1714, by an historian[1] who acquired considerable fame in financial problems:
"So many bills had been issued for the charges of the war, particularly the large sum of forty thousand pounds, issued for the Canada expedition, that they were become the sole instrument and measure of commerce, and silver and gold were entirely banished. Of two instruments, one in use in a particular State only, the other with the whole commercial world, it is easy to determine which must leave that particular State and which remain. The currency of silver and gold entirely ceasing, the price of everything bought or sold was no longer compared therewith, but with the paper bills, or rather with mere ideal pounds, shillings and pence . . . . It was thought that increasing the paper bills would enliven and reform the trade."
The Solons of the provincial period lacked experience and a knowledge of the practical working of financial systems. They had many thoughts, but few ideas. Early in the eighteenth century "silver and gold were entirely banished" from Massachusetts. Cotton Mather, who believed in the bills of credit, speaks of "there being Forty Thousand pounds, more or less, now to be paid, and not a Penny in the Treasury to pay it withal."[2] This was in 1697.
The paper bills[3] of Massachusetts were at a low ebb in 1714. There was a general scarcity of money and a universal cry for more currency. The medium of exchange furnished by the government was so uncertain that the public mind sought relief from past anxieties. The issues of bills by the General Court having been restricted by the royal government, the money question again occupied the serious attention of the citizens. The unhappy experience with the province bills persuaded many that it would be well to abolish paper money and use only specie for future transactions. Others devised a plan by which the province
- ↑ Hutchinson's "Massachusetts," Vol. ii, pp. 187–88.
- ↑ Magnalia Book, Vol. ii. App.
- ↑ For a history of the currency, and for its literature, see "Narrative and Critical History of America," Vol. v, pp. 170–77.
