Salem, at a shilling and threepence; between Boston and any place not more than sixty miles distant from it, at fourpence. The Act which was passed in pursuance of the plan of these Resolves was entitled "An Act for erecting a General Post-Office in all her Majesty's dominions, and for settling a weekly sum out of it for the service of the war and other occasions;" and one section of it required a weekly payment of seven hundred pounds to be made "into the Queen's Exchequer, in order to a supply of money for carrying on the war, and other her Majesty's most necessary occasions." 2

1635.

In fact, from the first institution of a regular post-office in England, which was in the time of King Charles the First, the income from that source, sometimes obtained by a lease to a private party, had always been treated as a part of the royal revenue. It may excite surprise that while, by its English promoters, the character of this Act, as a measure for raising revenue, was not only not concealed, but was formally avowed, it does not appear to have raised in New England any resistance or animadversion on that account. The truth is, there was nothing in the Act, except the language of its title, to awaken jealousy as to its being a scheme for taxation by the Parliament of the mother country. Men in New England had been all along accustomed to look upon what they paid for the conveyance of their letters just as they looked upon payments for any other service rendered. It was no novelty that the persons who had rendered this service for them were appointed under authority from the crown; and

.....

once a fortnight in winter. . . Sometimes a letter is six weeks coming from Virginia; sometimes longer." (Letter of Lord Cornbury to the Lords of Trade, of July 1, 1708, in O'Callaghan, V. 55.)

In Douglas's "Summary," &c., I. 466-471, is a curious "account of the general and frequent travelling roads from Penobscot Bay. . . . to St. Juan or St. John's River, in Florida," as they existed in 1755. -"From Boston there is a post by which we [at New York] can hear 79. once a week in the summer time, and

2 Mass. Hist. Col., XXVII. 72–

the service, so far as it included communications with England, could hardly have been well rendered otherwise. The people had been assured by their Boston postmaster, and had reason to believe, that the English post-office conducted their business for them at a cost greater than it was reimbursed for by the postage which it received; and the new arrangement promised a still better transaction of the busi ness than that which had been experienced heretofore. In these circumstances, it would have been hard for them to make out a grievance from an Act which required useful work to be done for them at little cost, solely on the ground that the new Act, relating to all parts of the Queen's empire, called itself an Act for raising revenue.'

The post-office department complained to the Board of Trade that it failed to get its dues because payments were made to it in the depreciated colonial currencies. It shared this loss with public creditors of every description. During the first half of the eighteenth century, the pros perity of Massachusetts was kept down by her use of a vicious substitute for money. Even before the disastrous result of the late expedition against Canada,3 the Province was in arrears to the amount difficulties. of a hundred and twenty thousand pounds, and

1711.

Financial

a tax.

1 Dr. Franklin, in his examination before the House of Commons, in 1766, was reminded of the long acquiescence of the Colonies in the post-office system, and his answer was, “The money paid for the postage of a letter is not of the nature of It is merely a quantum meruit for a service done. No person is compellable to pay the money if he does not choose to receive the service. A man may still, as before the Act, send his letter by a servant, a special messenger, or a friend, if he thinks it cheaper and safer." (Sparks's Franklin, IV. 180; comp. 198.)

2 Journal of the Board of Trade, for June 25, 1713.

this though a tax of twenty-two thousand pounds had just been levied, and more than four thousand pounds were annually received from imposts and excise.1 Measures of retrenchment had been repeatedly resorted to or advised but the difficulties of the time obstructed them, and in fact extremely little relief was obtained in that way.

Nor was by any means the whole difficulty experienced by the public creditor and the tax-payer. There was no sound currency for the transactions of commerce. Nearly down to the close of Dudley's administration, though in twenty years the amount of paper money had been largely increased, driving almost all the coin abroad, the precautions taken against a depreciation of it had had a considerable degree of success; but it broke down under the failure of the second costly expedition to Quebec. The embarrassments and discontents usual in such cir- Financial cumstances followed, and the devices, a thousand expedients. times conceived and as often defeated, for paying debts with something different from money. The brilliant prospect of Harley's South Sea Company in England gave

3

1 In 1706 (Nov. 2), the General Court had ordered the "imprinting of £10,000 of paper money; in 1707 (March 22, June 12, and Nov. 28), of £22,000; in 1708 (Oct. 29), of £10,000; in 1709 (June 18 and Nov. 8), of £60,000; in 1710 (June 29 and July 28), of £40,000; in 1711 (June 13 and July 6 and 21), of £65,000. As early as 1708 (May 27) the Governor had found occasion to move the General Court for laws to "prevent the bills of credit from being undersold, and thereby defamed." Even Dudley had yet to learn that laws will not stop the depreciation of inconvertible paper money; in other words, of unpayable promises to pay. A bill was brought into the House (Nov. 16, 1709) to make the counterfeiting of bills of credit a capital offence.

2 According to a letter from Boston of the year 1712, in the British Colonial Papers, "the standard yearly charges of the Province of Massachusetts to maintain their barrier against the enemy" were then " £30,000 communibus annis."

Till the year 1707 the Province's bills were all made redeemable within two years. In that year paper was issued to run for three years; in 1700, for four years; in 1710, for five years; and in 1711, for six. The amount of bills of credit paid into the Treasury of the Province between May, 1703, and May, 1714, was £194,950. (Felt, Historical Account of Massachusetts Currency, 63, 66; comp. Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, April 25, 1866, pp. 44-51.)

1712.

encouragement to schemers. Some merchants of Boston presented a memorial praying "to have bills of Oct. 29. credit made current to answer debt by laws," which was received with favor by the House. The wiser Council replied by asking a conference. But their scruples did not prevail. The urgency of the universal need was considered to be irresistible, and an "Act to prevent the Oppression of Debtors" was passed, making the Province's bills of credit a legal tender in payment of debts contracted within the seven preceding years, and within three years subsequent to the enactment of the law.'

Nov. 8.

1714.

The Governor proposed a plan for extrication from this dismal financial embarrassment, which, after a Oct. 20. sharp debate, obtained legal sanction. A public Nov. 5. bank, as it was called, was instituted, with a capital provided for it by the General Court, consisting of fifty thousand pounds in bills of credit. Its management was committed to five trustees, who were authorized to lend the bills for periods not to exceed five years, for an interest of five per centum annually, and a payment each year of one fifth part of the principal sum, the payments to be secured by mortgages of real property. The principal opposition to this plan proceeded from friends of the project of what was called a private bank. They proposed to form a company which should issue and lend its own notes, or bills of credit, the payment to be secured by mortgages on their estates. Their scheme was frustrated when the General Court, preferring the plan of the public bank, refused them an act of incorporation. But

Aug. 20.

they did not despair, and the controversy which they kept alive made for some years the prominent question in the politics of the Province. A few judicious persons were in favor of making strenuously the exertions and sacrifices necessary for a speedy return to a solid currency. But in the difficulties of the time they could obtain little hearing; and, as a choice between evils, they generally favored the public bank.2

Sir Henry Ashurst, head of the dissenting interest in Parliament, and Constantine Phipps, ancestor of the Marquesses of Normanby of the present time, had for many years been agents of Massachusetts in England. Phipps, attaching himself to the Tory Ministry which, after the blunder of the Whigs in the proceedings against Dr. Sacheverel, held power in the last years of Queen 1710. Anne, became thereby unacceptable to the people and General Court of Massachusetts; and about the same time Ashurst died. Sir William, his brother, equally respected for his worth, and regarded as a person of more ability and influence, was elected to be agent, against Dudley's strenuous opposition. But it was no object of ambition to him, the less so as he thought the agents had not been liberally treated; and he declined Appointto serve, pleading ill health, and recommending Jeremiah Dummer for the place.3 Dummer, grand

bition to the projectors (among whom were persons so considerable as Nathaniel Byfield, Peter Faneuil, and Hezekiah Usher) to issue bills, or print their scheme, till they had laid it before the General Court. (Council Record.)

For a list of publications in this controversy, see Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, April 25, 1866, p. 88.

2 Aug. 8, 1715, Dummer informed the Lords of Trade that he had been directed by the Province, if a project of a bank should be submitted to the

ment of Dummer to be agent.

Lords, to pray that, before any action was taken, they might have opportunity to examine it; and he asked that all action might be suspended till the new Governor should arrive in Massachusetts. (British Colonial Papers.) Again, August 21, he laid before them an argument against the proposed bank, maintaining that the bills of credit of the last quartercentury afforded a better circulating medium, and that if a profit was to be made the public ought to have it. (Ibid.)

3 Journal of the Board of Trade.