Subject: Why is current a fundamental quantity and not charge?

Almost all physics or engineering textbooks have a table of the SI units
that are based on six fundamental quantities. The one that is listed for
the quanity "electric current" is always "ampere".  However, usually a few
pages past this fundamental table lies a definition of the ampere. 1 ampere
= 1 coulomb/second. This makes it sound more like a derived unit than a
fundamental unit. It seems more likely that the fundamental quantity
"electric current" should be replaced by the quantity "charge" and that the
fundamental unit should be the coulomb. While amperes can be broken down
into coulombs and seconds, the coulomb cannot be broken down (except to a
specific count of electrons or protons). Why does there seem to be some
contradiction between the definition of a fundamental quantity (a quantity
that can't be described in terms of another quantity) and the definition of
electric current? Why isn't charge along with the coulomb included in the
fundamental quantities table?

A similar question was posted by Patrick Harmon (his had to do with current
being defined using force and distance), but I wasn't satisfied with the
answer.

Re: Why is current a fundamental quantity and not charge?