"I am credibly informed of an ancient widow, whose husband died more than forty years ago, who had three pounds a year settled upon her, instead of dower; which three pounds would at that day, and at the place where she lives, procure toward her support, the following articles; viz: Two cords of wood, four bushels of Indian corn, one bushel of rye, one bushel of malt, fifty pound of pork and sixty pound of beef; which would go a considerable way towards the support of a single woman. Now she can at most demand but seventeen shillings and three pence, new tenor; which is but about an eight part of her original three pounds; and be sure won't purchase more than half a quarter of the above necessaries of life; and this she must take up with, because there is no remedy in the land for her. And this is, in measure, the deplorable case of many widows in the land."

On the 14th of January, 1725, 26, Warham Mather enclosed in a letter to Judge Sewall an argument against the emission of more paper money.' The author of this document classifies the sufferers from the inflated currency under seven headings: 1, ecclesiastical men; 2, orphans; 3, demandants on bills and bonds; 4, merchants having book debts; 5, lessors on long leases; 6, public officers; 7, the whole country.

During this period a practice was established of paying laborers in orders upon shops. This was nominally based

calamities such a people may expect from a righteous God: illustrated in two discourses from Isaiah, V. vii, on January 28th, 1747, 8, which was set apart by the government for fasting and prayer, etc., etc., etc. By Nathaniel Appleton, A.M., Pastor of the First Church in Cambridge. Boston, New England, 1748, pp. 34, 35.

1 Address in opposition to issuing more paper money. A speech without doors touching the morality of emitting more paper-bills. Sewall's Letter Book, vol. 2, Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., 6 series, vol. 2, pp. 235-239.

upon the stringency of the currency and while it was in its infancy did not attract much attention. At a later date these orders, although the volume of them never could have been large enough to have seriously affected the currency, were still sufficiently in evidence. to be christened "shop notes," under which title they are frequently alluded to. The writer of a pamphlet in 1720 refers to "men who turn poor laborers and tradesmen off with one half or two thirds goods, " showing that the process was then sufficiently pronounced to attract attention.'

The town of Boston in a petition to the governor December 29, 1735, complains that the abundance of European goods imported "exposed the inhabitants to appear in extravagant garbs, who would gladly avoid the same were they to receive money in lieu of their labor, manufactures and trade. " The petition goes on to state that "they can not be paid but by notes on shops, which can not be avoided though allowed to be very pernicious.

Douglass, writing in 1739 concerning wages, says that they are reduced by obliging the laborer "to take one half in shop goods at 25 per cent. or more advance above the money price. "3 Another writer refers in 1740, to a pernicious practice and cheating method of substituting drafts on shops in the place of a medium to pay artificers and poor laborers. The caulkers in 1741

1 A letter from one in the country to his friend in Boston containing some remarks upon a late pamphlet entituled The distressed state of the town of Boston. Boston, 1720, p. 3. The author of Second part of South Sea stock says the same thing, p. 16.

2 Boston Town Records, 12th report record commission, p. 121. A discourse concerning the currencies of the British plantations in America, etc., p. 23.

A letter from a country gentleman at Boston, etc., etc., 1740. p. 4.

alleged that they had for "many years labored amid great inconvenience and had suffered much damage, wrong and injury, in receiving pay for their work by notes on shops for money or goods."

One incident that occurred in the summer of 1711, is of interest in connection with the phase of the subject which we are now discussing, not only because we can obtain through its examination the details concerning a temporary loan of public bills effected at that time, but also because it furnishes us with one of the official statements of the rate of exchange, which we are enabled to pick up from time to time. General Hill and Admiral Walker were about to undertake a joint expedition against Quebec. The combined forces of the army and navy were compelled to lay in supplies in Boston. The amount required was so great that all New England could not furnish it and prices rose in response to the demand. The first effort of the government was to check this by legislation and an order was passed "that no provisions, liquors or other things necessarily demanded for the service be any ways enhanced in the price thereof by reason of that occasion, but be had and taken at the ordinary market prices they stood at, at the time of the arrival of his Majesty's ships, the eighth current, with certain intelligence of the said designed expedition." It was proposed to pay for what supplies could be procured with bills of exchange on the Victualling Board, but the pay masters were unable to come to terms with the merchants of Boston. The governor and council were consulted and Sewall in his diary gives a quaint account of the meeting at which this consultation took place, entering into details as to the position at the table of the

1 News Letter No. 1926. February 19, 1741.

governor, the general, the admiral, the paymaster and the secretary, which bring the scene vividly before the reader. At this meeting the "Admiral had sharp discourse about the merchants offering but twenty per cent. for exchange," and "threatened to be gone somewhere else with the forces." On the representation of the paymaster' general the council voted to loan two thousand pounds, but Sewall was not content with this action. He thought the motion should come from the general, which was conceded, and on the motion of the secretary the transaction was reduced to writing. This account of the meeting winds up with a statement that the "vote called for was in the presence of the above mentioned gentlemen," from which it may be inferred that the council were perhaps influenced by their presence which may have operated as a pressure to produce favorable action.'

It is difficult to conceive how the council could have loaned the two thousand pounds referred to by Sewall. Perhaps the vote was merely initiative and subject to confirmation by the representatives. At any rate this amount was certainly inadequate for the needs of the expedition and it appears from documents in the archives that the government was practically unable to do anything until the General Asembly should be in session. When the Court met the matter was arranged by a loan of bills of credit for two years to a number of Boston merchants who furnished the supplies, taking their pay in sterling bills of exchange, the rate of which was fixed at an advance of 40 per cent. The loan effected upon this occasion was in two instalments. The names of the subscribers to the first instalment of £40,000 are

1 Sewall's Diary, vol. 2, Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., 5 series, vol. 6, p. 317.

This bill for 2 bears date 1714, and was emitted after 1721, the date of the emission being indistinct. The bill is discolored and much reduced in size by wear and trimming. It now measures 338 in. x 42 in. Photographed by permission of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Parchment tokens emitted in 1722. Photographed by permission of the

Library of Harvard University.