Forms: 4–6 eschaunge, (6 eschange), 5–6 exchaunge, (6 exchaunce), 6– exchange. [ME. eschaunge, a. AF. eschaunge, OF. eschange (F. échange):—late L. excambium, f. excambiāre: see EXCHANGE v. In 16th c. the prefix es- was, as in some other words, altered to ex- after L. analogies.]
I. The action or process of exchanging.
1. The action, or an act, of reciprocal giving and receiving: a. of things in general. Proverb, Exchange is no robbery.
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, II. 189. Of loues moo eschaunges Then euer cornes were in graunges.
c. 1400. Test. Love, I. (1560), 275/2. My moeble is insuffisaunte to countervayle the price of this jewell, or els to make the eschaunge.
1552. Act 5–6 Edw. VI., c. 19 § 1. To exchange gold for silver … so that no man … did take no profit for making such exchange.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, II. i. 320. I giue away my selfe for you, and doat vpon the exchange.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., I. v. § 11. In lieu of what he left behind him, Exchange is no Robbery, he carried along with him some of St. Alban’s Dust.
1713. Addison, Guardian, No. 157, ¶ 10 (J.). They lend their Corn; they make Exchanges.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xxv. 182. The due exchange of loads having been made, we advanced upon the glacier.
1863. Dickens, Lett. (1880), II. 196. Let us make an exchange of child stories.
b. of goods, merchandize; = BARTER; in political economy often with wider sense of ‘commerce.’
1553. Eden, Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.), 8. Salomans factours for exchaunge of other marchaundyse.
1767. Blackstone, Comm., II. 446. If it be a commutation of goods for goods, it is more properly an exchange; but, if it be a transferring of goods for money, it is called a sale: which is a method of exchange introduced [etc.].
1868. Rogers, Pol. Econ., xvii. (1876), 224. No one questions the natural right of free exchange.
c. of prisoners of war.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, IV. 130. Yf þey wolde graunte … Theschaunge of her.
1494. Fabyan, Chron., VII. ccxxxiii. 267. Meanys was made … for delyuerie and exchaunge of ye prysoners.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit. (1632), 479. These two Chief-taines wearied with irksomnesse of Irons made exchange the one for the other.
1698. Ludlow, Mem., I. 109. Procuring my exchange for his two Sons.
1780. B. Lincoln, in Sparks, Corr. Amer. Rev. (1883), III. 96. An exchange, when made a prisoner, is one of the rights of a soldier.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Exchange, a mutual agreement between contending powers for exchange of prisoners.
d. of blows, passes, strokes (in fencing, games, etc.), salutations.
1602. Shaks., Ham., V. ii. 280. If Hamlet giue the first, or second hit, Or quit in answer of the third exchange.
a. 1687. Waller, Battle of Summer-Isl., III. Thus they parted, with exchange of harms.
1862. Stanley, Jew. Ch. (1877), I. xiii. 258. We hear the exchange of salutations between the reapers and their master.
1882. Daily Tel., 18 July, 2/7. This [game at tennis] fell to E. Renshaw after some good exchanges.
e. of military or naval commissions, etc. (see quot.). Also attrib., as in exchange system.
1823. Crabb, Technol. Dict., Exchange between officers, who remove from one regiment to another, or from full pay to half pay, for which a consideration is usually given, called the Difference.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple, xxxi. Captain Falcon … received his commission that evening, and the next day the exchanges were made.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Exchange, the removal of officers from one ship to another.
1875. Act 38 Vict., c. 16. Her Majesty may … authorise exchanges to be made from one regiment … to another regiment.
1875. D. Wolff, Sp. Ho. Com., 22 Feb. In the Artillery, Engineers, and Marines, they had from time immemorial had the Exchange system, yet they had never adopted the Purchase system.
f. in Chess, of pieces captured. To force the exchange: to play so as to compel your opponent to take one piece for another. To gain, win, lose the exchange: to take or lose a superior piece in exchange for an inferior.
1823. Crabb, Technol. Dict., s.v. Chess, Exchanges … often give the adversary an advantage.
1848. H. Staunton, Chess-Players Handbk. (ed. 2), 21. When a player gains a Rook for a Bishop or a Knight, it is termed winning the exchange.
1865. Househ. Chess Mag., 34. This move loses, at least, the ‘exchange.’
1878. H. E. Bird, Chess Openings, 105. Black gains the exchange, and should win.
g. (To give, have, take, etc.) † by, in exchange † of, for (something else).
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 3182. Priam … may prestly suppose His suster to sese, sent by eschaunge.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., II. ii. 243. There is money … spend all I haue, onely giue me so much of your time in exchange of it.
1611. Bible, Matt. xvi. 26. Or what shall a man giue in exchange for his soule?
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, 109. A very gainfull returne of Amber Greese and vendible commodities in exchange of Iron Tools.
1665. Dryden, Ind. Emperor, V. ii. (1667), 65 (J.).
| If Blood you seek, I will my own resign: | |
| O spare her Life, and in exchange take mine. |
1778. T. Jones, Hoyle’s Games Impr., 147. You can get two Pieces in Exchange for your Queen.
1837. W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, III. 193. Giving horses in exchange for the articles of which they stand in need.
2. Law. ‘A mutual grant of equal interests, the one in consideration of the other’ (Blackstone, Comm. (1767), II. 323).
1574. trans. Littleton’s Tenures, 13 b. In exchange it behoveth, that the estates that bothe parties have in the landes so exchaunged be equal.
1642. Perkins, Prof. Bk., iv. § 284. 126. Now is to shew in what time the estates of exchanges ought to be executed.
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), V. 203. A husband and wife joined in exchanging lands, which were the estate of the wife, with a stranger, for other lands; and the exchange was executed.
1876. Digby, Real Prop., x. § 1. 378. Conveyances by way of exchange.
3. The action of giving or receiving coin in return for coin of equivalent value either of the same or a foreign country, for bullion, or for notes or bills; a bargain respecting this; the trade of a money-changer. † Bank of exchange: the office of a money-changer or banker.
[1335. Act 9 Edw. III., stat. 2 c. 7. Et que table deschange soit a Dovorri & aillours, ou & qant il semblera a nos & a notre consail per faire eschange.]
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. V. 249. Eschaunges and cheuesances with suche chaffare I dele.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 278. Wel couthe he in eschaunge scheeldes [i.e., Fr. écus] selle.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. II. iv. 43 b. He maketh his banke and exchange with some ryche marchaunt.
1552. Huloet, Exchaunge, wher as gayne or lucre is gotten at the second hande, promercium.
1570–6. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent, 127. Not without good cause … hath Douer … beene … assigned by lawes of Parleament as a speciall place for passage and eschaunge.
1580. Baret, Alv., E 428. The losse and decay for the exchange of some peece of gold or siluer, collybus.
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Change, Banke of Exchange, or place wherein money is exchanged, and commodities bartered for.
Mod. I lost a good deal by the exchange of some 20-mark pieces that I brought home.
† b. The profit obtained by a money-changer or money-lender. Obs.
1552. Huloet, Banqueter or he that kepeth a banck of mony, of whome people doo borowe money vpon gayne, called exchaunge.
1750. Chambers, Cycl., Exchange is also used for the profit, which a merchant, negotiant, or broker, makes of a sum of money received…. Sometimes also used for the … profit allowed for the monies advanced in any one’s behalf.
4. ‘That species of mercantile transactions, by which the debts of individuals residing at a distance from their creditors are cancelled without the transmission of money’ (McCulloch), by the use of ‘bills of exchange.’
The simplest case of such a transaction is when two merchants in one place are respectively debtor and creditor for equal amounts to two merchants in a distant place. The two debts may be settled by the two creditors exchanging their claims; the process being that one of the creditors draws a ‘bill of exchange’ on his distant debtor, and sells it to his neighbor for its value in present money; the latter sends it as payment of his debt to his creditor, who thus obtains a claim upon a neighbor in exchange for his claim on a person at a distance. In practice the matter is much more complicated, and the term Bill of Exchange has acquired an extended signification from which the etymological notion has almost disappeared (see BILL sb.3 9). By writers on the theory of finance exchange is used for the whole system of transactions effected by ‘bills of exchange,’ and is formally divided into Inland and Foreign Exchange. But in practice (exc. in the term bill of exchange itself) the word now almost exclusively means foreign exchange, and in this use has a mixed notion of sense 3; the price at which a bill drawn on a foreign country for a given amount may be bought being subject to variations, depending (1) on the varying relation in intrinsic value between the coins of the two countries; (2) on the varying demand for bills; and (3) on the length of time for which the bill has to run.
Par of exchange: the recognized standard value of the coinage of one country in terms of the coinage of another; e.g., £1 sterling at par = 25·221/2 francs French money. Rate or Course of exchange (also simply exchange): (a) the price at which bills drawn in the currency of a foreign country may be purchased; (b) sometimes, the percentage by which this differs from par; e.g., ‘the (rate of) exchange has risen from 91/2 to 10 p. c.’ Arbitration of exchange: see ARBITRATION.
Economic writers distinguish between the real par of exchange, which is the relation in intrinsic value existing between the coins of two nations, and the nominal or conventional par, which may for convenience be maintained at a fixed level. When the price that must be paid for a foreign bill exceeds par, the exchange is said to be against, or unfavorable to, the country in which the bill is drawn; when the price is below par, the exchange is in favor of that country.
1485. [see 5].
1560. in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), II. 478. By this reformation of base monies … the accoumpte, which, by merchauntes, is called the Eschaunge, shall … aryse in estimation of the monies of Englande.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., IV. ii. 89. I haue bils for monie by exchange From Florence, and must heere [at Padua] deliuer them.
a. 1627. Hayward, Edw. VI. (1630), 9. Hee was skilfull in the exchange beyond the seas.
1691. Locke, Lower. Interest, Wks. 1727, II. 57. Within a Month a Million must be return’d into Holland, this presently raises the Exchange. Ibid., II. 72. Foreign Exchange is the Paying of Money in one Country, to receive it in another.
1694. Child, Disc. Trade (ed. 4), 174. The course of the Exchange … being generally above the intrinsick value or par of the coins of foreign Countries, we … lose by such Exchange.
1724. Swift, Drapier’s Lett., Wks. 1755, II. II. 44. The difference is almost 25 per cent. which is double to the highest exchange of money.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., IV. iii. (1869), II. 49. The ordinary course of exchange should be allowed to be a sufficient indication of the ordinary state of debt and credit between any two places.
1788. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), II. 468. In this paper, you will see the exchange of yesterday.
1861. Goschen, For. Exch., 48. The limits within which the exchanges may vary … are on the one extreme, the par value, plus the cost of the transmission of bullion; on the other extreme, the par value, minus this identical sum. Ibid. (1864), 75. The natural value of the rouble … would have been … 5 per cent. below the nominal par of exchange.
1868. Seyd, Bullion & For. Exchanges, 301. The actual Mintage Par of Exchange between London and Paris is—£1=fcs. 25·2215…. For all practicable purposes, however, we may call the Par of Exchange fcs. 25·221/2 centimes.
† b. Dry exchange (= It. cambio secco, Fr. change sec): a method of evading the laws against usury by means of fictitious bills of exchange. Obs.
The expression (trockner Wechsel) still survives in German in the sense of a promissory note, i.e., a bill drawn by a person upon himself.
1485–6. Act 3 Hen. VII., c. 5. Eny bargayne … by the name of drye exchaunge … be utterly voide.
1572. T. Wilson, Disc. Usury (1584), 117 b. The second kind [of exchange by bills] … called sicke and drie exchange … is practised when one doth borrowe money by exchange for a strange region, at longer or shorter distance of time, to serue his turne the rather thereby, not minding to make anie reall paiment abroad; but compoundeth with the exchanger to haue it returned backe againe, according as the exchange shall passe from thence to London, for such distance of time as they were agreed vpon.
1682. Scarlett, Exchanges, 266. Dry Exchanges consist in a giving of Monyes … but the repayment is to be made after a certain time in the same place where the Monyes was given, and such a sum certain over and above, as the giver of Monyes can get and agree for.
c. Arith. (See quot.)
1849. Freese, Comm. Class-bk., II. 69.
1859. Barn. Smith, Arith. & Algebra (ed. 6), 513. Exchange is the Rule by which we find how much money of one country is equivalent to a given sum of another country, according to a given course of Exchange.
5. = Bill of Exchange (see BILL sb.3 9). Still occas. used in commercial correspondence. Also ellipt. in First, Second, or Third of Exchange (= Fr. première, etc., de change).
1485. Caxton, Paris & V. (1868), 55. He had receued the eschaunge that Vyenne had sent hym. Ibid., 57. She sendeth to you an eschaunge of thre thousand floryns.
Mod. (Form of Foreign Bill.) Sixty days after sight of this Second of Exchange (First and Third unpaid) pay to the order of, etc.
¶ 6. In senses more correctly expressed by CHANGE: a. Substitution of one person or thing for another. † b. Variation of conduct, etc. † c. Transmutation; mutation, alteration.
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 351. I se the world stond ever upon eschaunge.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., I. 236. Preve eke the unpreved grene afore eschaunge.
c. 1430. Lydg., Dispraise of Women, xii. These women … Most loue eschaunge and doublenes.
1548. Gest, Pr. Masse, B vij b. No more can thee bread be christes body wythoute the exchaunge of the matter therof unto the sayd body.
1572. R. H., trans. Lauaterus’ Ghostes (1596), 165. The exchange of Empires, and of other things, are in his power.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., IV. ii. 43. Th’allusion holds in the Exchange.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, III. xv. (Arb.), 182. Your figures that worke auricularly by exchange … vsing one case for another, or tense, or person.
1859. Reeve, Brittany, 235. At the only inn … everything was in comfortless confusion, arising from an exchange of tenants.
II. 7. A person or thing that is offered or given in exchange or substitution for another.
1490. Plumpton Corr., 100. They will take yt in ferme, or els make yt exchaunce with you of lands lyeing in Yorkshire.
1605. Shaks., Lear, IV. vi. 280. A plot vpon her vertuous Husbands life, And the exchange my Brother. Ibid., V. iii. 97. There’s my exchange [a glove].
1654–66. Earl Orrery, Parthenissa, VI. (1676), 734. Having avowedly in his power a sufficient exchange for him.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., Ded. ¶ 2 b (J.). The respect and love which was paid you … was a wise Exchange for the Honours of the Court.
b. A newspaper sent to the office of another newspaper in exchange for the latter.
1886. Chr. Life, 23 Jan., 37/3. ‘The pulpit and the people are rising out of the superstitions into the real religion’—so remarks an exchange.
III. A place of exchange.
8. King’s or Queen’s Exchange: see quot.
1601. Q. Eliz., Let. base Moneys, in T. Stafford, Pac. Hib., 149. We require you … to giue all attention of it … [by] bringing in all others according to the course of Our Exchange, which by Our Proclamation you may perceiue that wee haue instituted.
[a. 1623. (see EXCHANGE v. 1 b).]
1706. Phillips, The Queen’s Exchange.
1751. Chambers’ Cycl., s.v., The King’s Exchange or the place appointed by the king for exchange of plate, or bullion for the king’s coin.
† 9. A money-changer’s establishment or office.
a. 1569. Kingesmyll, Comf. Afflict. (1585), A iij. To lay it [a talent] with you in exchange and banke.
1575. Fenton, trans. Gueuara’s Gold. Epist. (1582), 75. Hee whipped out the Usurers, reuersed their exchaunges, and dispearsed their treasures.
10. A building in which the merchants of a town assemble for the transaction of business. Cf. BURSE 3 b, CHANGE sb. 3.
The ‘Burse’ or Exchange built in London by Sir T. Gresham in 1566 received from Queen Elizabeth the name of Royal Exchange, which is retained by the present building. Gresham’s building is in 17th c. sometimes called the Old Exchange, to distinguish it from the New Exchange, i.e., ‘Britain’s Burse.’
1589. Nashe, Pasquil’s Ret., 1. I little thought to meete thee so suddainly upon the Exchange.
1593. Norden, Spec. Brit., M’sex, I. 35. Sir Thomas Gresham … named it the Burse, whereunto afterward Queene Elizabeth gave the name of Royall Exchange.
a. 1610. Healey, Epictetus’ Man. (1636), 39. You cannot builde it a schoole, an Exchange, or a Bathe.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 23. As for their Exchang[e] where they sell many fine and curious things, there are two or three prety walks in it.
1632. Massinger, City Madam, I. i. (1658), 6. Being forc’d to fetch these from the Old Exchange, These from the Tower, and these from Westminster.
1710. Lond. Gaz., No. 4708/4. Inquire at the … Royal Exchange East Country-Walk in Exchange Time.
1716–8. Lady M. W. Montague, Lett., I. xxxviii. 154. Behind the mosque is an exchange, full of shops.
1790. J. Willock, Voy. diverse parts, ix. 298. The exchange [Königsberg] is a beautiful edifice.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, iv. The Royal Exchange was close at hand.
fig. 1628. Earle, Microcosm., lii. (Arb.), 73. It [Pauls Walke] is the great Exchange of all discourse.
1643. Denham, Cooper’s Hill, 6. Thy [Thames’] faire bosome is the worlds Exchange.
1793. Burke, Corr. (1844), IV. 196. Sir Gilbert Elliot is not found in a common shop of the diplomatic exchange.
1886. D. C. Murray, Cynic Fortune (1887), vi. 72. Fairy bank-notes which are only valuable at the Exchange of Fancy.
b. Preceded by some defining word that indicates a special branch of business: as Coal-, Corn-, Hop-, Stock-, Wool-Exchange, for which see those words.
11. U.S. A dram-shop.
1882. Sala, Amer. Revis., II. ii. 13. Here [in New Orleans] the dram shops are called ‘exchanges.’
12. attrib. and Comb. (sense 6) exchange-time; (senses 3, 4) exchange-bank, -broker, -office, -shop; also exchange-cap (see quot.); † exchange-man, (a) a merchant on Change; (b) a shopkeeper at the ‘New Exchange’; † exchange-wench, -woman, a shopwoman at the same; exchange-value = exchangeable value.
1535. Coverdale, Luke xix. 23. Wherfore than hast thou not delyuered my money to the *exchaunge banke.
1704. Cocker, App., *Exchange Brokers, men that tell how the Exchange of Money goes, and finds those that will Exchange.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 815/1. *Exchange-cap. A fine quality of paper … used for printing bills of exchange, etc.
1631. J. Done, Polydoron, 108. There are 3. sorts of honest men, viz. your *exchangeman for the bearing up of his credit [etc.].
1783. Ainsworth, Lat. Dict. (Morell), II. Nūgīvendus … an exchange-man, or milliner.
1863. Fawcett, Pol. Econ., III. ix. 416. A person wishing to *exchange English money for French money goes to an exchange office in London.
1631. T. Powell, Tom All Trades, 48. A pretty way of breeding young Maides in an *Exchange shop, or St. Martins le grand.
1710. Lond. Gaz., No. 4708/4. In *Exchange Time.
1863. Fawcett, Pol. Econ., I. i. (1876), 7. *Exchange value is the characteristic which stamps a commodity with the attribute of wealth.
1683. England’s Vanity, 32. Every *Exchange-Wench is usher’d in by them [Pearles] into her stalls.
1707. Cibber, Double Gallant, IV. To treat a Woman of Quality like an Exchange-Wench. Ibid. (1697), Woman’s Wit, III. Your Ladyship’s being out of Humour with the *Exchange Woman, for shaping your Ruffles so odiously, made you a little too reserv’d.
