New-York daily tribune., 1857-10-20

porting to cobfrm the instructions previously given
BY the Treasurer, Council and Company In En-
gland, to the Governor of the Colony, which in
structions bad hitherto served as laws the rate at
which tobacco was to be received in payment was
fixed at three shilings for the best and half as
much fer "tbe second sort" But, as the price
declined in England its value as a medium Of pay
ment bad to be modified. By 1852, it had fallen to
siIpence the pound ald Elk years after, in 1639 it
was reduced to half that amount. Subsequently, at
different times its market value ranked as low as
penny pouLd. It finally settled at two pence, and,
during the whole course Of the eighteenth CEN
tury, down to the Revolution, tobacco was a
lawful terder in Virginia and Maryland, in payment
Of debts, at that rate 1t even became necessary at
times to find substitute for tobacco.
By an act Of 1643, the Governors salary, to pay
which two shilliDgs was levied on every tithable
that is, every male person above slIteen-wa'
made payable in Indian corn, wheat, malt, beef,
pork, butter cheese geese, turkeys, hens and pigs
at prices named in the act, and not materially diff
fereIt from those which, previously to the enhance
ment Of prices during the LAST four or five years
prevailed in the New. York market. By an act of
1853 poor persons who had no tobacco might ten
der other got de in payment Of their debts; and in
1860 grain and other produce were made tender
for all debts. These provnions appear to have
been temporary, but tobacco remained a lawful
tender down to the adoption of the Federal COnsti-
tuition.
Nor did the Puritan fathers Of Nsw.England,
any more than the tobacco planters Of Virginia and
Maryland, enjoy the benefit of specie currency.
As they had no staple like toba SEQ, grain (at va
rious prices for the different sorts) was made a
lawful tender Taxes were payable in corn and
cattle. Beaver-skins also passed as a currency at
ten shliDgs the pound, aud being available as q
remittance to England, held the next rank to coin.
For small change, musket balls, at a farthing
each, were at one time a legal tender to the
amount of sbiIipg. The Indian wampum,
the use of which the New. Englsnders
learned from their Dutch neigbbors of New. .Amster
dam, having been first employed in the Indian
trade, came presently to be used as a general me-
dunn of traffic, till the increase of the quantity
ard the decline of the Indian trade led to its depre
citation and finally to its abandonment. Even lands
and houses were made legal tender for the pay
ment Of judgment debts. When taken in execu-
tioD, they were not to be sold and so made into
money, but were to be delivered to the creditor in
might be appraised at by three understanding aud
Indifferent mep," one chosen by the creditor, a
SECOND by the debtor, and the third by the officer
executing the process. This method OF employing
real estate for the discharge Of debts has been per-
petuated 10 New England to this day, and cOnsti-
tutes remarkable peculiarly in the law of that
section Of the Union. This process might seem to
be ia conflict with that provision Of the Federal
Cons .itu0n which forbids the States to make any.
thing but gold and silver tender for the pay ment
of debts but that question, We believe, has never
been raised.
In the Dutch colony of New. Netherlands, out of
which sprung New York, wamplm ard beaver skins
appear to have constituted the chief circulating
medium. 1t is not TO be- understood, however,
that coin was absolutely disused. English coin
was seldOm OF never seen in the colOnies but some
silver aud even gold found its wsy thither from the
West Indies. These pieces, however, never circ.
ulated long, it, indeed, they got into circulation st
all. Their value as remittance caustd them to be
collected by the merchants to be sent to England.
In conse quence they bore premium in the colo
MES, and passed at nominal value greater than
their real one. Thence originated the distinction
between the pound currency and the pound sterling
after the wampum had become
undertook to supply small change by
coinsge Of her own-the pine tree shillings, six
perces and three.pences, so priced by aniquaries
but these, to prevent their following the foreign
coin out Of the Colony were, on the same principle
recently adopted in our silver coinage, debased one
fourth below the English standard, the current
premium on si yer being about that amount. Mary
land also had similar coinage of her Own.
Such continued to be the currency of the Ameri-
can colonies for the first two or three generations
after their settlement The introduction of. paper
money-not bank paper, payable on demand, but
paper promises to pay at some future time, issued
and guaranteed by the Goyernment-in fact, treas
ury notes- gradually superseded all other kinds of
currency, and formed, for three quarters of cen.
fury, during the middle period Of our history the
chief medium of traffic. The colonial i.sues of
paper money were not all of the same character.
There were two very distinct grounds and objects
for " hich these issues were made-one financial
object, the other q mercantile obect-so that, to
have correct idea of this sort of currency and of
its operstion, it must be considered under two.
fold point of view.
Tie fret i,sue was made in Massa .husetts in
$780, purely as temporary financial expedlent
to meet deficit in the Colonial treasury That
Colony had sent out, at great expense, fleet and
army for the conquest Of Quebec. The expedition
proved failure; the troops returned Unexpectedly;