The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1875-01-07
THE OLDEN TINE.
The Continental Currency oi the United
States and What Was Donc with II.

Paper money, in various forms, wa
already familiar to the people of tn
American colonies when the Revolution
broke out. Massachusetts, had ISSUED
bills of credit as early as 1890, and he
example was followed soon thereafter b,
New York, Pennsylvania, and the othe
colonies. The total amount of this cur
rency in circulation just prior to 1775 i
variously estimated at from 81, 900, 900 t.
S25, ,000,0 1t had deprecated in com
parison with specie differently in differen
places. In New England it fell until i
took six shillings to equal Spanish dol
lar, the par being four shillings and six
pence. In New York eight shillings, ant
in Pennsylvania seven shillings went t.
the same dollar. These rates seem tt
have become accepted as permanent, anC
it is only few years since New Eng
landers were accustomed to reckon b,
shillings of one-sixth of a dollar each
New Workers by shillings of one-eighth
and Pennsylvanians by shillings of one
seventh of dollar When, therefore, in
May, ITS, the Second Continental Con.
gress addressed itself to the business OF
raising money, it seemed to everybody
the most natural and proper thing in the
world for it to order the printing of paper
money There was indeed no other
means available. The total amount Of
specie in the country did not exceed
100000 and, as we have said, the ex-
listing currency did not exceed $25, ,OOO.-
600 more, and was probably less than
that amount. We had no credit abroad,
our commerce had been destroyed, and
direct taxation was not only impolitic,
but impracticable. Promises to pay were
easy to make, and, thanks to the patriotic
zeal of the people, were readily accepted
as cash.
The total amount of Continental cur
rency put into circulation during the
year 1775 was $5,000,00O; in 1776,
$4,000, 900; in 1777, SO, 900, 600; in ITS,
S65, 100000; in 1779, $114, 500, ,OOO-
making grand total of 5000, 900, 900.
During the same period the individual
colonies, and even private citizens, were
also at work issuing paper money of
their own, the aggregate amount of which
is estimated to have equaled that issued
by Congress- 1t thus came to pass that
country of 100000 of inhabitants was
supplied with currency amounting to
S400, 100000, which is about the same
thing as if, with our present population
of AZ, 900, 900, we should have circula-
ton of $4,000, 100000
For the first year of its existence the
Continental currency remained nearly at
par with specie, and the only effect it
produced was steady advance in the
prices of all kinds of commodities. The
beginning of 1777 found it at dis
count of fifty per cent, or, as we should
say in these days, gold had risen to 200.
By the 1st of January, 177S, specie was
worth four times as much as paper by
December, 1779, forty times as much /;
and during 1850 the depreciation went
on 50 rapidly that before the end of the
year it took 1925 in paper to buy 81 in
specie Then by common consent the
currency went out of use altogether
The bills ceased to circulate as money,
and became objects merely of curiosity
and speculation. AS such they fuctuated
i'll value from 500 to 1000 for one. Their
caused no panic, and was
rejoiced over. No attempt
was ever made to redeem them, though
the coin value actually received for them
by Congress had been $50, 100000.
One thing which fastened the catas-
trophe was the enormous number of
rounterfeits that We're added to the
volume of the genuine money. As, dur
ing our late war, counterfeit Confederate
notes were made III the North and car
ried to the South, 50 the British Govern
ment, as war measure, lent every pos
Sible assistance to counterfeiters of the
currency. Advertise
nents offering to supply it to persons
going into the colonies were published
n the official newspapers printed in New
York, and flags of truce were taken ad-
vantage of to introduce it within the
American lines. The very paper used
)y Congress was initiated, so that little
n no risk of detection was encountered
All efforts to prevent these practices
allied, although whole issues of the genu-
ne money were, from time to time,
,alled in and destroyed in order to render
he counterfeits useless.
The effects of the imitation were SINH
AZ to those which followed that of our
ines. Shrewd men, forseeing what was
coming, bought at an early period all the
they could lay their hands ON.
md ran in debt for it to the extent of
heir credit. The paper being legal
ender, debtors took advantage of its de- !
to swindle their creditors bv |
paying off loans received in specie at a |.
miserable fraction of their original |.
mount. Widows and orphans, whose
money had been invested before the |
var, were the chief sufferers in this way.
speculation ran riot, and fortunes were
made and lost in imagination, Just as
hey We're in Wall street in 1864 and .
S65. A writer in the PENNSYLVANIA .
Packet says 81 had money enough to
'uy hogshead of sugar. | sold it again .
nd got good deal more money than it
ost me. Yet what L sold it for, when [ !
'ent to market again, would buy but a
lerce. l sold that, too, for great deal
f profit, yet the whole of what sold it
Or would afterward buy but barrel. 1
ave now more money than ever had,
nd yet L am not SO rich as when had
ess."
Congress endeavored, too, to arrest
he downward career of its currency.
'esides making the bills legal tender
Or the payment of debts, all sorts of
aims and penalties were prescribed for
nose disloyal citizens who refused to
Ike them in the course of trade. To
eep down prices, which naturally rose
) the currency deprecated, laws were
assed regulating the wages of laborers,
he charges of innkeepers and common
arriers, and the amount of purchases to
made by any one person at one time.
o prevent owners of goods from send
lg them away for sale and thus escaping
lese arbitrary restrictions, an embargo
as actually laid in 1778, and continued
,r several months, prohibiting the ship
ing of wheat, corn, beef, pork, live