To provide
against the possibility of such an over-issue as might exhaust the
area of standard land at command of the State, it is enacted that,
failing this, the holder may select his portion of State domain
wherever he pleases, at twelve years' purchase of the rental; but in
point of fact these provisions are theoretically rather than
practically important, since not one note in a hundred is ever
redeemed or paid off. The "square measure," upon which the coinage, if
I may so call it is based, following exactly the measure of length,
each larger area in the ascending scale represents 144 times that
below it. Thus the _styly_ being a little more than a foot, the
_steely_ is about 13 feet, or one-twelfth of the _staly_; but the
_steelta_ (or square steely) is 1/144th part of the _stalta_. The
_stolta_, again, is about 600 yards square, or 360,000 square yards,
144 times the _stalta_. The highest note, so to speak, in circulation
represents this last area; but all calculations are made in _staltau_,
or twelfths thereof. The _stalta_ will purchase about six ounces of
gold.
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