penses. While the bill for this grant was depending, the legislature of Massachusetts passed an act that, with the specie which was expected from England, the bills of credit should be purchased, at the rate of fifty shillings in paper for an ounce of silver, or nearly seven and a half for one. This act was fortunately carried into effect, though much against popular clamor, and thus was redeemed the largest part of the paper currency. The remainder was directed to be paid into the treasury upon taxes, and an end was put to a multitude of frauds, and numberless public evils, arising from the circulation of a depreciated currency. 405. Paper currency of South Carolina. In 1702, Governor Moore of South Carolina, rashly undertook an expedition against St. Augustine, a Spanish town in East Florida; the plan was disconcerted by the arrival of two Spanish ships and abandoned, in a cowardly manner. As the colony then did not contain more than seven or eight thousand white people, the expenses of the expedition were too considerable to be defrayed by an ordinary tax; and the colony issued bills of credit for the purpose. This was the first experiment. As the sum was not large, the bills answered a good purpose, and for some years retained their value. But the war against the Tuscaroras and other savages in 1712, creating another heavy debt, the colony issued forty thousand pounds, which was lent on landed or personal security, and made payable into the treasury in ten instalments of four thousand pounds each. This sum was so large that the value speedily sunk one half, and ultimately to one seventh. The depreciation caused great uneasiness; the planters paying their debts to their creditors and the merchants, in a medium of less value than gold and silver. The rate of exchange remained at seven for one, until measures were taken to redeem the bills. 406. Bills of credit in New York and Pennsylvania. The first issuing of paper currency in New York, was in 1709, and the occasion was the great expense of the fruitless preparations for attacking Canada in that year. The sums first issued were not large, and such regula tions were adopted for redeeming the paper, as to prevent, in a great measure, the evils of depreciation. Considerable sums were afterwards emitted, and gradually called into the treasury and canceled. In 1722, Pennsylvania issued her first paper currency, amounting to fifteen thousand pounds; by subsequent emissions the sum was augmented to eighty thousand pounds, which sum was extant in 1740. This paper was made a legal tender; so that creditors were obliged to take it as gold and silver. As it suffered some depreciation, the proprietaries were alarmed for fear they should receive their rents in a depreciated medium, and opposed the emission of paper until the assembly had made them a grant to secure to them the full value of their rents in sterling money. 407. General remarks on bills of credit. All the colonies sooner or later issued bills of credit to supply the place of specie, which was scarce and not sufficient for a current medium. In those colonies where the paper was immediately called in by taxes and duties, it depreciated but little; in others, it sunk to a low value, and gave debtors an opportunity to defraud their creditors, by paying them in a depreciated currency. As the paper could not circulate in foreign countries, it would not answer for a remittance for goods imported; merchants of course preferred specie to paper, and silver rose in value. In short, a paper currency while the country was rapidly settling, and its trade restricted, was very useful in many respects; but it also produced great evils. It gave rise to unceasing jealousy and contentions, between the royal and proprietary governors and the assemblies of the colonies; for the governors strenuously opposed the issuing of paper. Had the colonies been indulged in a free trade, they would have had gold and silver enough; but an unrestrained commerce could not be enjoyed, until the colonies became independent. 408. Origin of the different rates of coin in the colonies. For almost a century after the settlement of America, the colonies rated coins in sterling money, as in Great Britain. But the scarcity of money finally called for a remedy, and some of the colonies attempted to remove the difficulty, by passing laws to raise the nominal value of foreign coins. This occasioned a royal proclamation, in the sixth year of queen Ann, A. D. 1708, which fixed the current nominal value of coins in the colonies at one fourth above the nominal value in sterling money; so that a dollar, which was four shillings and six pence sterling, passed for six shillings. In New England and Virginia this became, and still remains the current denomination. But in some of the colonies, the depreciation of their paper currency, the scarcity of money, and the current rate of exchange between paper and specie, raised the nominal value of silver and gold still higher. In New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, the value of the dollar was established, and continues, at seven shillings and six pence; in New York and North Carolina, at eight shillings. In South Carolina and Georgia, it rose only to four and eight pence; or two pence in the dollar above the sterling value. But these are differences merely in name, for the real value is the same in all the states; in other words, the pound and the shilling differ in value but not the dollar. QUESTIONS. 401. How was the trade of the colonies restrained, while under the British crown? What rendered it necessary to emit bills of credit? 402. What coin was made in Massachusetts? What colony first emitted bills of credit? 403. How much paper was issued by Massachusetts, and how much did it depreciate? 404. How were the bills of credit redeemed? 405. When and why were bills of credit issued in South Carolina, and what was the effect? 406. When did New York, and when did Pennsylvania, first issue paper currency? 407. Why are bills of credit less valuable for currency than coin? 408. How did the different rates of coin in the colonies originate? CHAPTER XII. PIRACY. 409. Piracy in the American seas. In the two first centuries after the Spaniards settled in America, the land and the sea were infested by pirates and freebooters, to a degree never before known in the civilized world. These robbers had their origin among some miserable fugitives of the French nation, who had begun a plantation at St. Kitts, and being dispossessed by the Spaniards, fled to the northern part of Hispaniola, now Hayti. There they lived at first, by hunting swine and cattle, which abounded in the mountains, and there acquired the name of bucaneers, from the practice of drying and preserving their beef and pork, called in French boucaner. After living some time in this manner, some of them became cultivators; others betook themselves to piracy. Many of them settled on the isle, Tortuga, near the coast of Hispaniola; and being accustomed to an unrestrained equality, they lived in a state of democracy, every man being the master of his own family; the commander of a boat or ship was liable to be discarded by the crew, and in a division of the plunder, he had only a single share, like a private, unless given to him as a gratuity. 410. Ravages of the bucaneers. These lawless freebooters fortified themselves in Tortuga ; and forming themselves into companies, sallied forth in quest of plunder by sea and land. They had a special antipathy to the Spaniards, and when they found a ship alone, they boldly grappled and boarded her; usually putting all the crews to death. When loaded with plunder, they returned and divided it, with the most scrupulous justice; then spent their time in all kinds of vice and debauchery, until their booty was expended. Enjoying a perfect state of liberty and equality, there was no law to restrain their excesses, and when their plunder_was gone, they were reduced to want and misery. They then went forth to seek more plunder, and pillage honest 411. Piracies on the American coast. The spirit of piracy extended, in a greater or less degree, to the East Indies, and to the North American colonies. About the year 1699, one Bradish, a boatswain's mate, in an English ship bound to India, in an illegal voyage, conspired with the crew, left the captain on an isle, and |