænomenon in Holland, where there are great quantities of silver specie, and yet one can hardly find change for a ducat, except in a shop, where one has occasion to buy something. ”

“ If he lands anywhere in Polynesia—Samoa, Tonga, Cook's Islands, or elsewhere—he will have Customs duties to pay, house rent, and a trading licence. And everywhere he will find keen competition and measly profits, unless he lives like a Chinaman on rice and fish.
“In British New Guinea you can dig gold in hand-fuls out of the mangrove swamps” (O ye gods!) ”

“ If the pension of such a person was paid to him, not in gold, but in a weekly bill for a guinea, his revenue surely would not so properly consist in the piece of paper, as in what he could get for it. A guinea may be considered as a bill for a certain quantity of necessaries and conveniencies upon all the tradesmen in the neighbourhood. The revenue of the person to whom it is paid, does not so properly consist in the piece of gold, as in what he can get for it, or in what he can exchange it for. ”

“ In a word, the country is rich, and the commerce advantageous, and might be greatly augmented by such as would cultivate the friendship of the natives. These are represented by some writers as a rude, treacherous people, whilst several other authors of credit give them a very different character, representing them as sensible, courteous and the fairest traders on the coast of Guinea. ”

“ Cuba has just established its own coinage. Its monetary system is on a gold basis. The unit is the gold peso, worth exactly one dollar, United States money. A silver fractional currency, with subsidiary coins resembling our nickel, two and one cent pieces, is employed, these also being the equivalent in value of American money of the same denomination. ”

“ And only experienced men of sterling physique can stand the awful labour and hardships of gold-mining in the Possession. Deadly malarial fever adds to the diggers' hard lot in New Guinea, and the natives, when not savage and treacherous, are as unreliable and as lazy as a Spanish priest.
In conclusion, I can assure my readers that there is no prospect for any man of limited means to make money in the South Seas as a trader. Any assertions to the contrary have no basis of fact in them. In cotton and coco-nut planting there are good openings for men of the right stamp ”

“ NEW GUINEA The intelligent observer of New Guinea cannot fail to recognise that the country presents a vast unopened field for the development of British trade. Many sources of wealth are as yet absolutely untouched, but experiments that have recently been made in coffee, tobacco, cocoa, and rubber, yield the richest promise. The geographical configuration of the coast will greatly aid the enterprising trader, for many centres of industry can easily be approached by water at such inlets as Hall Sound, and the cost of transport from the interior would consequently be a mere bagatelle. ”

“ To waste or neglect stable and home made manures, or throw away bones or other valuable fertilizers, because we could buy guano, would be as insensible as it would for a man to throw away a handful of bank bills, because he happened to have just then a pocket full of gold and silver coin. ”

“ The disposition of some men to create prejudice against the government of Peru, or the agents who sell guano in this country, because the price is too high, is a wicked one. Men can make money by purchasing at the present prices; and the owners of the article think they cannot make it by selling at a lower price. We have heard it urged as a reason why it should be sold at lower prices, that the agents and merchants engaged in its sale are making fortunes. So are flour merchants—so are farmers who grow the wheat—but that is no reason why it should be sold lower. ”

“ A species of new bonds have recently been created, to the great detriment of the interest of the holders of the old ones, and the dissatisfaction is extreme, especially as the government, instead of being warned by the facts we have recounted in respect to guano, and by the discovery of valuable guano islands by North American citizens in the Caribbean Sea, have actually advanced the price of the commodity to the extent of the recently enhanced freights, as compared with the usual rates of shipping charges. ”