Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-08-27
#istellaneous Rsaaing.
MONEY OF COLONIAL SETTLERS
Wampum, Foods and Live Stock Were
Used in Days When Coin was Scarce.

Wampum, Foods and Live Stock Were
Used in Days When Coin was Scarce
First New England dwellers had a
currency problem of their own. 1t was
a much more serious matter Of finance
than is the Aldrich plan Of today. The
first settlers brought ready money with
them from England. But they found
no means Of putting 1t into circulation
Consequently means Of regulating the
circulation. which is one of the grave
economic problems of today, was en-
tirely beyond their dreams.
After the colonists got settled and re-
allied that they were in New England
to stay they became aware Of their
need Of convenient circulating medi-
um. They tried the clam shell curren-
cy of the Indians. called wampum. 1t
served some settlers, who had no gold,
silver or copper coins. They also used
musket bullets in place Of brass far
things. But the substitutes for real
money were inadequate to the needs Of
the colonists and they found 1t abso-
lutely necessary to barter goods, or
exchange one article for another.
The Indians, with whom the colonists
| carried on a considerable trade, were
glad to accept merchandise in place Of
| money for their skins and other COM
modities. They didn't know a shilling
from a shallop. But they did know
muskets ammunition, hunting knives,
glass beads and fire water, and to get
them they exchanged valuable skins.
Various other substitutes for ready
money were commonly used in colonial
times. For a fat hog, fat wether, or
forty shillings every year, the general
| court Of Massachusetts Bay Colony
leased Noddle's Island to Samuel May
erick. Imagine a taxpayer of today
| driving a fat hog and a fat wether up
Beacon Hill and turning them over to
the state treasurer in payment Of his
rent. Meat and drink were sometimes
given In part payment Of wages.
In 1880 the general court ordered that
mo master carpenter, mason, Joiner or
bricklayer shall take above 16 pence q
day for their work If they have meat
and drink"
Until recent period, which some
old men Of today remember, appren.
tices were paid in board, lodging, cloth
ing, and schooling, New England school
masters boarded about, getting food
and shelter in exchange for the tuition
of children. Clergymen and physicians
were commonly paid in provisions and
fuel. A colonial tailor was paid in
beaver skins for mending a blanket.
Farmers commonly traded corn for
axes and other tools, and their wives
traded eggs, butter and cheese for
shoes, dresses or bonnets
The first demand that people pay cash
for goods was met with protests. In 1916
the general court heard the petition of
people who were aggrieved because the
proprietors or me SaGgus Iron Works
demanded cash for their metal pro-
ducts, and it voted: I'VE acknowl-
edge that such a staple commodity
as iron Is a great means to enrich the
place where it is, both by furnishing
this place with that commodity at rea-
sonable rates and by bringing in other
necessary commodities in exchange IF
iron reported, but as we used to say, IL
man lives where an ak Is worth but
IL pence yet 1t Is never the cheaper to
him who cannot get IL pence to buy one.
So, If your iron may not be had here
without ready money, what advantage
will that be to US If we have no money to
purchase 1t? 1t Is true some men here
have Spanish money sometimes, but
little comes to our smiths hands, es-
pecially those Of inland towns. What
moneys our smiths can get you may be
sure to have 1t before any other; II we
must want iron so often as our money
fails. you may easily judge If it were
not better for us to procure 1t from
other places by our corn and pipe slaves
ETC., than to depend on the coming in
Of money which is never so plentiful as
to supply for the occasion"
About 1850, when the Massachusetts,
Bay Colony was flourishing, a strong
popular demand for a plentiful supply
Of money was heard. Business interests
wanted currency and laboring men de-
sired cash instead of wampum, beaver
skins and meat and drink in payment
Of their wages. The general court of
1862 decided that the way to supply
additional currency was to make 1t,
and without lengthy discussion Of
principles Of finance or investigations
of the monetary systems Of foreign
countries. the court voted to establish
a mint house in Boston. Captain John
Hull was appointed mint master.
OF Captain Hull, Hawthorne tells an
interesting story. The captain sum-
moned his daughter and his on-in- law
Immediately after their wedding. He
had two of his men servants fetch
pair of balances. He bade his daughter
to climb onto the platform which swung
Olu OIlt III VI lic DdldHCC. lhCh hS
commanded his servants to heap the
other platform Of the scales with new
pine tree shillings, taken from a mon
strous iron-bound chest, until the
weight of them should lift from the
floor the opposite platform on which
sat the wondering Betsey. She was rosy
and plump, for she had been fed on
pumpkin pie, doughnuts, Indian pud-
ding and other Puritan dainties. and 1t
required a big heap Of pine tree shil-
lings to equal her weight and lift her
| from the floor. Then Captain Hull, af-
ter looking with approval upon his
| daughter and the great pile Of shillings,
turned to her husband and said: There,
son Samuel, take these shiliings for my
daughters portion; use her kindly and
thank heaven for her. 1t is not every
| wife that is worth her weight in silver"
The tradition is a pretty one. The
monopoly that Captain Hull enjoyed
was still prettier. The richest protected
corporation of today must feel its pro-
fit humble one compared with the