Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-01-24
COLONIAL MONEY.
Tracts Relating to the Currency of
Massachusetts, Bay.

From the Springfield Republican.
publication of exceptional value to eco
nomic students is Tracts Relating to the
Currency of the Massachusetts, Bay, 1852
172O.'' edited by Andrew Mcfarland Davis,
who has made a thorough study of the
money experiences and discussions Of that
period and embodied the results Of it in
two volumes on the currency and banking
of the province, published some time ago.
He then found that the contemporary liter
ature of the subject, of the pamphlet form,
was not merely meager, but extremely SO,
and hard to find so far as it has been pre-
served. Only the most common Of the
pamphlets are easily available, being found
In library collections in the vicinity of Bos-
ton. But to find one or two one must go to
the Watkinson library at Hartford; and to
find another he must go to the library of
the Antiquarian Society at Worcester, and
so on.
The American Economic Association has
had Douglass Discourse on the Curren-
c1es' reprinted, and it occurred to Mr. Da-
Wis that other of the Scarcer and more i'm
portant pamphlets might well be repro
duced, and thus made the more secure and
available in American economic literature.
Hence the present volume, published by
Houghton, Mifflin & Co.. which reproduces
in similtude of the originals eighteen rare
fifty bearing on the currency of the Massa-
chusettS Bay province. The discussion all
turns upon proposal in TIA to establish
bank of credit in Boston on plan that
had been preached in 1858. 1t need not be
said that a valuable service has been per-
formed in bringing such matter together in
reachable shape or that 1t is full of interest
ing historical matter. Thus in the pamph-
let, Some Considerations of the Several
Sorts Of Banks Proposed as a Medium of
Trade" we have an argument against
slavery and the slave trade from eco
nomic standpoint somewhat anticipating
Helpers book by 135 years so. Nor was
the moral side of the question ignored.
After having demonstrated that slaves ARE
great hindrance to the peoping and i'm
proving the country" the writer goes on:
is as bad as the thief and that if there
were no receivers there would be no
thieves. If those are true proverbs, then
are not we of this country guilty of that
Violence treachery and bloodshed that is
daily made use of to obtain them Slaves;
We rendering ourselves partakers with them
in that wickedness.'
1t did not become difficult, years after
ward. where the slave proved profitable, for
persons whose fathers or themselves had
held such view, to persuade themselves that
slavery was a great Christian institution.
Again, In the pamphlet on 1.-The present
melancholy circumstance of the province"
etc., written in IT'S by one in the country
to one in Boston, we have a consideration
of the disadvantages of rising prices which
were then going up rapidly under the in
fuence of debased currency. 1t is peril
nent at the present time. The Boston mer-
chants, selling their goods at extravagant
prices. compelled the farmers to raise their
prices, but it was noted that the merchants
could Guido the farmers every time at this
game and the latter were getting the worst
OF IT, The conclusion is that eff this rails
ing on one another in trade help some, yet
1t hurts more" Another class to be consid-
cred were 1.-The salary men, the ministers,
schoolmasters, judges of the circuit pres
ldent and tutors at college, widows and or
more than any" From these discussions
one can get a better idea of the state of
society of the time and the condition of
thought on economic subjects than from
any other source.