and papers filed) and besides by his paines, one of his Relations and two of his Apprentices did labour much in his Service for all of which he hath not charged one penny. That hee was all along many hundred pounds out of his own Estate for the supply of the Country in their streights by reason of danger at home, and occasions of Agency in England, and did preserve their Credit, by his takeing up and engageing for considerable Sumes on their behalfe, besides his own disburs'ts to the lessening of his trade as is apparent. Hee hath given the Country credit for all their rates, though much standing out to this day, and no effectuall way for the gathering them in without trouble and charge; By his last Account hee had above Seventeen hundred pounds due to him from the Country, and charged but £425: 15: 4 interest for his own disburs'ts and long forbearance, wch if it had been many hundred more would not have compensated his damage: What hee hath received of mr Russell, wch went to pay debts, there being great sumes oweing by the Country, is in an account supplementall to the last herewth presented, and therein incerted wt errors have been found by those Gentlem" appointed to examine the same; as also by mnr. Henchman, there being as well under as over chargd some accous misplaced, and some debts to persons wch are found not payable by the country, but the county of Yorke. There is also an additional accompt, drawing up of what receipts and paym's have been since the accompt given in wch will shortly be made up. "The premisses considered yor Pet. Humbly Pray that this Honoble Court would please to order the passing s accompts, that transaction of so great a Sume as £52500 may not lye unsetled, and to take effectuall care for payment of the balance. "And as in duty bound yor, Petrs shall pray &c § 28. Currency and Banking. The inconvenience of making exchanges by barter, even to the slight extent of providing themselves with such necessar 1 Hull's accounts were finally inspected and a balance of £545, 35, 10d2, found due him by the committee, November 27th, 1683, and ordered paid by the General Court. See documents in Massachusetts Archives, Vol. 100, p. 319 et seq. ies of life as they did not individually produce, was early felt by the colonists in Massachusetts. Like the planters of most of the Anglo-American colonies, they had declared that the desire to convert the Indians to Christianity was their chief reason for coming to America. But they soon lost sight of this purpose; and when they found themselves driving a brisk and profitable trade with the savages, as well as developing considerable commerce among themselves, they turned anxiously to the consideration of the question of currency. Wampumpeage and beaver-skin money, even when added to the scanty supply of English and Spanish coin which the early colonists possessed, and which was continually flowing away from them in exchange for commodities of European manufacture, served but poorly to eke out the circulating medium to a quantity barely sufficient for the commercial needs of the community. It is known that as early as 1652 the general court of Massachusetts was considering “all sorts of trading,” and "the best ways of improving the same;" that the questions relating to "raiseing a Banke," and to "monies in regard to the badnesse of it, or highnesse or lownesse of it, with very many other matters tending to the promoting and well regulating of trade" had been discussed without and within. the legislature; and that about the same time "for some years paper bills passed for payment of debts." "Under what association or on what security these bills were issued, does not appear. The establishment of a mint, May, 1652, probably put a stop for a time to any movement towards 'raising a bank.' The author of 'Severals relating to the Fund' alludes to some such movement, but 'before anything was brought to effect,' he was called to Ireland,' and discontinued his endeavors to promote the banking project." 1 Massachusetts Records, III., 267; IV., Pt. 1, 86. 2 Massachusetts Archives, quoted by Felt, Massachusetts Currency, 33. 8 Trumbull, First Essays at Banking, 7-8. $29. The Colonial Mint. The history of the Massachusetts colonial mint is too well known to require repetition here. It is easy from the vantage ground of our present knowledge of the science of finance to point out mistakes in the details of the management of this unique institution in American colonial history. The unscientific shape and finish of the Massachusetts coins, especially the earlier ones, and the extravagance of the contracts with Mintmaster Hull, are legitimate subjects for criticism; and the policy of undervaluation as compared with the English standard, while prompted by an intelligible motive, could only work to the disadvantage of the colony in the end. Yet justice requires us to declare that the mint on the whole was of immense advantage to the colony. Established at a time. 1 Chalmers says that Maryland had a mint in 1662; but Thomas Hutchinson, afterward governor of Massachusetts, writing of a New England shilling and sixpence which he was sending as curiosities to a correspondent in England, in February, 1761, says "no other colony ever had any coin." Quoted by Felt, Massachusetts Currency, p. 49, n. 2" For forme flatt and square on the sides, and stamped on the one side with NE, and on the other side, with the figure XIId, VId, and IIId, according to the valew of each peece, together with a privy marke, which shall be appointed euery three months by the Gouernor, and knowne only to him and the sworne officers of the mint." Massachusetts Records, May 31st, 1652, quoted by Felt, Massachusetts Currency, p. 31. 3 In 1652, "The mint master, for himselfe and officers, for their paynes and labour in melting and refining and coyning, is allowed to take one shilling out of every twenty shillings which he shall stampe."-Ibid. And in 1675, "fiueteen pence in the whole for euery twenty shillings, and the said minters to pay into the Treasury of the Country in money twenty pounds per ann.”—Ibid., p. 42. "The sayd master of the mint aforesaid is hereby required to coyne all the said money of good silver of the just alloy of new starling English money, and for valew to stampe two pence in a shilling of less valew than the present English coyne, and the lesser peeces proportionably."-Massachusetts Records, act of May 31st, 1652, quoted by Felt, Massachusetts Currency, 31. Maryland decides “that their coin, issued from such an establishment, shall be equivalent to English sterling."-Felt, Massachusetts Currency, p. 38, apparently on the strength of an assertion of Chalmers. when the overthrow of the traditional form of government in England had seemed to render uncertain the continuance of the colonial relation between the mother country and the most independent of all her children, and maintained in the face of repeated and unmistakable expressions of royal displeasure, for more than a third of a century the mint served a most useful purpose in the colony by furnishing the inhabitants with a stable, if somewhat depreciated, currency. It fell in the fall of the colonial charter, with the continuance of which the revival of the mint had come to be inseparably associated in the royal mind; but its salutary financial influence was felt in the colony and in New England as long as the rude but honest product of its operation circulated in the channels of trade.1 $30. Woodbridge's Bank. Even while the mint, operated in the face of the king's displeasure, was pouring forth its slender but constant stream of New England shillings and six-pences, various projects arose for reënforcing the circulating medium of the colonies by the establishment of banks for issuing paper money. An attempt made in 1664, by the author of "Severals relating to the Fund" the Rev. John Woodbridge, if we may accept the conclusion of so distinguished an antiquarian as Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull-to interest influential merchants in a plan which he had long had in mind for "a way of trade & banke without money," is known to have been without practical result. A draught of his scheme in the shape of a "Proposal" pre 1 "However the mint was thus absolutely terminated, yet the products of its operation were long current in our country. Down to the Revolution of our Independence, they were often seen, and passed readily in business transactions, with other coin.'-Felt, Massachusetts Currency, 49. 2 The coinage of threepences was no: long continued. 3 For some account of a scheme of Gov. John Winthrop, of Connecticut, for such a bank, see Trumbull, First Essays in Banking, 8–9. * Since 1650. See Severals relating to the Fund. sented by the author to the colonial council "about three years after this" and embodied in "Severals relating to the Fund," reveals the nature of the project. It is entitled: "A Proposal for erecting a FUND of Land, by Authority, or Private Persons, in the nature of a Money-Bank; or Merchandise-Lumber, to pass Credit upon, by Book-Entries; or Bils of Exchange, for great Payments; and Charge-bills for running Cash. Wherein is demonstrated, First, the necessity of having a Bank, to enlarge the Measure of Dealings in this Land, by shewing the benefit of Money, if enough to mete Trade with; and the disadvantages, when it is otherwise;" and "Secondly, That Credit pass'd in Fund, by Book, and Bills (as afore) will fully supply the defect of Money. Wherein is related, of how little value Coin, as the Measure of Trade, need be, in itself; what Inconveniencies subject to. The worth a Fund-Bill, or Payment therein, is of: & not of that Hazard." The author's "narrative" of how the plan was put into practice is wanting in the only copy of "Severals relating to the Fund" which is known to have been preserved." "Enough remains, however," says Doctor Trumbull, "to establish the facts, that a ‘Fund of Land' or bank of credit was started in Massachusetts in March, 1671, and was 'carried on in private for many months'-though without issue of bills, and that, ten years later, a private bank of credit was established and began to issue bills in September, 1681. Of the result of this enterprise we have no information -except in the assurance that it did not ruin its projectors."" $31. Blackwell's Bank. Five years after the date last mentioned, John Blackwell, of Boston, "on behalf of himselfe and divers others, his participants, as well in England as in this Countrey," laid before President Dudley and his council a proposal and "Constitution, 1 Quoted by Trumbull, First Essays, 10. 2 See Bibliography. 3 * First Essays, 12. |