Against this evil system of barter, to begin with the third suggestion, there was needed something more powerful than prohibition, mightier even than the "strong personal laws"[1] of the Governors. Had these sufficed, it would have been brought to an end by Bligh. But this was very far from being the case. Lieutenant Minchin of the New South Wales Corps, who was a witness at Johnston's trial in 1811, asserted that it was a necessary custom owing to the lack of other currency, that it had been sanctioned by every Governor except Bligh, carried on by all descriptions of persons in the Colony, and still continued. "You don't mean," exclaimed a member of the court, "that it has continued without intermission?" "It ceased for a short time," replied Minchin, "but was begun again by Governor Macquarie; he saw the necessity of it, and suffered it to go on; he himself made a purchase of land off me with spirits."[2]
In April, 1811, the Governor made an agreement with Nicholas Bayly, a gentleman-settler, in which one of the conditions was, "That the Governor gives me 500 gallons of good Bengal rum".[3] Macquarie's first Order on the subject was as late as 1815, and strictly forbade the barter of spirits "for the produce of the Colony or for manual labour".[4] But the penalty attached to disobedience was the indefinite one of incurring "the displeasure of Government" and ceasing "to derive any indulgence from it in future". Wentworth said in 1819 "that he had heard of settlers up the country paying in rum, but he knew nothing of that practice among the civil and military officers".[5] But although the Government had by that time ceased to use the rum-currency, and perhaps the "higher orders" of settlers had followed their lead, the practice of barter was still general among small settlers, and many unlicensed dealers bought spirit to exchange with them for pigs and wheat.[6] In
- ↑ This phrase is used by Jones in his Evidence before C. on G., 1819.
- ↑ See Report of Johnston's Trial, Evidence of Lieutenant Minchin, p. 246.
- ↑ Bayly to Sir H. Bunbury, 8th December, 1817. Enclosure dated 1st April, 811. R.O., MS.
- ↑ G.G.O., 19th August, 1815.
- ↑ See Evidence in Appendix to Bigge's Reports. R.O., MS.
- ↑ See Evidence of various convicts in Appendix to Bigge's Reports in R.O., MS.
