To James Madison from Albert Gallatin, 7 February 1806 (Abstract)
From Albert Gallatin, 7 February 1806 (Abstract)
§ From Albert Gallatin. 7 February 1806, Treasury Department. “I have the honor to enclose copies of letters from the collectors of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia,1 by which it appears that the distinction between the specie & current Rixdollar of Denmark is well understood, that whenever the invoices are made in current money, they are not valued at more than 75 cents pr Rixdollar; that it is only when such invoices are made in specie Rixdollars that they are valued as such; and that no complaints on that subject have been made. I apprehend that the case or cases alluded to by Mr Pedersen2 must have arisen from a mistake in the parties, by their making out their invoices in such manner as to have conveyed the idea that specie & not current Rix dollars were meant.”
RC and enclosures (DLC: Gallatin Papers). RC 2 pp.; docketed by Wagner, with his note: “Computation of Rixdollars.” For surviving enclosures, see n. 1.
1. The enclosures (1 p. each) are copies of David Gelston to Gallatin, 7 Jan. 1806, and John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg to Gallatin, 4 Feb. 1806, each stating that they had received no complaints about the customs duties charged on Danish imports. Muhlenberg explained that the rix dollar, “which is imaginary money” was worth from seventy to seventy-five cents, depending on the current exchange rate, and that the specie dollar was a real coin “worth one Spanish dollar.”
2. No letter from Peder Pedersen asking about customs charges on Danish imports has been found.