the advance and after the rate of five per Cent which additional advantages the General Court was probably induced to give from an apprehension that without such advantages these new Bills would not carry sufficient Credit to make them pass, so as to answer the general purposes of trade and government.

This expedient we presume had it's effect for some years; for we do not find any depreciation of these bills of credit from their original nominal value of one hundred and thirty six pounds for one hundred pounds sterling till the year 1705; when one hundred pounds sterling became worth one hundred and forty pounds Currency; from which time they continued at every new emission gradually to depreciate, until the year 1711; when one hundred pounds Sterling became worth one hundred and fifty pounds Currency; Disputes then arising between Debtors and Creditors upon taking these bills in payment for Debts contracted before the depreciation, the General Court thought fit to enact, that these paper Bills should be a legal Tender in all payments till the year 1715; and we find afterwards, that the same regulation was continued to the year 1730.

The palpable fraud of this regulation in 1711 is so glaring, that it is impossible to suppose, that the General Court was not sensible of it; for by this law every Creditor, who had lent his money before the depreciation, was defrauded of the whole difference; and as every new emission was constantly followed by depreciation, the fraud was increased to such a degree, that many fair Creditors and other persons not in debt lost half or three fourths of what was due to them, and of their personal Estate.

The Grievance at length became so enormous in this and in the other Colonies upon the Continent of America, almost all of which had followed the example of the province of the Massachusetts Bay in issuing

paper Bills of Credit, and making them legal tender, tho' upon different principles and under different regulations; and this practice had so pernicious an operation, not only within the Colonies themselves, but also upon their commerce and dealings with this Kingdom, that the House of Commons thought proper in the years 1739 & 1740 to take up the consideration of the dangerous state of publick credit in the Colonies, and to interpose in order to stop those abuses, which the Crown had in vain endeavoured to check by its own authority; and on the 14th of April 1740, upon full consideration thereof, They unanimously resolved, That the creating paper Bills of Credit and declaring them to be legal Tender in all payments had been a great discouragement to the commerce of this Kingdom, by occasioning a confusion in dealings, and a lessening of credit in those parts; And that the instructions given by the Crown to the several Governors not to assent to any Acts for making such bills of Credit without Clauses suspending their Execution untill the Crown's pleasure could be Known, ought to be enforced and duly observed.

These Resolutions however, in which the sense of one branch of the Legislature was so clearly & fully expressed, had not the effect to restrain this destructive practice, and the quantity of this paper Currency having been greatly increased on account of the real or pretended exigency of the service during the war with France and Spain, the Mischiefs of it were severely felt, as well by the Merchants of Great Britain, as by the Colonies themselves; and occasioned another parliamentary enquiry, which produced the Act passed in the 24 of His late Majesty for restraining such paper Bills of Credit in the New England Governments; But we beg leave to observe to Your Majesty, that the Limitation of this Act to those Governments did not arise from any opinion which our Predecessors in

office, who supported this Bill, had entertained, that the reasonings and principle upon which it was founded were not equally applicable to the other Colonies, but from an unwillingness in parliament to involve those Colonies, whose conduct had not been complained of, in a measure, that, at the same time that it restrained was intended as a just censure of the Conduct of those to which it was applied; For that Board of Trade, which upon many other occasions, as well as in this instance, has very eminently distinguished itself, appears to have had the clearest conviction, that this measure of declaring paper bills of Credit to be a legal Tender, was false in it's principles, unjust in it's foundation, and manifestly fraudulent in its operation.

What we shall humbly propose to Your Majesty is founded upon the same principles, which appear to have been the rule of the conduct of that Board; and our intention is not to convey censure upon any particular Colonys, but to suggest a general regulation, upon full conviction that it is necessary, as well for the security and interest of the Colonies themselves, as of the trade and commerce of this Kingdom.

It is not necessary for us to enter into many Arguments to evince, that the practice of making paper bills of Credit a legal tender is absurd, unjust and impolitic, being supported in this opinion, By the experience of it's effect in every Colony where it has been practiced to any great degree; By the sufferings and Losses of the Merchants trading to America, By the opinion of our ablest Predecessors at this Board;-By the Resolutions of the House of Commons, and the Orders of the Crown thereupon;-By the sense of the whole Legislature expressed in the Act of the 24th of the late King;-And by the beneficial effect of that Act in the Colonies to which it was applied, more particularly in the province of Massachusets Bay; where, tho' by the extensive operation of the War in North

America they were obliged to make greater efforts in every respect, than was ever required in any former War; yet such was the state of publick Credit under the effect of this law, that larger supplies were raised and with more satisfaction and facility than was ever Known before.

It would otherwise not be very difficult to shew, that a Medium of Trade must in its nature not only be a measure of the value, but the equivalent; and that in a Country which has any foreign Trade, the equivalent must be of a material which is universal & of intrinsic value, which paper Bills of Credit, created in any particular Country, never can be;-That different Countries must agree upon the material for this measure and equivalent, which they have tacitly done in favour of Gold or Silver; but never will or did, or can do so with regard to Paper;-That Gold or Silver are the materials fittest for this measure and equivalent, for several reasons too long to enumerate; and that Paper is perhaps as unfit as anything can possibly be; all which would be enough to evince the absurdity of this measure.

If we were to enter into a discussion of the Fraud & Injustice of it, we should find it only necessary to referr to effects of the depreciations in the several Colonies, where debtors have been enabled to pay their debts with three or four Shillings in the pound, merely by Majorities of Men under that Description in the Assemblies making new and large emissions of paper Bills.-For these Bills have but one property in common with real money, which is that the larger the quantity, the less the value with regard to other Commodities; and this perhaps may arise from the quantity effecting the credit, as in the other case the quantity overstocks the market-thus it would easily be made to appear that Fraud and Injustice are and must be the attendants upon this practice.

And as nothing can be consonant with true policy that is absurd and unjust, that consideration would be sufficient to shew, that this strange and deceitfull system is impolitic; but when added to this, we consider, that such a paper Currency in a commercial country banishes the real medium of Trade, Gold or Silver, and that such a country is paid in paper, and pays and must pay either in Gold or Silver, or its other valuable Commodities, we humbly presume the art of man cannot contrive any measure more ruinous & destructive to the unhappy country, where it is allowed to take place.

It will we trust appear to Your Majesty from what has been said, that the practice, which at present prevails in those Colonies, not included in the Act of the 24th of His late Majesty, of issuing paper Bills of Credit upon pretence either of discharging publick debts, defraying publick Services, or establishing a Medium of Commerce, which Bills bear no Interest, are in some cases redeemable at very distant periods, and in other cases have no fund at all for their Redemption, and the compelling persons by law to receive these Bills at an arbitrary, artificial and nominal value, is of the most pernicious nature, destructive of publick Credit, ruinous to the Colonies themselves, and highly injurious to the Commerce of this Country; and that the Complaints lately made by the Merchants of the principal trading Cities in Great Britain of the prejudice which they have sustained from this practice do call for that redress from Parliament, which, as We have before observed, the Crown has in vain endeavoured to obtain for them by its own Authority.

It has been urged upon this occasion, that the Complaints of this practice are merely confined to Virginia and Carolina; and that in the middle Colonies the publick faith has been preserved, and no inconvenience has been found to attend this practice; but on the con