Alexander Hamilton Papers

To Alexander Hamilton from Jeremiah Olney, 17 January 1791

From Jeremiah Olney

Providence, January 17, 1791. “I have promised the subscribers to the enclosed representation, relative to the value of the Rix dollar of Denmark, that I would lay the matter before you for your opinion and instructions thereon. If their presumption as to the meaning of the Legislature in fixing the rate of that coin1 is true, I suppose it will be right to refund the duties on their several importations in proportion to the real value of the Rix Dollar, which appears by an account current exhibited by Messr Brown, Rogers & Brown,2 to be about 3/2½ Sterling.…”

Copy, RG 56, Letters from the Collector at Providence, National Archives; ADfS, Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence.

1. The value of the rix-dollar of Denmark had been fixed by law at one hundred cents. See Section 40 of “An Act to provide more effectually for the collection of the duties imposed by law on goods, wares and merchandise imported into the United States, and on the tonnage of ships or vessels (1 Stat. description begins The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America (Boston, 1845). description ends 167 [August 4, 1790]).

2. This Providence firm, which had been established in 1784, consisted of Joseph Brown, his son Obadiah, and Joseph Rogers.

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    Hamilton Papers
    Title
    To Alexander Hamilton from Jeremiah Olney, 17 January 1791
    Author
    Olney, Jeremiah
    Recipient
    Hamilton, Alexander
    Date
    17 January 1791

    Reference

    Cite as
    “To Alexander Hamilton from Jeremiah Olney, 17 January 1791,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-07-02-0306. [Original source: The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 7, September 1790 – January 1791, ed. Harold C. Syrett. New York: Columbia University Press, 1963, pp. 438–439.]

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