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MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 1720-176^ 
 
Series xxxiii No. 
 
 JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES 
 
 IN 
 
 Historical and Political Science 
 
 Under the Direction of the 
 
 Departments of History, Political Economy, and 
 
 Political Science 
 
 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION 
 
 IN MARYLAND 
 
 1720-1765 
 
 BY 
 
 CLARENCE P. QOULD, Ph.D. 
 Michael O. Fisher Professor of History in The University of Wooster 
 
 BALTIMORE 
 THE JOHNS HOPKINS PRESS 
 
 191S 
 
HG5\G 
 
 vnsGG 
 
 Copyright 1915 by 
 THE JOHNS HOPKINS PRESS 
 
 PRESS OF 
 
 THE NEW ERA PRINTINS COMPANy 
 
 LANCASTER, PA. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 
 Preface vii 
 
 Introduction 9 
 
 Chapter I. Coinage 11 
 
 Chapter II. Bills of Exchange 38 
 
 Chapter III. Tobacco Currency 48 
 
 Chapter IV. Barter 74 
 
 Chapter V. Paper Currency 78 
 
 Chapter VI. General Consideration of Money 112 
 
 Chapter VII. Transportation and Communication . . 122 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This study forms the second instalment of what is in- 
 tended to be ultimately a complete economic history of 
 Maryland between 1720 and 1765. The first part, entitled 
 The Land System in Maryland, 1720-1765, appeared in the 
 Johns Hopkins University Studies, Series xxxi, No. i. 
 Work on the agricultural system is now under way. 
 
 The writer is under obligations to Professor Charles M. 
 Andrews of Yale University, who read most of the manu- 
 script and made many valuable corrections and suggestions. 
 The study of the economic history of Maryland was under- 
 taken during the writer's residence at Johns Hopkins Uni- 
 versity, and as a whole the work owes much to the sug- 
 gestions and the inspiration of Professor John M. Vincent. 
 
 C. P. G. 
 
MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN 
 MARYLAND, 1 720-1 765 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 There are in every community many things — such as 
 money, roads, and means of communication — which tend 
 to bind persons together and to make possible that inter- 
 course between man and man which constitutes trade. Chief 
 among these integrating forces is the monetary system, with- 
 out which no interchange of products is possible. From the 
 cattle of the early Romans to the clearing-house certificate 
 of the modern banker, every civilization shows its own pe- 
 culiar form of circulating medium. 
 
 The American colonies, particularly those in the South, 
 present some extremely interesting features in their mone- 
 tary systems. No less than five kinds of money were cir- 
 culating side by side in Maryland during the middle years of 
 the eighteenth century. Coin — gold, silver, and copper — 
 constituted, of course, the standard money, though in amount 
 it was unequal to several of the other currencies. The chief 
 use of metallic currency was in the payment of personal 
 expenses and other small debts. Next in importance to coin 
 were bills of exchange, which were employed for many 
 transactions within the colony, were largely used between 
 the several colonies, and formed almost the exclusive me- 
 dium in the English trade. The third form of Maryland 
 money was the paper currency. First put forth in 1733, for 
 thirty years thereafter printed money played a prominent 
 part in the economic life of the colony. Naturally the cir- 
 culation of these notes was restricted almost entirely to the 
 boundaries of Maryland. From some points of view the 
 
 9 
 
lO MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 most interesting money was tobacco. Though gradually de- 
 clining in importance, yet as late as 1750 tobacco was per- 
 ^^ haps satisfying more debts than any other medium. Other 
 agricultural products were employed as currency and were 
 sufficiently different from tobacco to warrant a separate 
 classification. Their use, however, was limited. 
 
CHAPTER I 
 Coinage 
 
 Like all other civilized communities, the American colonies 
 made gold and silver coin both their standard of value and, 
 as far as possible, their medium of exchange. The southern 
 and central parts of America proved so rich in the precious 
 metals that they were able to replenish the disappearing 
 supply in Europe ; but as far as was known to the settlers, 
 the English colonies were entirely lacking in gold and silver 
 mines. Hence one of the first economic problems facing 
 the English colonists was to procure enough bullion to 
 supply the needs of their growing trade. 
 
 From England, the source of the great bulk of supplies, 
 bullion was to be had only in small quantities. The balance 
 of trade was overwhelmingly against the colonies, and in 
 the ordinary course of commerce no money importation 
 whatever could be expected from England. Outside of 
 trade there were three channels by which a certain amount 
 of coin reached Maryland from the mother-country. The 
 first and most important of these was through settlers. It. 
 is natural to suppose that most emigrants, on leaving Eng- 
 land, would provide themselves with more or less pocket- 
 money to meet immediate demands. The amount of such a 
 supply is very difficult to estimate, but with four or five 
 thousand settlers a year, it was probably an appreciable 
 addition to the monetary resources of the colony. 
 
 The second way in which money reached Maryland from 
 England was through the payment of the expenses of incom- 
 ing ships. Several of the harbor entrance fees were payable 
 only in sterling. Some of these fees went directly to the 
 crown or to the proprietor, and the money perhaps never 
 circulated in Maryland at all; others came to the local 
 
12 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 officials and were quickly spent in the colony. Besides the 
 custom-house dues, ships were also liable for pilotage, pro- 
 visioning, repairing, and other incidental expenses, which 
 would often be discharged in coin brought from England 
 for those purposes. Sailors, too, would spend a part of 
 their wages during their stay in the colony, and captains fre- 
 quently paid in sterling for the casks in which tobacco was 
 shipped.^ It is evident that each ship entering from Eng- 
 land was compelled to add her mite to the coin' in the colony. 
 The third method by which England contributed coin to 
 Maryland is more interesting than important. In 1660 
 Lord Baltimore attacked the problem of Maryland currency, 
 and undertook to supply a coinage of his own.^ Because of 
 the Fendall revolution the project came to nothing at that 
 time, but it was renewed in 1661. In that year there was 
 passed an act for the establishment of a mint in Maryland,^ 
 but it is a question whether such an institution was operated 
 in the colony, or whether the proprietor sent over to Mary- 
 land coins that he had caused to be struck in England.* A 
 few Maryland coins have been preserved.^ The amount 
 of currency thus provided will never be known, but it could 
 not have been large. An act of twenty -five years later, 
 1686, again complained of the scarcity of coin, and attempted 
 to remedy the evil, not by increasing the output of the mint, 
 but by regulating the values of foreign coins.' Apparently 
 the mint had already been discontinued. In any case the 
 output did not remain an appreciable element in the coinage, 
 and in the records subsequent to 1700 I have never seen an 
 indisputable reference to a Maryland coin.' 
 
 1 Lower House Journal, May 6, 1736. It was at one time proposed 
 to tap these sources for sterling money to pay the quit-rents. 
 
 2 Archives of Maryland, vol. iii, pp. 36s, 383, 385. 
 
 ' Act of May i, 1661. See also T. Bacon, Laws of Maryland at 
 Large, 1662, ch. 8. 
 
 * R. Ruding, Annals of the Coinage of Great Britain and its De- 
 pendencies, vol. i, p. 417; J. H. Hickcox, An Historical Account of 
 American Coinage, p. 16. 
 
 s The Maryland Historical Society has several of these coins. 
 
 " Act of November 19, 1686. 
 
 ■^ About the time of the famous Wood patent to supply a coinage 
 for Ireland, there was a similar project on foot to supply the Ameri- 
 
COINAGE 1 3 
 
 It is evident that the amount of bullion entering Mary- 
 land from England must have been utterly inadequate to 
 supply the needs of the colony. Some other source had to 
 be found, which proved to be the West Indies. The trade 
 between those islands and the English mainland colonies 
 usually resulted in a balance against the islands. The West 
 Indies were dependent upon the mainland colonies for their 
 supplies of grain, lumber, and provisions, and the sugar and 
 molasses which they exported were insufficient to balance 
 their heavy staple imports. Much bullion, consequently, 
 was shipped from the West Indies to North America f in 
 fact, the continental colonists came to look upon the West 
 India fleet as gold-laden in much the same way that the 
 Spaniards looked upon their Indian galleons.' In this trade 
 Maryland did not take a prominent part. From the early 
 days of the colony it seems that a few small ships sailed 
 each year for the West Indies, and after about 1730 the 
 trade began to grow more brisk, but even in the later years 
 of the colonial period this traffic constituted but a small part 
 of the total commerce of Maryland. The amount of bullion 
 brought directly from the West Indies to Maryland, though 
 increasing as time went on, could not have been very large.^" 
 
 The third and greatest source of bullion for Maryland was 
 the neighboring colonies. Pennsylvania was extensively en- 
 gaged in the West India trade, and drew thence large sup- 
 plies of gold and silver which gradually filtered down into 
 Maryland and Virginia. Much Maryland grain, instead of 
 being shipped directly to the West Indies, was sold to 
 
 can colonies. The coins were made of an alloy resembling brass, 
 and were issued in three denominations. This plan is also said to 
 have been rejected by the colonists (Acts of Privy Council, Colonial 
 Series, vol. ii, § 1341; Ruding, vol. ii, p. 72). No reference to such 
 a coinage appears in any Maryland record. 
 
 8 An Essay on the Trade of the Northern Colonies of Great 
 Britain in North America, p. 7 (Pennsylvania Historical Society). 
 
 ' " The Jamaica fleet carrying a large quantity of fine sugar also 
 much gold and silver left Jamaica fifty sail in company " (The 
 American Weekly Mercury (Philadelphia), March 17, 1720). 
 
 1° Callister MSS. (Maryland Diocesan Library), September 30, 
 1757, show an importation of £14. 17s. id. from Antigua. See also 
 extract from Mair, Book-keeping Modernized, in William and Mary 
 Quarterly, vol. xiv, p. 87. 
 
14 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 Philadelphia and from there exported. This traffic was the 
 means of bringing a great deal of Pennsylvania money into 
 the northern counties of the Eastern Shore." Another 
 means of drawing money from Pennsylvania was through 
 bills of exchange. By tobacco shipments Maryland and 
 Virginia created large credits in England. Pennsylvania, 
 having no staple to ship to England and drawing her manu- 
 factures almost exclusively from England, created large 
 debts there. In order to meet these debts, Pennsylvania 
 merchants purchased for cash Maryland and Virginia bills 
 of exchange on England.^^ 
 
 Most of the money of Maryland and Virginia was, by one 
 means or another, brought in from the north. The author 
 of The Importance of the British Plantations in America, 
 writing about 1731, estimated that iio,ooo per year came 
 to England from Philadelphia in Maryland and Virginia 
 bills of exchange. A later writer said that Virginia received 
 annually £16,000 sterling in cash for bills sent to Phila- 
 delphia.^^ In 1744 Benjamin Tasker complained to Lord 
 Baltimore that the great amount of Spanish gold and silver 
 brought in from New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia was 
 reducing the value of bullion and raising the rates of ex- 
 change.^* In fact, after about 1750, not only Pennsylvania 
 gold and silver, but also Pennsylvania paper money formed 
 a large part of the currency throughout most of Maryland. 
 In order to facilitate this circulation, in 1753 the standard 
 
 " " The farmer [in the lower part of the Eastern Shore] is so 
 remote from the mills and the Cash market that he is glad to get 
 goods for his wheat, the merchant ships this off, and by that means 
 lays in Cash to their mutual convenience. The Planter in these 
 parts [Kent and Queen Anne's Counties] who has wheat can get 
 money for it very conveniently" (Callister MSS., July 26, 1761). 
 
 12 Archives, vol. vi, p. 177; [Hall], The Importance of the British 
 Plantations in America, p. 97 (New York Public Library). 
 
 ^3 William and Mary Quarterly, vol. xiv, p. 89. 
 
 i*"The great plentieof Spanish Gold & Silver brought into New 
 York, Pensilvania & Virginia, and the high Insurance has made a 
 great demand for Bills of Exch^; so great that the Trading people 
 from these Places offer Spanish Silver at 5/ the ounce, Your Lord- 
 ship takes it at 5/3, these offer 4S P Cent Exch'. for Bills in Spanish 
 Gold, you take Gold at about 41, so that the Gold & Silver that is 
 in my hands & that I shal hereafter take, must be Remitted" (Cal- 
 vert Papers, No. 2, p. 117). 
 
COINAGE 1 5 
 
 of Maryland currency was made to conform to some extent 
 to that of Pennsylvania.^^ 
 
 From Virginia, on the other hand, very little bullion 
 could be drawn, for, having little West India trade, that 
 colony also was seeking bullion, not exporting it, and even 
 succeeded in drawing some coin from Maryland.^" How- 
 ever, in certain parts of Maryland which were closely bound 
 to Virginia either by position or by trade, eddies in the 
 course of commerce brought in Virginia money. On the 
 lower part of the Eastern Shore, for instance, Virginia paper 
 was frequently found, and it is safe to conclude that the 
 same causes that led to the importation of paper led also to 
 the importation of bullion. ^^ Yet indications are not want- 
 ing that even in these eddies of trade, bullion was carried 
 out of Maryland as well as brought in.^^ On the whole, the 
 drift of bullion was from the northern trading centers south- 
 ward, and in this intercourse Maryland received at one side 
 and paid out at the other. 
 
 Unfortunately for Maryland, her southern neighbors were 
 not the only ones to whom money had to be paid. Every 
 new country has to be made ready for the habitation of man, 
 and the process of preparation necessitates an enormous 
 amount of labor and capital, both of which must be drawn 
 from longer settled communities. The new land offers 
 opportunities for development and improvement far too 
 vast for its own resources, and there follows a large importa- 
 tion of implements and supplies of all kinds, resulting in 
 heavy debts which must be met by the exportation of money. 
 
 15 See page 32. 
 
 1^ " Virginia has not money to lend, that Colony on the contrary 
 is in extreme want of Cash & I am credibly informed that scarce a 
 month passes but Virginians come to Maryland for Gold & Silver 
 and leave their Bonds & Land Deeds in the Custody of His Ldps. 
 Tenants" (Archives, vol. vi, p. 177). 
 
 " A Worcester County estate inventoried in 1763 contained 8s. 
 sterling, 37s. 6d. Pennsylvania currency, 38s. 6d. Virginia currency, 
 32s. Sd. Maryland currency (Land Office, Inventories, No. 84, p. 83). 
 Such notices are frequent. 
 
 18 See, for instance, a note for ^7. 17s. 8d. current money of Vir- 
 ginia, to be paid in Spanish whole gold, sued for in Somerset 
 County (Court Records, Liber 1757-1760, p. 22). 
 
1 6 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 No matter how much money is brought into a new land, it 
 will all be sent off at once to purchase the material for 
 further expansion and improvement. The entire American 
 continent, especially the region covered by the tobacco 
 colonies, was in this position during the formative period. 
 
 In Maryland this condition was especially acute. The 
 northern colonists reHeved the situation to some extent by 
 manufacturing a good many articles for themselves, but the 
 Maryland planters carried on very little household industry 
 and imported almost every article they used. Slaves, farm- 
 ing implements, household goods, clothing — all were brought 
 in by the English merchant, while tobacco and money had 
 to be returned to pay the bill. We find, therefore, constant 
 shipments of gold to England and great scarcity of gold and 
 silver in the colony.^® 
 
 The shipment of money to England is mentioned by many 
 writers, and Englishmen generally were inclined to con- 
 gratulate the mother-country on the wealth derived from 
 this source. The author of The Importance of the British 
 Plantations, published in 1731, after speaking of the move- 
 ment of gold southward, continued: "This money by Cir- 
 culation comes into the Hands of Store Keepers and Shop 
 Keepers, who at the Departure of the Ships send it over 
 here to England to purchase Goods."^" Another author, 
 writing about 1764, said that all the money brought in from 
 the Spanish, French, and Dutch islands was remitted to 
 Great Britain.^^ These shipments of course fluctuated with 
 the exchange, depending upon the amount of money in the 
 
 1' Governor Sharpe complained that the heavy imports drained 
 off the money supply (Archives, vol. vi, p. 164). 
 
 2° '_' From this Province [Pennsylvania], by Way of Maryland and 
 Virginia, we have at least iio.ooo a Year : Most of it comes from 
 Philadelphia thus; The Masters of Ships in those Provinces are 
 above all others under the Necessity of having Money for their 
 Expenses for which they give their Bills, and these Bills are fre- 
 quently negotiated at Philadelphia, by which Means the Money is 
 drawn thence. This Money by Circulation comes into the Hands 
 of Store Keepers and Shop Keepers, who at the Departure of the 
 Ships send it over here to England to purchase goods " (p. 97). 
 
 21 An Essay on the Trade of the Northern Colonies of Great 
 Britain in North America, p. 8. 
 
COINAGE 17 
 
 colonies and the value of the tobacco safely exported.^^ In 
 times of war the shipments were usually not trusted to mer- 
 chantmen, but were sent on board men-of-war.^* 
 
 With a bullion supply naturally limited, with a slight out- 
 flow of money toward Virginia, and with an insatiable de- 
 mand for English goods which must be paid for with coin, it 
 is not surprising that Maryland suffered a severe dearth of 
 money. As late as the beginning of the eighteenth century 
 the use of coin was limited to "pocket-expenses," while 
 tobacco served all larger trade purposes.^* In 1754 Gov- 
 ernor Sharpe found that there was enough gold and silver in 
 the colony for the people to pay all taxes in that medium,^° 
 but it is presumable from that statement that there was not 
 an abundant supply. At the time of the Stamp Act, Bene- 
 dict Calvert wrote that he could not see where America was 
 to get the money to pay the stamp duties.^' Even in 1788 
 Brissot de Warville found the scarcity of small money in- 
 convenient.^^ In the controversy over the method of paying 
 the quit-rents the scarcity of money, especially sterling coin, 
 and the difficulty in procuring it even in small sums are fre- 
 quently recognized.^^ It is evident that this matter was one 
 of the most prominent features in the economics of the 
 colony. 
 
 At that time there were no banking facilities to substitute 
 credit for coin, and every man had to hoard up sufficient 
 
 ^2 See pages 42-46. W. Douglass, A Discourse Concerning the 
 Currencies of the British Plantations in America, p. 24. 
 
 2* Archives, vol. ix, p. 538; vol. xiv, p. 60. 
 
 ^* [J. Oldmixon], The British Empire in America, vol. i, p. 343. 
 
 2^ Archives, vol. vi, p. 85. 
 
 2* Calvert Papers, No. 2, p. 261. 
 
 2^ New Travels in the United States of America, vol. i, p. 377. 
 
 28 Lov\fer House Journal, April 15, 19, 21, 1735. " The Discon- 
 tinuance of that Method [of paying quit-rents] is attended with 
 greater Difficulties and Inconveniences than could have been for- 
 seen ; Which Difficulties Must Encrease in proportion to the Scarcity 
 of Gold or Silver in the Country " (April 19) . " But alass, they 
 [quit-rents] Cannot be Collected, there is not money enough here to 
 be got to make regular payments from time to time, so that your 
 officers must take Corn, Wheat, Beef, Pork, Tobacco or some Com- 
 modity of the Country" (B. L. Calvert to Lord Baltimore, October 
 26, 1729, in Calvert Papers, No. 2, p. 72). 
 
1 8 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 treasure to meet all expected liabilities. As this naturally 
 meant that much money was idle, a given volume of busi- 
 ness required a greater supply of currency than would be 
 the case today. To meet the demands of trade it was often 
 necessary to offer special inducements to attract specie pay- 
 ments. Advertisements at times limited the kinds of money 
 that would be accepted,^' and reductions were made for pay- 
 ments in cash. Henry Callister, in busines'S on the Eastern 
 Shore, on one occasion advertised a quantity of saddlery, 
 payment for which would be accepted one half in goods and 
 one half in money, and added, " I mean sterling specie (not 
 bills) as gold or silver money or any foreign coins."^" It 
 was customary with this merchant to deduct ten per cent 
 for payments of cash.^^ 
 
 The people of the time believed that the scarcity of 
 money was responsible for much more serious disorders. 
 They considered it the direct cause of the sluggishness of 
 Maryland trade. Expression of this vague feeling is given 
 in Sotweed Redivivus : — 
 
 "It's Industry, and not a nauseous Weed, 
 Must cloath the Naked, and the Hungry feed. 
 Correct those Errors length of Time have made. 
 Since the first Scheme of Government was laid 
 In Maryland, for propagating Trade, 
 Will never flourish, till we learn to sound 
 Great-Bri tains Channel, and in Cash abound."'^ 
 
 The same idea appears in other connections,'* and seems to 
 have been prevalent among both colonists and merchants. 
 There is, however, little foundation of truth underlying 
 this feeling. Undoubtedly trade suffered some inconveni- 
 ences from the scarcity of money, but commercial activity 
 depends upon conditions much deeper than mere money 
 
 28 Plantations were sometimes advertised for sterling money only 
 (Maryland Gazette, November i8, 1747). 
 so Callister MSS., January 22, 1766. 
 3^ Ibid., August 27, 1761, and various other dates. 
 
 32 Maryland Historical Society, Fund Publication, No. 36, p. 36. 
 
 33 Advice of London merchants, in Maryland Gazette, April 15, 
 1729; Preamble to act for encouragement of importation of gold 
 and silver; Bacon, 1729, ch. 15; preamble to paper money act of 
 1731, in Laws of Maryland, 1731, p. 5. 
 
COINAGE 19 
 
 supply. Had the relative location of markets and productive 
 forces been such as to invite the people of Maryland to 
 engage in trade, a sufficient supply of money would have 
 become very quickly available. 
 
 The greatest evil arising from the scarcity of bullion was 
 the confusion produced by efforts to provide other monetary 
 materials. From the very beginning the colonists found it 
 necessary to carry on their transactions in some substitute 
 for gold and silver. At first the money of the Indians was 
 employed ; but in Virginia and Maryland tobacco soon took 
 the place of wampum ; and by the middle of the eighteenth 
 century, as has been said, there were no less than five sepa- 
 rate monetary substances current in Maryland. Of course, 
 even with a bountiful supply of gold and silver, bills of ex- 
 change would have continued to be drawn, but they would 
 never have reached such wide currency had they not been 
 needed as a substitute for bullion. Interminable difficulties 
 arose from such a complex system. 
 
 The Maryland colonists tried to remedy the scarcity of 
 gold and silver not only by providing other monetary ex- 
 pedients, but also by encouraging the importation of the 
 precious metals. Sotweed suggested that tobacco buyers 
 should be obliged to pay one sixth in currency or bills and 
 the rest in goods. *** In order to provide sterling money for 
 the payment of quit-rents, the proposal was made in the 
 legislature at one time that every incoming ship be required 
 to exchange a certain amount of coin for its equivalent in 
 paper money.^^ Neither of these suggestions was ever 
 carried out, but a direct bounty on the importation of bullion 
 was established. In 1729 it was enacted that every one liable 
 for import or export duties who would pay in imported 
 silver or gold should receive a rebate of fifteen per cent. 
 An oath had to be taken, however, that the bullion had really 
 been imported, and had not previously been exported for 
 
 " P. 44. 
 
 2^ Lower House Journal, May 6, 1736. 
 
20 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 the purpose.^" It is impossible to find any evidence indicat- 
 ing the amount of coin brought in by this act. 
 
 In general, the quantity of bullion in Maryland seems to 
 have increased greatly between 1720 and 1765.^^ It is im- 
 possible, of course, to make a trustworthy estimate as to 
 how much currency there was in the province at any given 
 time, but there are more references to money in the later than 
 in the earlier years. In 1708 there was little money in 
 the colony other than the Dutch lion dollars, commonly 
 called dog dollars.'" By 1731 the amount of money in the 
 province had increased so much that the legislature at- 
 tempted to fix a legal value for a number of coins not before 
 mentioned.'' Exchange fluctuations make it clear that some 
 coin was driven out of the country by the emission of paper 
 money in 1733 f° but it will be recalled that in 1744 Tasker 
 spoke of the high exchange as caused by " the great plenty 
 of Spanish Gold and Silver."*^ The CalUster letters show 
 that in the northern part of the Eastern Shore after about 
 1745 an appreciable amount of business was transacted on a 
 money basis. The Charles Hammond ledger also shows that 
 about 1764 at least one store in Annapolis was trading 
 almost exclusively for coin.*^ This was certainly not true of 
 
 3« Bacon, 1729, ch. 15. 
 
 ^^ This statement seems true in spite of bitter complaints by 
 Henry Callister of the scarcity of money. On December 17, 1764, 
 he wrote : " there is no record since this province was called Mary- 
 land, of such a scarcity of money, whether real or imaginary, as at 
 this juncture" (Callister MSS.). It is only in a community where 
 money is in general use that such a complaint could originate. 
 
 3« Bacon, 1708, ch. 4. 
 
 3° Lower House Journal, August 25, 31, 1731. 
 
 *" " The paper currency has already (tho not in circulation) raised 
 the value of Bills of Exchange which is not doubted will reach to 
 40% or more" (Calvert Papers, MS., No. 295^4, p. 66). 
 
 *i See page 14, note 14. On the other hand, Francis Jerdone, of 
 Virginia, wrote in 1754 that " the Gold and Silver which was current 
 in the country a few years ago is now chiefly vanish'd " ("Letter 
 Book of Francis Jerdone," in William and Mary Quarterly, vol. xi, 
 p. 241). This is hard to explain. It may have been a temporary 
 or a local condition, or else Jerdone's observation may have been in 
 error. 
 
 *2 Charles Hammond ledger (Maryland Historical Society). 
 
COINAGE 2 1 
 
 the business methods of earlier days.*' Such an increase in 
 the amount of gold and silver is exactly what one would 
 expect to accompany the general economic changes taking 
 place in the colony. Grain raising and the West India trade 
 were increasing ; consequently the means of procuring money 
 were becoming more numerous. Moreover, as the country 
 became more thickly settled and more completely developed, 
 one would expect the economic dependence upon England to 
 lessen. Though the latter movement cannot be detected, 
 it must have been in progress. Hence, with its importation 
 increased and its exportation diminished the supply of bul- 
 lion on hand could not but have enlarged. 
 
 So varied were the sources from which Maryland drew 
 her gold supply that coins of almost every nationality en- 
 tered her ports; and because of the absence of a mint, all 
 circulated in their native garb. A motley appearance, in- 
 deed, must have been presented by an ordinary colonial till. 
 
 First** among all the coins in circulation should be put the 
 sterling money of England. The golden guineas, sovereigns, 
 and half sovereigns, the silver crowns, half crowns, florins, 
 shillings, and sixpences, and the copper pennies and half- 
 pennies, — ^all these circulated in Maryland as in England. 
 This kind of money, however, was scarce and in great 
 demand. Certain dues, such as quit-rents and a few customs 
 duties, were payable only in sterling, and although foreign 
 gold and silver seems usually to have been accepted, all 
 disputes as to exchange were avoided by having the British 
 
 *3 The numerous accounts which appear in court records (luring 
 the earher years of the century show payments almost exclusively 
 in tobacco. So also do accounts from the more backward tobacco 
 counties in the later years. Note the difference in force between the 
 following quotations, the first written in 1714 and the second in 
 1765. "I have 6 head of cattle at John Morris which I desire the 
 to sell to best Chapman that thou canst conveniently get for money 
 if it be to be had or elsfe for good tobacco" (Bozman Papers, 
 Library of Congress). "There is hardly any currant money in 
 Maryland. Cannot sell my land. Have advertised without receiv- 
 ing an offer" (Callister MSS., November 10, 1765). In the former 
 the cash sale seems possible but exceptional; in the latter cash is 
 generally used, and business is at a standstill without it. 
 
 ** The coins from the proprietor's mint were so few as to be 
 negligible. 
 
22 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 coin.*= In amount sterling was but a minor part of the 
 circulating medium, the greater part of the gold and silver 
 currency consisting of foreign coins, — Spanish, French, Por- 
 tuguese, German, Dutch, and Arabian. As the Spanish- 
 American provinces formed the chief source of the money- 
 supply, the Spanish pieces greatly predominated. 
 
 The most numerous and most important Spanish coin was 
 the large silver dollar or piece of eight. No less than six , 
 varieties of this coin circulated in the colonies. The old 
 Seville dollar and the Mexican dollar were equal in value, 
 being estimated at the time** to be worth about 4s. 6d. 
 sterling. The pillar dollar, so called from the Pillars of 
 Hercules*^ represented upon the reverse, was worth about 
 4s. 6%d. sterling. The cross dollar, a coin bearing a cross 
 on the obverse, was worth about 4s. 4^d. sterling. The 
 large number of dollars issued by the mints of Peru were 
 worth no more than 4s. 5d. sterling each, and the new 
 Seville dollar fell in value to about 3s. 7%d. sterling. Thus 
 the extreme range of values among the various Spanish 
 dollars was ii^^d.*^ 
 
 In addition to these Spanish pieces there were three other 
 
 ^^ " As it might perhaps be difficult for the Exporter of Tobacco 
 & Importers of Rum etc. to get at all times sterling Money Liberty 
 should be given them to pay the Duties either in sterling Money or 
 foreign Coin rated so as to be equivalent to sterling as for Instance 
 a Spanish Dollar at four shillings & six pence & other specie in 
 similar proportion" (Archives, vol. xiv, p. 91). In the quit-rent 
 disputes the complaint was sometimes made that collectors de- 
 manded sterling coin, or accepted foreign coin only at exorbitant 
 rates (Lower House Journal, May 12, 1737). 
 
 *" Except when otherwise noted, all values given here are accord- 
 ing to the assay by Sir Isaac Newton. Though more accurate 
 figures can be had today, it is thought best to give the older values, 
 as it was in these terms that all calculations were made during the 
 period with which we are dealing. Modern assays vary slightly 
 from these values. 
 
 *^ In derision of the motto nee plus ultra, which ancient mythology 
 had attached to the Pillars of Hercules, Charles V adopted as his 
 motto plus ultra. The Pillars of Hercules with the latter motto 
 appear on many Spanish-American coins. 
 
 *8 Negotiator's Magazine, pp. 345-346 ; 6 Anne, c. 30. The best 
 study of the values of Spanish coins and the laws governing their 
 issue is by W. G. Sumner, " The Spanish Dollar and the Colonial 
 Shilling," in American Historical Review, vol. iii, p. 607. 
 
COINAGE 23 
 
 coins circulating under the name dollar. The old rix dollars 
 of several states of the Holy Roman Empire varied con- 
 siderably in both weight and value, but they all passed in 
 Maryland at 4s. 6d. sterling, as valued in the proclamation 
 of Queen Anne. The second non-Spanish dollar was the 
 spread-eagle dollar. It was not listed in the proclamation, 
 but was current in Maryland during the early part of the 
 eighteenth century .**• Finally there was the lion dollar of 
 Holland, commonly known in Maryland as the dog dollar. 
 It was worth about 3s. yd. sterling. The spread-eagle 
 dollar and the dog dollar probably found their way to Mary- 
 land from New York and Delaware, both of which had in- 
 herited them from the period of Dutch supremacy. What- 
 ever their source, in the early part of the eighteenth century 
 dog dollars were almost the only coins in circulation.^" 
 
 Fractional currency in general was always scarce in Mary- 
 land,^^ but a few quarters and eighths of dollars were to be 
 found. The Spanish dollar is divided into 4 pesetas or 8 
 reals, and these pieces were occasionally found in Maryland. 
 The peseta was commonly called a pistareen, and the real 
 was usually known as a bit.^^ These coins were somewhat 
 debased, but probably passed current when by tale as frac- 
 tions of the dollar. 
 
 After the dollar the piece next in importance in the cur- 
 rency of Maryland was the Spanish pistole or doubloon. 
 
 *9 Upper House Journal, August 31, 1731. 
 
 ^" Bacon, 1708, ch. 4. 
 
 51 " I sometime ago mentioned my Intention of striking a Parcel 
 of small Notes, from six pence to half a crown each, to serve as 
 small Money in Exchange, for my own Convenience and that of 
 my Neighbours, provided no better Scheme was concluded on by 
 the Gentlemen in Business; and as the Want of such small Money 
 is notorious, I have therefore ventured to Print a Number of such 
 Notes, . . . any of which shall be paid off in Silver on Demand, 
 and the whole Notes called in, in less than 3 Years from the Date 
 ... If either the Legislature, or any Society of Gentlemen, can or 
 will contrive a sufficient Quantity of small Money that will more 
 effectually answer the Purpose, I will instantly call in all mine" 
 (Advertisement in Maryland Gazette, August 27, 1761). 
 
 52 These coins are occasionally mentioned ; for example, Somerset 
 County, Court Records, Liber 1749-SI. P- IP; Baltimore County, 
 Inventories, Liber E No. S, p. 407 ; Land Office, Inventories, No. 83, 
 p. 284. 
 
24 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 This was a gold coin worth, according to Newton, about i6s. 
 9.3d. sterling. While the pistole was occasionally called a 
 doubloon, the latter name was usually reserved for the two 
 pistole pieces, which were called double doubloons. These 
 large gold coins formed a convenient medium in which to 
 import large sums, and consequently were among the most 
 numerous and most useful coins of the colony. 
 
 Next, perhaps, in importance to the Spanish coins were 
 those of Portugal. The johannas rivaled the pistole in num- 
 bers and usefulness, and was the most valuable coin in use 
 in Maryland. It was a large gold coin of the value of 35s. 
 ii.gSd. sterling. There was a half johannas of about half 
 the weight and value. The moidore, a gold coin valued at 26s. 
 io.4d. sterling, was also much used. The Portuguese silver 
 crusado was also listed in the proclamation of Queen Anne ; 
 it was worth 2s. lod. sterling. This coin may have cir- 
 culated in Maryland ; but it is omitted from the list of coins 
 in the act of 1753,'^ and I have never seen one mentioned 
 in colonial accounts. 
 
 There were three French coins in common use. The new 
 louis d'or, popularly known as the French guinea, was valued 
 at 20s. J4d. sterling. A coin generally known as a French 
 pistole seems to have been the old French louis of the value 
 of i6s. 9.3d. sterling. Both of these were gold coins. The 
 one French silver coin in general use was the ecu, commonly 
 called the French crown or the silver louis. This coin was 
 valued at 4s. 6d. sterling. 
 
 Next to the coins mentioned above, the Caroline, a gold 
 coin of several German states and of varying values, was, 
 perhaps, in most frequent use. The Bavarian Caroline was 
 worth about 20s. 4d. sterling,^* and those of other states 
 did not vary much from this value. The ducatoon of 
 Flanders, valued at 5s. 6d. sterling, and the three guilder 
 piece of Holland, valued at 5s. 2j4d. sterling, are also men- 
 tioned in the proclamation of Queen Anne, though they 
 
 53 Acts of I7S3, p. 43. 
 
 5* P. Kelly, The Universal Cambist and Commercial Instructor, 
 vol. ii, p. 160. 
 
COINAGE 25 
 
 seldom appear among the records of the province. A so- 
 called "Arabian chequin " is often included in lists of coins,^^ 
 and other pieces undoubtedly circulated in smaller quanti- 
 ties. In fact, acts regulating the coinage seldom fail to 
 include a blanket clause providing for all other foreign gold 
 and silver coins not enumerated. 
 
 The variety of coins in circulation would alone have been 
 a source of considerable complexity, but still greater con- 
 fusion was caused by the condition into which these coins 
 had fallen. The lack of a mint made it necessary for coins 
 to circulate year after year without any repairs and in the 
 original form in which they had entered the colony. This 
 was in part responsible for the great variety of coins in 
 circulation. At the present day a cargo of foreign coin 
 would be taken at once to the mint and fitted out in the 
 national garb before entering circulation. Moreover, a 
 battered or clipped coin today would quickly be withdrawn 
 and restruck. It was not so in the colonial period. All the 
 wear and tear, the battering, clipping, and cutting accumu- 
 lated from year to year until, finally, the coins looked almost 
 like misshapen, unstamped lumps of gold or silver. 
 
 Much of the bad condition of the coinage was due to 
 natural wear and tear, but not all of it. The obtaining of 
 a fractional coinage was also a factor. The scarcity of small 
 change has already been noticed ; and under these conditions 
 the people were compelled to create a fractional currency 
 by cutting the larger coins into several parts. ^^ It was a 
 common thing for a man in need of a quarter of a dollar to 
 take out a whole dollar and cut off a quarter of it. A great 
 part of the defacement of the coinage, of course, was the 
 result of fraud. From time immemorial a thriving business 
 has been carried on in sweating and clipping. As the 
 coinage fell deeper and deeper into disorder, the opportuni- 
 
 °5 Acts of 1753, p. 43 ; Lower House Journal, November 9, 1763. 
 
 ''^ Brissot de Warville, vol. i, p. 377. A great part of the money 
 in the province " is cut into small pieces for the convenience of 
 change" (Calvert Papers, MS., No. 278). So necessary was this 
 that the act against clipping was repealed in order to permit a 
 fractional currency to be made in that way (Bacon, 1729, ch. 2). 
 
26 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 ties for this became greater. Brissot de Warville described 
 one of the tricks common in his day: "A person cuts a 
 dollar into three pieces, keeps the middle piece, and passes 
 the other two for half dollars. The person who receives 
 these without weighing, loses the difference, and the one who 
 takes them by weight, makes a fraudulent profit by giving 
 them again at their pretended value ; and so the cheat goes 
 around."" Another form of fraud was the ubiquitous de- 
 liberate forgery. With the coinage in such disorder, 
 counterfeiting was the simplest of trades, and there is no 
 means of telling how many lumps of lead were washed 
 over with gold and passed at bullion value.^* In 1754 there 
 were complaints of an inundation of counterfeit copper 
 pennies and halfpence. It is said that they became so 
 numerous in New York that bills were paid with wheel- 
 barrows.^" 
 
 At first an effort was made to prevent all tampering with 
 coins. In 1707 it was discovered that there was no law to 
 prevent counterfeiting, clipping, or otherwise misusing for- 
 eign coins, and an act was passed providing that offenders 
 be whipped, pilloried, and, finally, branded and banished.®" 
 The currency at this time was not in a state of confusion at 
 all comparable to that of a later period ; coins were still pass- 
 ing by tale, and money scales were almost unknown in the 
 province.^'- Conditions were ripe, however, for an increase 
 in the disorder, of which the passage of the law itself may 
 be taken as an indication. 
 
 Soon after this the increasing supply of Spanish and other 
 foreign money began to be felt; coin came into more gen- 
 eral use; and in spite of the law the shears became more 
 
 5^ Vol. i, p. 377- 
 
 5^ The American Weekly Mercury says that a man broke Dor- 
 chester gaol, who was a " manifest utterer of Counterfeit Gold 
 Bars" (August 26, 1725). "Great frauds have been discovered by 
 passing bits of Brass etc. for gold, whereby very cautious people 
 have been much imposed upon" (Calvert Papers, MS., No. 2Q=;V^, 
 p. 66). 
 
 s» Maryland Gazette, February 28, 1754. 
 
 «o Bacon, 1707, ch. 4. 
 
 " Ibid., 1708, ch. 4. 
 
COINAGE 27 
 
 active. Within the next twenty years so many pieces were 
 debased that gold and silver ceased to pass by tale, and came 
 to be transferred largely by weight. So pressing was the 
 need of fractional coinage and so general the practice of 
 cutting up larger pieces to produce it that in 1729 the legis- 
 lature removed all restrictions on the cutting of foreign 
 coins.'^ About this time money scales begin to make their 
 appearance in the inventories, and from then until the end 
 of the colonial period they are commonly mentioned. Many 
 coins, of course, continued to pass by tale, especially as the 
 new coins brought in were usually of the better sort. But it 
 was not unusual for each coin to be weighed ; and very fre- 
 quently in payments there would be a number of broken 
 coins, or even mere lumps of metal, all of which would go 
 by weight.*^ Many entries make no reference to money, but 
 merely speak of so many pennyweight or ounces of gold or 
 silver worth so many shillings.^* 
 
 Although cut gold and silver was unavoidable in colonial 
 dealings, yet it seems always to have been shunned. There 
 was frequently a careful distinction made between cut gold 
 and whole gold. Notes and other contracts often specified 
 that they should be paid in whole gold,"^ and cut gold was 
 sometimes discriminated against by accepting it only at a 
 reduced value."" In 1737 Lord Baltimore instructed his re- 
 ceivers to accept no cut gold or silver at all."'' 
 
 ^^ Upper House Journal, July 15, 1729. 
 
 ^3 Silver plate when inventoried was in no way distinguished from 
 broken silver except in the name. 
 
 "* Examples may be found in any volume of inventories for this 
 period. Sotweed Redivivus makes a reference to clipping. He 
 suggests (p. 40) that the legislature pass an act 
 " That Copper Money, Tin, or Brass, 
 Throughout America should pass : 
 Which Coin shou'd the King's Image bear; 
 In equal Worth be ev'ry where: 
 Not subject to be dipt by Shears, 
 Like Yellow-Boys, have lost their Ears; 
 But as a Free-born Subject range, 
 Of different Size, for ready Change." 
 85 Somerset County, Court Records, November Court, 173S, Liber 
 X A No. Y, p. 109. 
 88 Lower House Journal, May 12, 1737. 
 87 Calvert Papers, MS., No. 29SJ4, p. 29. 
 
28 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 When the current money was mostly in unfamiliar coins 
 and denominations, and all so clipped and cut that scales 
 were needed to determine its value, it was to be expected 
 that many difficulties would arise concerning the standards. 
 There is evident throughout the colonial period a tendency to 
 overvalue the coinage in general use and then to enact a 
 series of standards of value legalizing the popular valua- 
 tions. The following is the best theory I can suggest to 
 explain this peculiar phenomenon. 
 
 The colonists were accustomed to the sterling denomina- 
 tions of pounds, shillings, and pence, and always employed 
 them as standards of value. The money that they actually 
 handled, however, was in dollars, crowns, pistoles, and so 
 on. Nothing short of an assay could determine the exact 
 value of the one in terms of the other. These conditions 
 gave rise to a peculiar situation. A merchant setting his 
 prices found it just as easy to vary the rate at which he 
 would accept money as to vary the prices at which he would 
 dispose of his goods. In order to attract the much needed 
 specie, therefore, it was simpler to allow an excess valua- 
 tion to the dollar than it was to allow a discount on his prices. 
 For example, a dollar worth four shillings sixpence sterling 
 might be received by a merchant under the pressure of com- 
 petition at six shillings. In fact, it was customary in many 
 places to determine the price of goods entirely by their cost 
 in England, and competition took place only in the allow- 
 ances to be made for tobacco and coin received in exchange. 
 Thus there was a constant tendency to receive coin at rates 
 above its intrinsic value. At first this would result in a 
 decided reduction in the price of goods, since four and a half 
 shillings worth of silver in a dollar purchased six shillings 
 worth of goods. When, however, all the merchants of a 
 community had met the competition, a customary value had 
 been set for foreign coin, and dealers marked up their goods 
 in accordance with the advance in the valuation of the 
 dollar. When tliis was accomplished, a new standard of 
 value had been created. The word shilling no longer meant 
 
COINAGE 29 
 
 the value of the same amount of silver as formerly, but it 
 meant the value of a smaller amount. Of course the ster- 
 ling "meaning of shilling had not been entirely discarded, so 
 the word in reality had two meanings — the old valuation 
 and the new. Persons who were completing a transaction 
 in shillings would have to understand which meaning of the 
 word was intended. In fact, a merchant had two prices 
 for every article, one price in the old shillings and a cor- 
 responding price in the new. In either case he contemplated 
 receiving the same number of dollars. The assembly, act- 
 ing under the impression that coin could be attracted into a 
 colony by overvaluing it, was ever ready to accept and 
 legalize a high rate that had been established by custom, thus 
 hardening a popular custom into statute law. This process 
 might be gone through a number of times, each time result- 
 ing in a new standard of value and a new statute legalizing 
 that standard. If this be the proper explanation of the 
 phenomenon, it will be observed that such a procedure is 
 possible only in a community where the money is not in the 
 same denominations as the standard of value used by the 
 greater number of the people. 
 
 By some such process the currency had by the close of the 
 eighteenth century been brought into great disorder."^ 
 Maryland seems to have been the first colony to complain 
 of this situation;^' and upon the advice of the Board of 
 Trade, Queen Anne in 1704 issued a proclamation giving the 
 sterling values of eleven of the more common silver coins, 
 
 "^ Douglass, A Discourse Concerning the Currencies of the British 
 Plantations in America, p. 7. For a diflferent theory see W. Z. 
 Ripley, " The Financial History of Virginia, 1609-1776," in Columbia 
 Studies, vol. iv, pp. 135-144. 
 
 ^' " And hence sprung such Confusions in Dealings, that one of 
 the Provinces more injured than the rest, FIRST complain'd of the 
 Evil; and that was Maryland. This Complaint was transmitted by 
 Col. Blakiston Governor of that Province, at the Request of the 
 Assembly, to the Board of Trade; Representing that the advancing 
 the Rates of Coin in the Plantations, especially in Pennsylvania, 
 was the occasion of draining the Money from Maryland. Where- 
 upon the Lords of Trade took the matter up, and reported to the 
 late Queen Anne the indirect Practices occasion'd thereby" (Publi- 
 cations of Prince Society, Colonial Currency Reprints, vol. iv, pp. 
 140, 141). 
 
30 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 and commanding that after January, 1705, no foreign silver 
 should be circulated at any rate exceeding an overvaluation 
 of 23/6 per cent. Thus a Mexican dollar, which was worth 
 intrinsically 4s. 6d. sterling, should not pass for more than 
 6 shillings; and foreign silver of the value of iioo sterling 
 should not pass at above £133. 6s. 8d. In 1707 the pro- 
 visions of this proclamation were enacted by Parliament into 
 statute law. 
 
 The result of this regulation was not, as has sometimes 
 been supposed, to cause foreign silver to circulate at rates 
 above its value. No act of Parliament could do that. But 
 the result was to create a new standard of value — a new 
 pound as distinct from the ordinary pound sterling as was 
 the penny from the sou. Prices adjusted themselves to the 
 standard,^" and whenever it became necessary to compute 
 the value of English sterling coins in terms of the new 
 pound, they were always increased in valuation at the ratio 
 of 100 to 133/^. From this time on the colonists had to 
 be careful in which standard they were reckoning, whether 
 in the pound sterling or in the pound currency. In general, 
 all accounts between persons within the province and all 
 provincial government accounts were kept in currency, while 
 foreign accounts — especially accounts with English mer- 
 chants — ^proprietary accounts, and accounts with the English 
 government were kept in sterling. 
 
 The proclamation and the succeeding act touched only 
 upon foreign silver coins.''^ Foreign gold coins continued 
 to circulate without any legal regulation. Custom soon ad- 
 justed them to the new standard, however, at slightly above 
 their intrinsic value. A pistole, the intrinsic value of which 
 according to Newton's assay was i6s. 9.3d. sterling, or 22s. 
 4.4d. currency, passed at 23s. lod. currency.'^ At the same 
 
 ^0 Chancery Record, Liber J R No. 4, pp. 258-259. 
 
 '1 The coin in most frequent use was the Dutch lion or dog dol- 
 lar. This was not included in the proclamation, and was accord- 
 ingly supposed to pass by weight. The legislature in 1708, however, 
 set its value at 4s. 6d. (Bacon, 1708, ch. 4). 
 
 '2 Land Office, Inventories, No. 4, p. 292 ; No. 6, p. 159 ; No. 83, 
 p. 34S ; No. 86, p. 282 ; Court Records, Provincial Court, Liber R B 
 No. 2, p. 314; Charles County, Court Records, November, 1735, 
 
COINAGE 3 1 
 
 time gold bullion, which was worth roughly 5s. 2d. currency 
 per pennyweight, was passing at 5s. 6d. currency,'* and 
 silver, though fluctuating, tended strongly to settle at the 
 rate of 6s. 8d. currency per ounce troy.''* In 1731 and again 
 in 1750 the legislature undertook to establish fixed rates for 
 coins not mentioned in the proclamation, but neither bill 
 became law.'^ 
 
 The currency continued in the condition in which it was 
 placed by the proclamation until about 1733. In that year 
 £90,000 currency in paper bills was issued under the condi- 
 tion that one third of it should be paid off and canceled in 
 1748, and the other two thirds in 1764.'' This was the first 
 paper money of Maryland. These bills were issued in the 
 denominations of the pound currency, and not the pound 
 sterling. Thus, when paper was at par, £133. 6s. 8d. in 
 paper was equal to only £100 sterling. 
 
 The term currency, which had heretofore been employed 
 to designate the standard created by the proclamation, was 
 now applied by law to the new paper money. While paper 
 was at par, the pound currency when paid in paper was the 
 same as the pound currency when paid in gold or silver; 
 both were equal to 13s. 4d. sterling. As paper depreciated, 
 these values became widely different; and since all currency 
 debts were by law payable in paper, the term currency clung 
 
 Liber T No. 2, p. 109; November, 1727, Liber Q, p. 48; Cecil County, 
 Court Records, August, 1723, Liber S K No. 3, p. 24; March, 1724, 
 Liber S K No. 3, p. 204; Somerset County, Court Records, August, 
 1732, Liber F L No. D, p. 241 ; November, 1749, Liber 1749-1751, 
 p. 29. 
 
 '■3 Land OiBce, Chancery Record, Liber J R No. 2, p. 538 ; Land 
 Office, Inventories, No. 8, p. 281; No. 9, p. 227; No. 17, pp. 82, 213; 
 No. 85, p. 138. Governor Ogle stated in 1740 that " gold passes at 
 5s 10* the ounce by custom only." Granting that he was confusing 
 ounce and pennyweight, his statement is still several pence wide of 
 other statements (Board of Trade, Proprieties, vol. xv (Public 
 Record Office, C. O. 323: 13), T 35). 
 
 ''^Land Office, Inventories, No. 4, pp. ISS, 248; No. 6, p. 223; No. 
 7, p. 226; No. 8, pp. 22, 75; No. 9, p. 35; No. 12, pp. 166, 410; No. 
 17, p. 151. 
 
 '5 Upper House Journal, July 17, August 30, 31, 1731 ; Lower 
 House Journal, August 30, 31, 1731 ; May 30, 1750. 
 
 ''8 Bacon, 1733, ch. 6; Board of Trade, Proprieties, vol. xiv (Public 
 Record Office, C. O. 323: 12), T 23. 
 
32 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 to the paper money instead of to the gold and silver. A new 
 term was necessary to designate the old currency standard, and 
 the term proclamation money or merely the words gold and 
 silver soon came into use for this purpose. From this time 
 on there were three distinct standards of value in the colony, 
 and a person concluding a contract for a certain number of 
 pounds or shillings had to specify clearly whether it was the 
 pound sterling, the pound gold and silver, or the pound cur- 
 rency in which he was dealing. 
 
 After the changes due to the issue of paper had adjusted 
 themselves, a tendency toward greater harmony between the 
 standards of Maryland and Pennsylvania became manifest. 
 In the latter colony a rate had been established for gold and 
 silver one fourth cheaper than the proclamation rate, or 
 i66^ Pennsylvania currency to loo sterling. '^'^ The inti- 
 mate commercial relations between the two colonies were 
 already tending to popularize this standard in Maryland'* 
 when the legislature saw an opportunity to make use of it 
 as a weapon in a quarrel of long standing. Public officials 
 in Maryland were remunerated almost exclusively by the 
 fees arising from their offices. These fees had long been 
 paid in tobacco, and the right to determine the amount of 
 each was one of the most cherished prerogatives of the 
 proprietor. This prerogative was being assailed by the legis- 
 lature. Every act that tended to raise the value of tobacco 
 was made an excuse for scaling down the fees in propor- 
 tion to the expected rise in price. In 1747, for the benefit 
 of those who did not raise tobacco, paper money was made 
 payable for all fees and other public payments at the rate 
 of ten shillings for every hundred pounds of tobacco. But 
 in 1753 paper was scarce, and it was thought advisable to 
 make these fees payable also in coin, for which purpose a 
 table of coins was inserted with the rate at which each coin 
 should pass for paper money. At this time paper money 
 
 ^^ H. Phillips, Historical Sketches of the Paper Currency of the 
 American Colonies, first series, vol. i, p. 26. 
 
 ''^ Library of Congress, MSS., Firm Accounts, Maryland and Vir- 
 ginia, Ledger, 1753, p. 103, quoted on page 36. 
 
COINAGE 33 
 
 was passing at about 152 currency for 100 sterling;''' and in 
 order to reduce officers' fees in an unobtrusive manner the 
 legislature adopted for their table the cheaper Pennsylvania 
 standard of 166% to 100 sterling, and determined the value 
 of each coin in paper at that rate. 
 
 Although this valuation of the currency applied legally 
 only to fees and other public dues, yet it was soon adopted 
 by many business men and became widely used.*" Accord- 
 ing to the new standard, which was generally called common 
 or running money, the Spanish dollar was valued at 7s. 6d. 
 In proclamation money this coin was worth 6 shillings and 
 in sterling 4s. 6d. Other coins were very roughly put at 
 proportionate values,*^ so that reductions from one standard 
 to another were always made at the rate of i 100 sterling to 
 £1331^ proclamation money to ii66% common currency.*^ 
 From 1754 to the Revolution common currency was one of 
 the most widely used standards of value. 
 
 With the addition of common currency Maryland had 
 three distinct standards of value for the precious metals. 
 It must be kept clearly in mind that the different standards 
 made no change in the actual value of any given gold or 
 
 ''^ Archives, vol. vi, p. 85. 
 
 *" Lower House Journal, November 8, 1763. 
 
 81 The coin list is as follows : — £■ s. d. 
 English guineas i 14 o 
 French guineas i 13 6 
 Moidores 236 
 Johannases 5 IS 
 Half johannases 2 17 6 
 French milled pistoles 166 
 Spanish pistoles not lighter than 4 dwt. 6 gr. i 7 o 
 Arabian chequins 13 6 
 Other gold (except German) per dwt. 6 3 
 French silver crowns _ 7 6 
 Spanish milled pieces of eight 7 6 
 Other good coined Spanish silver per ounce 8 6 
 
 —Acts of 1753. P- 43- 
 Objections were raised to passing the bill because it appeared to 
 conflict with the proclamation act of 6 Anne (Archives, vol. vi, pp. 
 
 46, 1:31)- 
 
 82 E. Vallette, Deputy Commissary's Guide within the Provmce 
 of Maryland, p. 52; Land Office, Inventories, No. 85, 151; No. 86, 
 p. 212. 
 
 3 
 
34 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 silver coin.^^ The thing that varied was the meaning of 
 the words pounds, shillings, and pence. If the value of a 
 Spanish dollar or an "Arabian chequin" was to be translated 
 into terms of shillings, it would have to be determined 
 whether the shilling sterling, the shilling proclamation, or 
 the shilling common was meant before it could be settled how 
 many shillings were equal to the dollar or " chequin." The 
 same amount of goods could be bought whether the dollar 
 were called 7s. 6d. common money, or 4s. 6d. sterling. 
 
 Confusion in these standards was inevitable, the whole 
 system consisting of approximations rather than of accurate 
 values. To reduce foreign coins accurately to sterling or 
 currency values required the use of fractions which would 
 have been impossible to handle in general circulation. The 
 proclamation of Queen Anne provided five different values 
 for dollars of various mintage. Only one of these values 
 was without a fraction of a penny in currency, and only one 
 other without a fraction of a farthing. Between the lowest 
 and the highest there was a difference of is. 2i/5d. currency. 
 In general trade, however, all dollars passed at the highest 
 value assigned by the proclamation. The values assigned by 
 custom to those coins not mentioned in the proclamation 
 varied still more widely from their intrinsic worth, and much 
 irregularity prevailed in the values at which those pieces 
 passed.^* Transactions were often accompanied by as much 
 haggling over the value of the money as over the value of 
 
 83 Secretary Calvert failed to realize this fact when he feared 
 that the new valuation would result in an unjust profit for those 
 who lent or paid in coin at the new rates. As long as transactions 
 all remained in the same standard, evidently nobody could lose; and 
 wherever calculations were shifted from one standard to another, 
 the proper percentage was added to or taken from the sum in order 
 to retain an equality in value (Archives, vol. vi, pp. 45, 85, 131, 170, 
 
 177)- 
 
 ** The goods of William Card, of Worcester County, were ap- 
 praised " In pistoles at twenty seven shillings & six pence Each," — 
 evidently a mistake for twenty-seven shillings each (Land Office, 
 Inventories, No. 86, p. 332). Another set of appraisers avoided all 
 possibility of mistake by putting below their enumeration of coins, 
 " N. B. the Dollars, Guineas & Double Loons above not valued " 
 (Land Office, Inventories, No. ,86, p. 196). 
 
COINAGE 3 5 
 
 the goods.^^ The supreme case of irregularity is in the act 
 of 1753. Although the legislature apparently intended in 
 that act to set the standard at the rate of 166% to 100 
 sterling,^^ only the two silver pieces really bear that relation. 
 The gold pieces range between 158 to 100 for the French 
 pistole and i69>^ to 100 for the French guinea. When the 
 legal values of coins varied so widely, it is not surprising 
 that in private exchanges even the legal values were not 
 always adhered to. 
 
 Another difficulty in the monetary system was in reduc- 
 tions from one standard to another. Theoretically it seems 
 simple enough to exchange from sterling to currency by 
 adding a third, or the reverse by subtracting a fourth, and 
 from proclamation currency to common currency by adding 
 a fourth. But in practice the uneducated planter had trouble 
 with this process; and frequently exchanges are found 
 carried out in round figures near the proper amount,^^ and 
 sometimes entirely improper ratios are employed. ^^ 
 
 Aside from such errors as might be attributed to a lack of 
 mathematical ability, complete confusion resulted at times 
 from complicating the standards. In 1739 it was reported 
 to the legislature that "the Accounts of Col. Samuel Young, 
 late Treasurer of the Western Shore are so complicated, 
 Viz. the Sterling with the Current Duties, and the different 
 Exchanges Currency for Sterling, that it will take a great 
 deal of Time and Deliberation, more than can be conveni- 
 ently spared in Assembly Time, to state the several Sums 
 annually raised for the Uses aforsaid."*" Occasionally dis- 
 putes as to monetary standards found their way into the 
 
 ^^ Lower House Journal, May 12, 1737; June 16, 1749. 
 
 ^^ It is possible that the legislature, having no idea of establishing 
 a new standard, paid little attention to proportions. 
 
 ^^ Chancery Record, Liber JR No. S, p. 761 ; Land OiEce, In- 
 ventories, No. 17, p. 466. _ 
 
 88 Chancery Record, Liber JR No. 2, p. 521 ; Somerset County, 
 Court Records, Liber 1751-1752, p. 184. It is possible that in the 
 latter case sterling bills are meant and that the exchange ratio in- 
 cludes also the premium on foreign exchange. 
 
 80 Lower House Journal, June 9, 1739. 
 
36 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 courts.'"' Henry Callister had several controversies over 
 various questions of currency. On one occasion he wrote: 
 " I said Currency ; which does not imply Maryland money, 
 of which there is hardly any current — I think I was yet more 
 particular; for I spoke of money & Exchange as Curr*. in 
 Pennsylvania, which is our current money at present."'^ At 
 another time a neighboring merchant seems to have become 
 sadly confused over the relations of currency, sterling, and 
 bills of exchange.'^ The following entry in the ledger of a 
 Bladensburg merchant is eloquent of the difficulties he was 
 experiencing: "By Money lost by receiving Sterling Cash 
 @ 65 p' Cent Curry (as appears from p'=^ of 8 pass^. @ J/^ 
 Curry and pistoles @ 27/) for Goods, which I was oblidged 
 to pass to Customers in Sterling ; Exchange @ 50 ■ p'' 
 Cent."'^ 
 
 Recapitulating, the one point that stands out most clearly 
 concerning the gold and silver currency of colonial Maryland 
 is its scarcity. Though metallic money increased in amount 
 as the eighteenth century progressed, it was never adequate 
 
 ^0 " These defendants also say that the Complainants have in their 
 said bill claimed Maryland Current Money yet they believe the 
 Complainant Joseph Watkins himself was well conscious that the 
 said Balance of the Account passed in the Commissary's Office was 
 only common Money for that the Complainant Joseph Watkins hath 
 received of the said Robert Swan in Parts of the said Legacy 
 Pennsylvania Money at fifteen Per Cent difference and also Se- 
 curitys Payable in Sterling at one hundred and fifty and one hundred 
 and fifty-five Per Cent Exchange" (Chancery Record, Liber DD 
 No. 2, p. 237). See also Chancery Record, Liber DD No. i, p. 352; 
 Liber JR No. 3, p. no. 
 
 °i Callister MSS., about 1761/2. Both date and address are 
 missing. 
 
 ^2 Ibid., August 24, September 6, 14, 1762. Callister finally de- 
 livered the following summary: "I know four ways in practice of 
 reducing sterling to Currency, or rather of paying a Sterling account 
 of cost, the first is in British Specie; the second in bills of ex- 
 change; the third in a Currency according to rate of Exchange 
 equivalent to such bills; fourth in foreign silver & gold as also in 
 Guinneas according to a value set by act of Assembly, and then 
 render'd Sterling by the rule of Exchange as if they were paper" 
 (ibid., 1765). Again he wrote: "I presume you don't think "jKi 
 equivalent to 5/ Stg. while the exchange is @ 70 in the specie as 
 now current, unless you pay Maryland paper. If you pay sterling 
 Money its' well, on Dollars at 4/6" (ibid., December 14, 1760). 
 
 "8 Library of Congress, MSS., Firm Accounts, Maryland and Vir- 
 ginia, Ledger, 1753, p. 103. 
 
COINAGE 37 
 
 to the needs of trade. What metal currency there was con- 
 sisted mainly of foreign coins, a great many of which were 
 so clipped and cut that they circulated mostly by weight. 
 The uncertainty as to the value of these foreign coins led 
 to the proclamation of Queen Anne and to the establishment 
 of a new standard of value one third lower than the pound 
 sterling. At the suggestion of Pennsylvania and by an 
 almost accidental provision by the legislature in 1753, a third 
 standard of value two thirds cheaper than the pound sterling 
 became popularized. Because of the difi&culties in dealing 
 with so many coinages, wide inaccuracies in the valuation of 
 money and serious confusion in the keeping of accounts are 
 found. During the period under discussion the only ad- 
 vance made toward the solution of the coinage troubles was 
 the gradual increase in the amount of circulating coin. In 
 all other ways the confusion was constantly growing greater. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 Bills of Exchange 
 
 A bill of exchange in colonial times was the familiar in- 
 strument known in the middle ages as well as the present as 
 an order on some person to pay money to a third party. Its 
 use was extensive, and owing to the uncertainties of travel 
 it was never executed singly, but always in sets of three or 
 four. Each copy carried full liability provided neither of 
 the other copies had first been honored, but the payment of 
 any one copy canceled the others. Each of the copies would 
 be transmitted abroad by a different route, and thus the 
 chances of the loss of all were very slight. 
 
 Protests were frequent. The common procedure in such 
 cases was for the payee to return the protested bill to Mary- 
 land for collection from the drawer. Payment was forced 
 by a suit in the county courts. If the bill was returned 
 within four years, it was granted an equal position with 
 specialties having a legal preference over other kinds of 
 debts. In colonial times commercial law held that in any 
 case of broken contract the party at fault was liable not only 
 for the sums mentioned in the contract, but also for damages 
 to the offended party for the inconvenience sustained. 
 Thus a note would usually be drawn for the payment of a 
 certain sum on a certain day under penalty of the forfeiture 
 of an additional specified sum in case the note was not met 
 when due. The bill of exchange almost invariably carried 
 a similar provision. In the code of 1715 an act was in- 
 cluded limiting the damages that might be so collected to 
 twenty per cent of the face of the bill and costs. ^ 
 
 Except for the slight initial difficulty in drawing up a set 
 of bills to meet these conditions, the bill of exchange was 
 
 1 Bacon, 1715, ch. 7. 
 
 38 
 
BILLS OF EXCHANGE 39 
 
 not a difficult instrument to use. It was safely portable; 
 and though not divisible, it could easily be endorsed to a 
 third party. Moreover, the needs of the foreign trade were 
 such that bills on England were always in great demand. 
 Another advantage enjoyed by the bill of exchange over 
 most other forms of money was that it was drawn in the 
 familiar sterling standard, and no calculations were neces- 
 sary to make its value evident to the dullest planter. 
 
 These instruments were very numerous, primarily because 
 of the fact that foreign commerce constituted an enormous 
 proportion of the total trade of the colony and bills of ex- 
 change were the regular money in foreign transactions. A 
 large part of the agricultural product of Maryland was 
 shipped to England or the West Indies, and most of the 
 manufactured goods used in the province were imported 
 from England. A shipment either way created a credit that 
 might be settled by a bill of exchange. The lack of bank- 
 ing facilities excluded the possibility of gathering these 
 credits into blocks and having a special class of financiers 
 make transfers in large sums. Each planter drew his own 
 bill and negotiated it as best he could. 
 
 It is evident that the greatest use of bills of exchange was 
 in transactions between Maryland and England. In these 
 the course of bills was always from Maryland to England. 
 Although imports from the mother-country created condi- 
 tions in which bills might properly be drawn on Maryland, 
 yet the trade custom was to settle accounts by the Mary- 
 landers' drawing on England. By this means it came about 
 that the English merchant performed many of the functions 
 of a banker. When the planter shipped his crop to a 
 London merchant, it was almost equivalent to making a 
 deposit in bank.^ His purchases during the year might be 
 made from the same merchant who received the tobacco, 
 
 ^A still more direct form of deposit is seen in the order of the 
 legislature that Mrs. Ungle lodge in the hands of Mr. Hunt, mer- 
 chant in London, £381. i8s. lod. sterling, in order to prevent suit 
 being entered against her husband's bond (Lower House Journal, 
 June 13, 1730). 
 
40 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 from some other English merchant, from some merchant in 
 Philadelphia, or from a local store. In any case except the 
 first, a bill of exchange on the tobacco consignee would per- 
 form the function of a check. Moreover, any balance from 
 the tobacco crop left undrawn by the planter would not be 
 transmitted to Maryland, but would be held on deposit by 
 the merchant. 
 
 At times large credits were accumulated in this way, and 
 when this occurred the merchant might perform still another 
 function of the banker. At the planter's direction he would 
 invest the money in bank-stock or other securities, and either 
 transmit them to Maryland or hold them at the order of his 
 client.^ If there was a deficit instead of a balance from the 
 tobacco shipment, the merchant acted again like a modern 
 banker. If the shipper was unknown to the merchant or 
 if his credit was not good, the excess bill would simply be 
 returned protested like a check without funds. If the 
 shipper was a man of established credit and known to the 
 merchant, the bill would be honored and the balance charged 
 to the planter's account exactly as an overdraft is sometimes 
 treated by a bank. This overdrawing was often done with 
 full knowledge by both planter and merchant, and constituted 
 a loan.* 
 
 Besides the English trade, bills of exchange found a field 
 of usefulness in commerce between the colonies. The West 
 India trade, however, was carried on almost exclusively by 
 
 3 Letter from " Maryland Planter," in Maryland Gazette, May 12, 
 1747. An example of this on a large scale is seen in the manage- 
 ment of the paper-money issue. The provincial government used 
 London merchants as bankers of deposit. Bills of exchange that 
 were paid toward public dues were sent to William Hunt, a London 
 merchant, for collection and deposit. When money was needed, 
 bills were drawn against the funds accumulated in Hunt's hands 
 (Upper House Journal, October 30, 1727; Lower House Journal, 
 April 22, 1735). 
 
 * " We admire thou should draw such a large bill these times and 
 know thyself in debt" (Daniel Maude to Ruth Richardson, in 
 Bozman Papers, November 30, 1723). See also letter to John Han- 
 bury, in Bozman Papers, September i, 1727; Ridgely Papers (now 
 in the possession of Mrs. John Ridgely of Hampton), September 
 28, 1764; ibid., Russell to Ridgely, 1766; ibid., March 23, 1767; 
 Callister MSS., May 9, 1763. 
 
BILLS OF EXCHANGE 4 1 
 
 merchants who exchanged between themselves the various 
 articles of commerce and were therefore able to settle many 
 debts by merely balancing accounts. Under these circum- 
 stances bills of exchange, though occasionally useful, did 
 not play such an important part as they did in London trade. 
 Bills passed in both directions between Maryland and the 
 West Indies, and in many cases exchange drawn on London 
 was used to settle these provincial debts.^ 
 
 Between Maryland and the continental colonies the situa- 
 tion was somewhat different. With the southern colonies 
 there was little trade and consequently little occasion for 
 money of any kind, but with New York, Boston, and espe- 
 cially Philadelphia, commerce was rapidly growing, and in 
 transactions with these colonies bills were frequently used. 
 The northern merchants imported heavily from Great 
 Britain, but had few crops to export thither. Instead of 
 making all payments by shipments of cash, they found it 
 much more convenient to save freight and insurance by pro- 
 curing from the South bills of exchange on London and 
 sending these to their British creditors.® For this purpose, 
 in some cases, cargoes were shipped from Philadelphia and 
 sold in Maryland for bills of exchange. In other cases the 
 bills were procured more directly but less profitably by 
 having an agent in Maryland or Virginia buy them up for 
 cash. This drift northward of bills of exchange is the most 
 marked characteristic of their use in intercolonial trade.' 
 
 ° Letter to John Stevenson, February 16, 1762, in Clark Letter- 
 book (Pennsylvania Historical Society) ; Samuel Salmon to George 
 Robins, June 10, 1738, in Bozman Papers. 
 
 * Board of Trade, Proprieties, vol. xi (Public Record Office, 323; 
 9), R-42; [Hall], The Importance of the British Plantations in 
 America, p. 97 ; Clark Letter-book, pp. 26, SS ; Fishborn to Richard- 
 son, i8th, S mo, 1717, in Bozman Papers. 
 
 ^ " To Bills of Exchange for the above five Bills sent by you to 
 Philadelphia to sell £600 [sterling] which sold there for £960.. 6.. 
 TYi Curry. Clear of Expenses " (Library of Congress, Firm Ac- 
 counts, Maryland and Virginia, Journal, 1766, September 25). 
 "Curry" here means that ii66§ currency equals £100 sterling; 
 therefore, unless the expenses were very heavy, exchange must 
 have been much below par. Notice a peculiar reversal of ordinary 
 conditions shown in the letter of a merchant from Baltimore: 
 " There are bills now in Town from Philadelphia selling for 60 
 PCt." (Taylor to Jamieson, in Jamieson Papers, vol. vi, no. 1252, 
 Library of Congress). 
 
42 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 Within the colony the use of bills of exchange was much 
 more extensive than is the case in a modern business com- 
 munity. The great number of bills drawn would in itself 
 have given them an important place in colonial currency, 
 but their convenience rendered them still more useful and 
 important. Bills, consequently, passed freely from hand 
 to hand, and satisfied many purely local debts before being 
 transmitted to London for collection.^ It was a common 
 thing for a person collecting debts to request that they be 
 paid in bills of exchange.^ To this extent these instruments 
 became a part of the circulating medium of the colony. 
 
 Being useful within the colony, salable to northern mer- 
 chants, and almost indispensable for payments to England, 
 bills of exchange were usually in great demand in Maryland. 
 It has already been said that persons at times tried to collect 
 from their debtors in bills. The Maryland Gazette fre- 
 quently published advertisements of those who wished to 
 exchange money for bills. ^° At the court sessions those in 
 search of bills would meet and deal with the planters who 
 were in a position to draw.^^ Some merchants seem to have 
 acted as bill brokers, as they advertised that they would both 
 buy and sell bills. ^^ 
 
 Such an active demand naturally led to a premium on the 
 price, and exchange generally stood above par.^^ Fluctua- 
 
 ^ Henry Callister mentioned payment by bills as one of the four 
 regular ways in practice of settling sterling debts (Callister MSS., 
 176s). The receivers of quit- rents also contemplated payments in 
 bills (Lower House Journal, May 12, 1737). 
 
 ' A farm is advertised in the Maryland Gazette for sterling 
 money only. This cannot but mean bills, as it would have been 
 almost impossible to get together a large sum of sterling coin 
 (November 18, 1747). Callister at times requested payments in bills, 
 and at other times insisted on payments in cash and not in bills 
 (Callister MSS., June 12, 1759; January S, 22, 1766). 
 
 lOMay 24, 174s; May 18, 1748; May 30, 1754; May 28, June 18, 
 1 761. 
 
 11 An example from Virginia will in all probability hold for 
 Maryland ; see William and Mary Quarterly, vol. xi, p. 155. 
 
 12 Maryland Gazette, October 4, 17S9; January i, 1761. 
 
 15 The loose way in which the words sterling and exchange 
 were often used in Maryland makes the consideration of the 
 subject of the premium on bills of exchange peculiarly difficult. 
 Sterling had no less than three meanings. It usually denoted 
 
BILLS OF EXCHANGE 43 
 
 tions occurred whenever anything affected the tobacco ship- 
 ments. In years of poor harvest few credits would be 
 created in London and bills would be scarce and high, but 
 during years of good crops exchange would at times fall 
 below par. In war times, in particular, the heavy damage 
 inflicted by privateers caused the number of bills to be 
 diminished and also caused the insurance rates on coin ship- 
 ments to rise. At such times exchange rates rose to great 
 heights. Jones, writing of Virginia about 1720, said that 
 " for the Generality 10 per cent Discount is allowed for 
 Sterling Bills."" The wording of the statement, however, 
 shows that he had in mind storekeepers' abatement on ac- 
 counts, which was probably higher than the regular premium 
 on bills of exchange. Benedict Calvert said in 1720 that the 
 Philadelphians were frequently obliged to give as much as 
 eight or ten per cent premium for bills.^^ This remark 
 leaves one with the impression that he also was stating the 
 maximum. About this time the provincial government 
 seems to have been selling bills at a loss of four or five per 
 
 merely the English standard of value. Besides this, it was also 
 used to mean English coin ; and, finally, it was clearly used at times 
 to mean bills of exchange. Thus, the expression iio sterling does 
 not make clear whether the sum mentioned is ten English sov- 
 ereigns, an aniount of foreign money equivalent in value to ten 
 English sovereigns, or a bill of exchange for ten sovereigns in Eng- 
 land; the latter, of course, would be worth more or less than ten sov- 
 ereigns according to the premium on foreign exchange. In the use 
 of the word exchange one is not always certain whether to under- 
 stand foreign exchange or the exchange between some of the differ- 
 ent moneys in Maryland. At times the context makes perfectly 
 clear which meaning to apply to these words, but at other times it 
 is impossible to know what idea is intended. 
 
 1* H. Jones, The Present State of Virginia, p. 45. 
 
 ^^ Calvert Papers, No. 2, p. "jt,- 
 
 1^ Mair, in his Book-keeping Modernized, makes some statements 
 that do not seem to be verified by other sources. " Bills on Britain," 
 he says, " before the year 1744, generally sold below par, often at 
 15 per cent. But trade of late having turned precarious, by the 
 wars with France and Spain, and the colonies having few effects in 
 Britain to draw for, bills of exchange rose far above par; so that 
 in the years 1745 and 1746, exchange run from 35 to 40 per cent" 
 (William and Mary Quarterly, vol. xiv, p. 93). It seems impossible 
 for exchange to have been normally below par previous to 1744. 
 Shipments of money were always from the colonies to England; 
 and as long as that condition existed, bills could not long remain 
 below par. 
 
44 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 cent." In 1723 Benjamin Tasker bought bills from the 
 treasurer at £128 currency for i 100 sterling exchange.^^ 
 
 In 1725 the same rate was again set.^* In 1727, in order 
 to save the loss, the legislature agreed to sell no more bills 
 in Maryland but to negotiate them directly through a mer- 
 chant in London.^^ The government, however, refused to 
 assume any liability in case a bill should be protested, and 
 this may have been the reason for the low prices. In 1728 
 the treasurers were authorized to dispose of bills at ii35 
 currency for £100 sterling exchange.^" This seems to have 
 been very nearly the average premium at that time. 
 
 The issue of paper money caused a sharp rise in the price 
 of bills of exchange. The proprietor complained in 1735 
 that even before paper had actually reached circulation the 
 upward tendency was so strong that he did not doubt it 
 would reach a rate of £140 currency for £100 sterling ex- 
 change — an advance of five per cent.^^ He was not mis- 
 taken, for the war period that followed between 1739 and 
 1748 caused an additional rise in the price. In 1744 the 
 proprietor was offering 141 for bills but getting none, as 
 bills were selling as high as 145.^^ In March, 1745, the 
 agent informed the proprietor that " Bills of Exchange grow 
 so valuable that they are hardly to be purchased."^^ Ex- 
 change quotations from the Callister correspondence during 
 the years 1746 and 1747 show a tendency for bills to settle 
 at £140 proclamation currency for £100 sterling exchange, 
 but at times they ranged as high as £150.^* In 1747 a 
 government order for gold currency to be exchanged for 
 bills and transmitted to England was returned unused be- 
 cause of the impossibility of negotiating it advantageously.^" 
 
 1^ Lower House Journal, October 19, 1723. The par value of cur- 
 rency was ii33i for f 100 sterling. 
 18 Lower House Journal, October 16, 1725. 
 1' Upper House Journal, October 30, 1727. 
 2" Lower House Journal, October 25, 1728. 
 
 21 Calvert Papers, MS., No. 29554, p. 66. 
 
 22 Calvert Papers, No. 2, p. 118. 
 ■23 Ibid. 
 
 24 May 4, August 21, 1746 ; February 23, December 28, 1747. 
 2^ Lower House Journal, June 20, 1747. 
 
BILLS OF EXCHANGE 45 
 
 After the close of the war in 1748 it was to be expected 
 that the price of bills would fall, but the decKne was not 
 immediately evident. The exhausted condition of the 
 country and the accumulation of the debt to England main- 
 tained the demand, and in 1749 there was a greater amount 
 of money offered for bills than during many years previous.^* 
 In 1754, however. Governor Sharpe quoted exchange below 
 par, or at from £162 J/2 to £165 gold and silver valued accord- 
 ing to the inspection law (£166% inspection law standard 
 equalled £100 sterling) for £100 sterling exchange.^^ But 
 five months later the same man made a general statement 
 that exchange with England was " rather above par."^^ 
 There seems to have been a period of low exchange cor- 
 responding only very roughly to the period of peace and ex- 
 tending well into the time of the French and Indian War. 
 In 1758 exchange was so low that bills found no sale in 
 Philadelphia,^' and even as late as 1759 Henry Callister ap- 
 parently refers to a low state of that market.^" A contract 
 between William Buchanan, Thomas Ringgold, and others, 
 made in July, 1760, seems to have assumed that exchange 
 was about seven per cent below par.^^ In August, 1760, 
 however, war conditions began to have their full effect. So 
 destructive were the privateers that little tobacco reached 
 home, and bills of exchange grew very scarce and very 
 dear.'^ From this time to the end of the period under con- 
 
 28 " Letter Book of Francis Jerdone," p. 155. This statement is 
 made of Williamsburg, Virginia, but any such economic condition 
 would be general throughout both Virginia and Maryland. 
 
 2' Archives, vol. vi, p. 85. 
 
 28 Ibid., p. 164. 
 
 2« Ibid., vol. ix, p. 280. 
 
 3" Callister MSS., June 12, 1759; November 30, 1760; April 30, 
 1761. The uncertainty as to terras in these letters is so great that it 
 is impossible to be sure of the above statement. One point that is 
 certain is that exchange in 1759 was low in comparison with 1761. 
 The burden of Callister's complaint is that the rapid rise is working 
 him hardship. See page 42, note 13. 
 
 31 Chancery Record, Liber DD No. i, pp. 253-280. The rapid rise 
 of exchange that came shortly after this seems to have been respon- 
 sible for the case getting into court. 
 
 32 Callister MSS., August 11, 1760; April 30, 1761; Archives, vol. 
 xi, p. S34; Chancery Record, Liber DD No. i, p. 269. 
 
46 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 sideration exchange seems to have remained high,^^ but all 
 quotations are so confused with Maryland and Pennsylvania 
 currency that it is impossible to form an exact idea of the 
 real foreign premium. Judging from the events following 
 the peace of 1748, one would expect the exchange to remain 
 high for several years after 1763 and then to fall to within 
 a few points of par. The Callister correspondence seems 
 to bear out this hypothesis. Quotations in Pennsylvania 
 paper soared as high as £i82>4 Pennsylvania currency to 
 £100 sterling exchange in 1762, but were down again to £170 
 in 1766.^* In Baltimore Town, also, in the autumn of 1765 
 bills were selling as low as £160 and £i62>4 running money 
 for £100 sterling.^' 
 
 In spite of the high premiums, the principle of exchange 
 seems to have been but little understood by many of the 
 colonists. Inventories almost invariably carry out debts due 
 from English merchants at the regular sterling value, though 
 the actual value of such debts was from two to ten per cent 
 higher.^'' Some calculations show wide and unaccountable 
 variations in the value of bills.^^ Henry Callister had to 
 carry on a prolonged argument with a neighboring merchant 
 in order to convince him of the necessity of advancing the 
 price of goods when exchange rose violently.^^ 
 
 23 On July 23, 1764, John Dorsey wrote : " I have sent Benny 
 Dorsey down to get iioo Currency and Beg you'll speak to Mr. 
 John Smith and get it at as good an Exchange as you Possibly can 
 for Bills by the Going of your Ship. As the Necessity for it is so 
 great I must give 6Si PCt if it can't be had on Better Terms " 
 (Ridgely Papers). By 65 PCt Dorsey meant about par or a point 
 below. Par was 166% for 100, but the people frequently used the 
 round number 165. This was a case of necessity, and does not mean 
 that exchange was normally at par. 
 
 3* August 24, 1762; 1766. Notice that the depreciation of Penn- 
 sylvania currency and the premium on bills are here so combined 
 that it is impossible to separate them. It is probable, however, 
 that Pennsylvania currency at this time was worth about 1668, which 
 would make an exchange premium of i82i to i66i, or pi per cent. 
 
 2^ See page 41, note 7. 
 
 SI Land Office, Inventories, No. 6, p. 246 ; No. 7, pp. 200, 258 ; No. 8, 
 p. 217; No. 9, p. 40; No. 12, p. 493; No. 17, pp. 477, 522; and so on. 
 Baltimore County, Administration Accounts, Liber C No. 3, pp. 
 122, 144. 
 
 s' Land Office, Chancery Record, Liber JR No. 2, p. 538. 
 
 38 Callister MSS., August 24, September 6, 14, 1762. 
 
BILLS OF EXCHANGE 47 
 
 Thus, in general, bills of exchange tended under normal 
 conditions to pass at a premium of about 2 per cent, but fluc- 
 tuated with variations in the crops, at times commanding as 
 high as 6 or 8 per cent premium. With the issue of paper 
 money the premium jumped to about 5 per cent, and continued 
 high— .sometimes as high as 10 or 12 per cent — during the 
 war period of 1739 to 1748, coming back to normal about 
 1753. Then there set in a period of low exchange until 
 about 1758 or 1759, after which the premium again rose to 
 war heights. At the end of the period under consideration, 
 1765, it was again tending downward toward the normal. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 Tobacco Currency 
 
 When the English settlers found themselves without suffi- 
 cient coin to transact the necessary business of the colonies, 
 they were compelled to resort to the use of other materials 
 than gold and silver as circulating media. Furs and wam- 
 pum, the money of the Indians, were employed to some 
 extent, and powder and shot became so popular as money 
 that in some places they received semilegal sanction.^ Indigo, 
 rice, and sugar were also used in the southern colonies. In 
 Virginia tobacco soon outstripped all other substances in 
 popularity as money. Immediately on landing the Maryland 
 settlers borrowed all the Virginia practices with regard to 
 tobacco, and thus, from the very beginning, that staple be- 
 came the chief money of the colony. As a circulating 
 medium tobacco entered almost all the fields of usefulness 
 that coin ordinarily reaches. Though never so declared, it 
 was in fact the official money of the province. All levies — 
 parish, county, and provincial — all fines and court charges, 
 and all ecclesiastical and official fees were regularly assessed 
 in tobacco. 
 
 The only dues of the provincial government not payable 
 in tobacco were the customs duties, and with slight varia- 
 tions this condition lasted throughout the colonial period. 
 By the paper money act in 1733 all of those dues that had 
 previously been payable only in tobacco, except officers' fees, 
 the ministers' salaries, and special assessments for the build- 
 ing of churches, became payable also in paper money or in 
 gold and silver at the rate of ten shillings per hundred 
 pounds of tobacco.^ The act, however, left tobacco the 
 
 ^ Tonnage duties in Maryland were laid in powder and shot by 
 act of l66i. See W. R. Shepherd, "History of Proprietary Govern- 
 ment in Pennsylvania," in Columbia Studies, vol. vi, p. 401. 
 
 2 Acts of 1733; Board of Trade, Proprieties, vol. xiv (Public 
 Record Office, C. O. 323: 12), T. 23; Bacon, 1733, ch. 6. 
 
 48 
 
TOBACCO CURRENCY 49 
 
 official money in which all public dues were rated, and 
 allowed an alternative only in payment. By a supplementary 
 act of 173s all provincial and county taxes and bounties 
 were for three years to be assessed and allowed in currency 
 instead of tobacco/ and in accordance with this law cer- 
 tainly some, probably all, of the counties went on a money 
 basis during the years 1736, 1737, and 1738.* After 1738, 
 however, they all returned to a tobacco basis. During the 
 eighteenth century the private revenue and those duties that 
 were payable to the British government^ were, of course, 
 accepted only in coin or bills of exchange. It was only by a 
 special arrangement that down to 1715 quit-rents and aliena- 
 tion fines were accepted in tobacco. 
 
 In the business world tobacco money was as prevalent as 
 in the official world. Alsop, writing about 1660, tells us 
 that " Tobacco is the current Coyn of Mwry-land and will 
 sooner purchase Commodities from the Merchant, then 
 money."^ Oldmixon some fifty years later voiced the same 
 idea: "Tobacco is their [Marylanders'] Meat, Drink, Cloth- 
 ing and Money; not but that they have both Spanish and 
 English money pretty plenty, which serves only for Pocket- 
 Expenses, and not for Trade, Tobacco being the Standard of 
 that, as well with the Planters and others, as with the 
 Merchants."^ 
 
 Accounts submitted with cases brought into court also 
 show the prevalence of tobacco money in mercantile affairs. 
 Of these the regular type is a long list of imported articles 
 purchased by the planter balanced against the hogsheads of 
 tobacco that he. had produced. In tiie tobacco counties 
 scarcely one account in ten will show a payment from the 
 planter to the merchant in any other medium, except possibly 
 
 3 Acts of 173s, p. 2. 
 
 * Kent Levy Book, Chestertown ; Queen Anne's County, Court 
 Records, annual levy. 
 
 ° Greenwich Hospital six-penny assessment and the penny per 
 pound for William and Mary College. 
 
 6 " A character of the Province of Maryland," in Maryland His- 
 torical Society, Fund Publication, No. IS, p. 68. 
 
 T Vol. i, p. 343- 
 
50 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 a hog, a day's work, or some article apparently intended for 
 the merchant's own use. Goods were listed and charged 
 for at tobacco rates, and should coin be offered in payment, 
 bargaining would probably have been necessary to settle how 
 many pounds of tobacco should be credited for a shilling 
 sterling.^ Notes, bonds, and other commercial instruments 
 were largely drawn in terms of tobacco. 
 
 These larger commercial transactions offered the chief 
 field of usefulness for tobacco currency. To be sure, some 
 payments in small parcels did occur, notably the various 
 official fees, which fell due in lots of sometimes only a 
 pound or two, scattered all over the province. In the main, 
 coin served for small transactions, and tobacco was used only 
 to satisfy large bills.^ Most dealing was done on open ac- 
 counts, which soon accumulated into large sums and were 
 paid in bulk by the transfer of tobacco. The popular notion 
 that the Maryland and Virginia colonists traveled around 
 with bundles of tobacco as pocket-money is without founda- 
 tion in fact. 
 
 What little tobacco was paid out in small amounts may be 
 said to have entered circulation as money, but in general 
 tobacco did not circulate. Its monetary qualities did not 
 interfere with its movement in the ordinary course of trade. 
 The planter dealt with local merchants throughout the 
 winter ; when his crop was packed in the spring, he turned 
 over to each merchant a portion as payment on the open 
 account.^" The tobacco itself generally remained in the 
 planter's barn until the vessel came to receive the merchant's 
 shipment. If a merchant transferred his tobacco to a third 
 party, the transfer was effected by labeling the hogshead 
 with the name of the new owner and letting it remain in the 
 planter's barn until the third party's shipment was ready. 
 Thus the actual movement of tobacco was directly from the 
 grower to the shipper, and the commodity served as money 
 only as it satisfied one or more debts in the course of its 
 
 8 Callister MSS., about 174S. 
 
 ^Quotation from Oldmixon on page 49; see also page 17. 
 10 Callister MSS., about I74S- 
 
TOBACCO CURRENCY SI 
 
 movement. There were economically only two important 
 classes of people in the colony : those who produced tobacco 
 and exchanged it for manufactured articles, and those who 
 imported manufactures and exchanged them for tobacco. 
 Barter between these classes was so direct that debits offset 
 credits and no medium was needed other than the articles of 
 commerce themselves. It was this simple relationship that 
 made possible the extensive use of tobacco as money. 
 
 For this purpose tobacco showed in many ways a peculiar 
 lack of fitness. The chief qualities of a good monetary sub- 
 stance as enumerated by economists are a proper supply, 
 durability, portability, homogeneity, divisibility, and stability 
 of value. We may consider the qualifications and disquali- 
 fications of tobacco as money by noticing how far it met or 
 failed to meet these requirements. 
 
 The supply of tobacco was in amount equal to the mone- 
 tary needs of the colony. About 1750 there were produced, 
 on the average, 30,000 hogsheads of tobacco each year. 
 This, at a valuation of £5 per hogshead, made a monetary 
 supply of £1 per head for the 150,000 population, — free, 
 bond, and slave. In the limited state of colonial trade this 
 alone would have been an adequate supply of ordinary 
 money, and considering the coin, bills, and paper then in 
 circulation, it might seem that Maryland was oversupplied 
 with currency. Tobacco, however, did not circulate, and 
 each pound satisfied not more than one or two debts. Thus, 
 while the amount was adequate, the peculiarities of tobacco 
 currency cut down its efficiency to something less than the 
 actual needs of trade. 
 
 Uncertainties in the supply of tobacco formed one of the 
 chief objections to its use as a monetary medium. There 
 were three serious variations in supply, namely, between the 
 crops of different individuals, between different seasons of 
 the year, and between different years. Variations in the 
 tobacco supply of different individuals was not a question 
 of rich and poor. Early in the eighteenth century 'tobacco 
 raising had become so unprofitable that many persons aban- 
 
52 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 doned it for other occupations. In some parts of the colony 
 grain began to assume the rank of a staple crop, and by 
 1760 several counties were producing grain almost ex- 
 clusively. The inhabitants of these counties, with a few 
 other small classes such as frontiersmen, artisans, and sailors, 
 did not produce tobacco; and though as wealthy as the 
 tobacco producers, these people often found themselves in 
 serious difficulties when called upon to pay the regular 
 tobacco levies. Complaints soon reached the legislature. In 
 1719, and again in 1720, petitions were received asking per- 
 mission to pay the levies in money instead of tobacco, but 
 the favor was not granted at this time.^^ Three years later 
 the inhabitants of the city of Annapolis, who of course grew 
 no tobacco, were refused a similar request.^^ In 1725 both 
 Somerset and Cecil Counties complained of the tobacco 
 levies.^* The accumulation of these complaints was the 
 chief reason for the issue of paper money in 1733. The 
 bills then emitted were made payable for all colonial duties 
 except official fees, the clergy's salaries, special assessments 
 for building churches, the export tobacco duty, and the ton- 
 nage duties. In the payment of public charges paper was 
 made equivalent to tobacco at the rate of ten shillings per 
 hundred pounds.^* 
 
 So numerous and important were the exceptions in the 
 paper-money act that complaints about the necessity of pro- 
 ducing tobacco continued as loud as before, and there are 
 evidences that during the next few years the Lower House 
 was making great efforts to procure the commutation of 
 fees from tobacco into money .^^ In 1738 the committee of 
 grievances reported as follows : " Your Committee likewise 
 
 11 Lower House Journal, May 25, 1719; April 8, 1720. 
 
 ^2 Ibid., September 26, 1723. 
 
 13 Ibid., October 11, 1725. A committee recommended "That 
 Sommersett County and some others that Cannot make any Quantity 
 of Tobacco or Flax, may have the Liberty of paying their Publick 
 Dues in Country Commodities." 
 
 1* Acts of 1733 ; Board of Trade, Proprieties, vol. xiv (Public 
 Record Office, C. O. 323: 12), T 23; Bacon, 1733, ch. 6. 
 
 15 Upper House Journal, March 31, 1736; Lower House Journal, 
 April 8, 22, 1736; May 11, 12, 30, 1739. 
 
TOBACCO CURRENCY 53 
 
 most humbly observe that maney poor Tradesmen, Ar- 
 tificers, Labourers and others throughout this Province 
 making no Tobacco, execute their Trade Artifice Labour or 
 other business for the current Money of the Province, yet 
 by the said Ministers Officers and other Deputies are charged 
 such Fees in Tobacco, which they having not to comply or 
 able to procure, are necessitated and tortiously compelled to 
 pay for the Same excessive and exhorbitant prices in such 
 Current Money to the ruin of Many Families and their 
 intire Extirpation out of this Province and discouragement 
 of those who remain to follow such their useful Arts Labour 
 and Industry."" It was on the frontier of what is now 
 Frederick County, where little tobacco was raised, that the 
 situation became most acute. In 1737 a bill to grant relief 
 to the settlers on the frontier was turned into an attempt 
 grew no tobacco. It failed to pass the Upper House.^' In 
 to lighten the burden of officers' fees for all colonists who 
 1739 there was submitted "The Petition of the Inhabitants 
 of the back Parts of Prince George's County and the ad- 
 jacent Places, praying leave to discharge their Taxes in 
 Money."^* Again a bill to relieve the inhabitants of the 
 frontiers failed to pass. In the same year there was also 
 an attempt to change the fees of the admiralty court from 
 tobacco into money on the ground that those who resorted 
 to that court were mostly shippers and foreigners, who had 
 no tobacco. ^^ 
 
 Eight years later, by the tobacco inspection act of 1747, 
 the first effective relief was granted. According to this act 
 all fees and levies were still to be assessed in tobacco, but 
 those who did not grow the crop were allowed to pay all 
 fees and levies in money at the rate of twelve shillings six 
 pence currency per hundred pounds of tobacco, provided 
 payment was made before April 10 yearly, or at the time of 
 the performance of the service for which the fee arose. 
 
 ^* Lower House Journal, May 16, 1738. 
 "Ibid., May 11, 12, 13, 1737. 
 1' Lower House Journal, May 11, 12, 1739. 
 i» Ibid., May 15, 1739. 
 
54 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 This privilege was limited strictly to those who had grown 
 no tobacco the year before.^" Similar provisions were in- 
 cluded in the tobacco acts of 1754^^ and 1763.^^ In accord- 
 ance with these laws, from 1747 on it was always possible 
 for individuals who lacked a supply of tobacco to meet all 
 public obligations in other currencies. 
 
 The second way in which the supply of tobacco varied was 
 between the different seasons. Tobacco was usually planted 
 in April and housed in September, and some of it might be 
 sufficiently cured by the middle of November; but since it 
 could be stripped and packed only in damp weather, usually 
 all winter and frequently most of the following summer were 
 required to get a crop ready for shipment. Obviously, it 
 would assist a man little in the payment of a debt to have 
 a barn fairly bursting with tobacco if it was not packed or 
 in condition to be transferred. Therefore it was only be- 
 tween the middle of November — the earliest date at which 
 any amount of tobacco could be cured and prepared — and 
 the end of August, when the last ships usually sailed, that 
 any one could be expected to have on hand sufficient tobacco 
 to meet a debt. Moreover, for market reasons, constant 
 encouragement was given to the early shipper, and if an 
 industrious planter managed to send off his crop by the 
 middle of April, he might be solvent and still not be able to 
 pay a small tobacco debt unexpectedly brought against him 
 the first of June. Such a state of affairs forced all tobacco 
 transactions to take place only during the winter or the 
 early spring months. Tobacco debts were regulated to fall 
 due at these times. Merchants permitted planters to run 
 accounts all the year and to pay up by the transfer of the 
 tobacco crop after it was ready in the spring or summer. 
 
 2" Acts of 1747, p. 8. 
 
 21 Acts of 1754. 
 
 22 Bacon, 1763, ch. 18. Speaking of this alternative payment when 
 it was being attacked in 1763, the Lower House said : " This alter- 
 native is one of the most valuable Parts of the Law. The Quantity 
 of our Staple was too great, and this was the Measure fallen upon 
 to reduce it; when this alternative is in Effect taken away, the 
 People must again have Recourse to making Tobacco" (Lower 
 House Journal, October 31, 1763). 
 
TOBACCO CURRENCY 55 
 
 Occasional transactions in the off season were accomplished 
 almost exclusively by promissory notes payable "by the 
 going out of Capt. Grindall,"^^ or at some other convenient 
 time.^* 
 
 It viTould have been a hardship indeed had the law per- 
 mitted creditors to sue and execute for tobacco debts at 
 unseasonable times. In the code of 1715 it was provided 
 that " after the Tenth Day of May in any Year, no Execu- 
 tion shall issue out of any Court of this Province, against 
 the Body or Goods of any Person or Persons inhabiting 
 within this Province till the Tenth Day of November next," 
 upon condition, however, that a debtor, to prevent execution, 
 should give to the creditor a confessed judgment, with two 
 good sureties to guarantee payment during the next open 
 season. ^^ In 1721 this provision was extended to certain 
 other courts that had been construed out of the general 
 clause.^* November 10 was felt to be somewhat too early 
 for the indolent planters, and in 1728 the season for execu- 
 tions was narrowed by forbidding them before February 
 10.^' From this time on no execution could be laid except 
 during the three months between February 10 and May 10 
 of each year.^^ 
 
 The regulation of tenders and executions successfully 
 remedied the chief difficulties arising from seasonal fluctua- 
 tions in the tobacco supply ; but variation between different 
 years was not so easily overcome. Like all other crops, 
 tobacco has good years and bad years. It was a serious hard- 
 ship for one who had contracted a tobacco debt during a 
 
 23 Baltimore County, Court Records, June, 174S, Liber TB No. C, 
 
 P- 553- 
 
 2* For example of note transactions see Lower House Journal, 
 May 12, 1737. 
 
 25 Bacon, 171S, ch. 33. Though the trouble lay only in tobacco 
 debts, this act was made general and applied to all debts. 
 
 28 Bacon, 1721, ch. 4. 
 
 27 Ibid., 1728, ch. 24. 
 
 28 So strong was the influence of foreign trade over the colony 
 that money contracts were commonly made payable by the going out 
 of the ships, which was in midsummer; but these debts also were 
 attracted into a regulation similar to that for tobacco contracts 
 (Bacon, 1721, ch. 4; Lower House Journal, July 27, 1721). 
 
56 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 year of plenty to be called upon for payment during a year 
 of scarcity. So grievous was the difficulty at times that 
 special acts were passed relieving the pressure. The most 
 notable instance was in 1724 and 1725. Crops seem to have 
 been poor in both 1722 and 1723, and in 1724 the drought 
 was such that there was almost no tobacco produced at all. 
 In the fall of 1724, therefore, the legislature passed an act 
 permitting all persons who had not enough tobacco for taxes 
 to make oath to that fact and have their liability for taxes 
 postponed for one year. After it was found what propor- 
 tion of the taxes was thus postponed, the same proportion of 
 all public debts was to be repudiated for the year. An oath 
 of inability to pay was also to supersede all executions for 
 officers' fees and private debts for one year.^' Some irregu- 
 larities seem to have been practiced in the administration of 
 the law, and an additional act was passed in 1725 continuing 
 still longer the immunity from execution in some cases.^" 
 
 The several peculiarities in the supply of tobacco would 
 have been of less consequence had tobacco possessed the 
 second requirement for a monetary medium, — durability. A 
 more durable substance could have been accumulated from 
 year to year, and the failure of a single crop would not have 
 left the colony entirely without money. Tobacco, however, 
 decreased in value so rapidly if held over a season that prac- 
 tically the entire crop was shipped every summer, thus forc- 
 ing the colony to produce an entirely new money supply 
 each year. The failure to meet the test of durability was 
 the most serious handicap on tobacco as a circulating 
 medium. 
 
 In respect to portability tobacco had two serious defects. 
 So brittle is the cured leaf that only in damp weather can 
 it be handled at all, and even then it shatters so badly as to 
 make each handling result in an appreciable loss. Further- 
 
 29 Lower House Journal, October 8, 17, 30, 1724; Upper House 
 Journal, October 9, 20, 28, 29, 1724. Only the title of the act is 
 preserved. There seem to have been some other provisions for the 
 payment of money instead of tobacco. 
 
 so Bacon, 1725, ch. 3; W. Parks, Collection of the Lavjrs of Mary- 
 land, p. 273. 
 
TOBACCO CURRENCY 57 
 
 more, the great weight and even greater mass of tobacco 
 money made transportation a mechanical difficulty so serious 
 that the place of payment formed an essential part of every 
 contract. A government contract in 1722 failed of reason- 
 able bids largely because the enabling resolution did not 
 specify the place of payment.^^ To meet this condition some 
 interesting laws and customs came into vogue. 
 
 Since the ownership of tobacco passed through very few 
 hands between the field and the ship, it was frequently found 
 convenient not to move a crop except when it was loaded 
 aboard a vessel. The merchant or other receiver of tobacco 
 came to each plantation and had the proper amounts weighed 
 out, packed into hogsheads, and marked with his own name. 
 The tobacco was then stowed away in the planter's barn, 
 where the planter was compelled by law to keep it for a 
 whole year or until the receiver saw fit to have it removed. 
 Every planter was required by law to have for this purpose 
 sufficient storage space, properly roofed and securely locked, 
 and all loss by weather or theft due to inadequate housing 
 was to be sustained by the planter. During the period of 
 storage marked tobacco could not be levied on by the 
 sheriff for the planter's debts except in payment of the 
 public levies or the minister's salary.^^ If the original payee 
 transferred this tobacco to another, the exchange was 
 effected when the new owner marked out the first name on 
 the hogshead and substituted his own. When a tobacco 
 receiver was ready to ship his consignment, he sent to the 
 various plantations where his tobacco was stored and ordered 
 that it be delivered to the several nearby landings, from 
 which it was taken by lighters and loaded on the vessel. 
 Thus were avoided not only the expense and difficulty of 
 several removals of the tobacco, but also the necessity on 
 the part of the merchants of maintaining warehouses to 
 store the tremendous amount of tobacco that some of them 
 received.^^ 
 
 31 Upper House Journal, October 30, 1722. 
 
 32 Bacon, 1715, ch. 46. 
 
 33 Ibid., ch. 22. 
 
58 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 Another device employed to facilitate transfers of such 
 bulky money was the tobacco note. The promissory note 
 mentioned above v^ras an arrangement to obviate certain diffi- 
 culties arising from the seasonal nature of the tobacco supply 
 rather than a part of the machinery of exchange, although 
 it did to some extent fulfil the latter function. A more 
 direct exchange instrument was the written order to the 
 planter in whose barn marked tobacco was stored requiring 
 him to change the name on the hogshead. 
 
 In 1747 all previous customs and all regulations concern- 
 ing the transportation and storage of tobacco were entirely 
 swept away and a new system was introduced by the estab- 
 lishment of public warehouses to which all tobacco had to 
 be sent before shipment. On the delivery of a crop at the 
 warehouse, the planter was supplied at his option either with 
 a non-transferable receipt or with one or more transferable 
 notes stating the amount, condition, and quality^* of the 
 tobacco received. These notes called for the delivery to the 
 bearer of the tobacco specified, and passed freely from hand 
 to hand almost like cash. A writer in the Maryland Gazette 
 about seven years after the enactment of the law said : " I 
 then considered the Advantage of having Tobacco Notes in 
 my Pocket, as giving me Credit for the Quantity mentioned 
 in them wherever I went, and that I was thereby at large 
 to dispose of them when, to whom, and where I pleased; 
 whereas, before this Act, my Credit could not be expected 
 to go beyond my own Neighbourhood, or at fartherest, 
 where I might be known."^^ The law required that all 
 tenders of tobacco, to be legal, be made in transfer notes, 
 and all levies and fees were accepted only in this form. The 
 element of transportation, however, was not entirely elimi- 
 nated, as the location of the warehouse in which the tobacco 
 was lodged was still a matter of importance. Levies had to 
 
 2* Speaking of transferred tobacco, about one third of the whole, 
 Callister said : " the Inspectors will not trouble themselves to dis- 
 tinguish the quality in their Notes, & as often Phaps are not capable 
 to distinguish or if they undertook it, as little to be relied on " 
 (CaUister MSS., July g, 1751). 
 
 S5 April 5, 1753. 
 
TOBACCO CURRENCY 59 
 
 be paid in notes on some warehouse in the county or parish 
 where they were due, and officers' and lawyers' fees in 
 notes on some warehouse in the county where the debtor 
 lived. From 1747 to the end of the colonial period tobacco 
 payments were rendered easy by this regulation! It was the 
 most important single device employed to facilitate the use 
 of tobacco as money.^* 
 
 The public inspection before the delivery of tobacco notes 
 tended also to correct another fault in the tobacco medium, 
 that is, lack of homogeneity. Scarcely any two crops of 
 tobacco were of exactly the same quality, and, even when 
 they were about equal in grade, differences in curing and 
 packing might cause a wide disparity in value. One crop 
 might be more shattered than another. One planter might 
 pack a larger percentage of the scrubby ground leaf, while 
 another might conceal a large quantity of stems, dirt, or 
 brickbats in the middle of his hogshead. If tobacco had 
 been merely a crop to be sold for the market price, careless 
 and fraudulent handling would have brought loss only to the 
 planter; but since it passed as money, a pound just fit to be 
 accepted was worth as much to the planter as a pound of the 
 best leaf, and the more dirt he could include in a hogshead 
 without causing its rejection, the easier would be the pay- 
 ment of his debts. Regulations of quality, consequently, 
 form a large part of the tobacco code. 
 
 False packing was stringently prohibited. A fine of one 
 thousand pounds of tobacco per hogshead was provided by 
 the code of 1715 for every person who " shall use any 
 fallacious . . . Practices to conceal or hide any Frost-bitten, 
 trashy Ground-Leaves, or small Scrubs, or any Stalks, 
 Stems, Wood, Stones, Dirt, or any other manner of Trash, 
 or old decayed Tobacco, in the inward parts of such Hogs- 
 head, where the Generality of such Tobacco as shall be 
 packed in the outward parts is good, sound and merchant- 
 able; or shall be deemed or adjudged by the Court or Jury 
 before whom such matter shall be Tried or called in Ques- 
 
 3«Acts of 1747, pp. II, 13. 
 
60 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 tion, that such Packing falls within the ancient common re- 
 ceived notion of what false packing has been hitherto re- 
 puted to be ; and any such hogshead or cask of Tobacco pay 
 or offer or tender to pay away."" Almost every subsequent 
 tobacco act down to 1747 carried its provision against false 
 packing. 
 
 The greatest difficulties arose over the including of ground 
 leaves and " seconds." After the tobacco stalks have been 
 cut, a few extra leaves of a coarse fibre will spring up 
 quickly on the stump left in the ground, and many planters 
 harvested these leaves and cured them with the regular 
 crop. The coarseness of the leaf and the extreme danger 
 that such a late harvest would be touched with frost made 
 seconds a very undesirable product. Many unavailing 
 efforts were put forth to prevent the packing of these low 
 grades. The first enactment that met with any degree of 
 success seems to have been the paper-money act of 1733. 
 By that law every planter was required to burn in the pres- 
 ence of inspectors appointed for the purpose one hundred 
 and fifty pounds of his worst tobacco for every taxable 
 person^* that worked in his fields. A fine of twenty shil- 
 Hngs was imposed for every hundred and fifty pounds' 
 of tobacco not so burned.^* Even this act was not an un- 
 qualified success, and the problem was still unsolved when 
 the inspection act of 1747 put all tobacco questions on a 
 new basis. 
 
 In dealing with a money of such doubtful nature 
 creditors had to protect themselves, and it is not to be sup- 
 posed that they depended solely on the law. Sheriffs and 
 others who received tobacco payments seem to have scruti- 
 nized each hogshead very carefully before accepting it. 
 Even then, however, without seeing a hogshead entirely un- 
 packed it was 'difficult to be certain that there was no 
 scrubby leaf in it. Some merchants employed expert in- 
 
 2^ Bacon, 1715, ch. 22. 
 
 *8 All persons above sixteen years of age except free white women 
 were counted as taxables. 
 
 39 Acts of 1733; Board of Trade, Proprieties, vol. xiv (Public 
 Record Office, C. O. 5: 1269), T 23; Bacon, 1733, ch. 6. 
 
TOBACCO CURRENCY 6 1 
 
 specters to examine all tobacco offered in payment,^" and 
 some were so careful that they maintained regular inspection 
 houses of their own, where all tobacco was unpacked and 
 graded before it was accepted.*^ In some cases this private 
 inspection of tobacco was so abused that a creditor in a 
 favorable position, such as a landlord, was able to cull out 
 the best of a debtor's crop.*^ 
 
 Previous to 1713 creditors seem to have had the right to 
 accept or reject tobacco without restraint. An act of that 
 year recites that creditors often reject or delay in receiving 
 good tobacco, and the debtor, being afraid to dispose of it 
 for fear of its being demanded, is compelled to hold it sub- 
 ject to casualty and depreciation. The act provides that if 
 between November and March 31 — the legal period for 
 tenders in tobacco — a debtor's offer is rejected, he may 
 apply to a justice of the peace, who shall appoint two in- 
 spectors to view the tobacco; if found good, it shall be 
 marked and kept one year at the order of the creditor as 
 payment of the debt.^^ This seems not to have been an 
 entirely satisfactory solution of the problem, for in 1724 the 
 committee of grievances complained that sheriffs were re- 
 jecting good tobacco as a pretence for execution in order 
 to gain the additional execution fees.** An act of the same 
 session enlarging the time for tenders in tobacco may have 
 had something to do with this matter,*^ for no more com- 
 plaints of such practices by sheriffs are heard. 
 
 By the tobacco act of 1747 all these provisions and the 
 former methods of dealing were swept away, and an ideal 
 
 *" Letter from " Q in the Corner," in Maryland Gazette, April 28, 
 1747- 
 
 *i " Before the making the Law [of 1747] it is certain, and well 
 known, that some Merchants obliged the Planters to carry the 
 Tobacco they agreed with them for, to Places where they kept 
 Weights and Scales, and would not receive it 'till it had been ex- 
 amined by a Receiver and weighed in the Scales; this Fact cannot 
 be denied" (Maryland Gazette, April s, 1753). See also ibid., June 
 2, 1747; June 7, I7S3- 
 
 *2 Ibid., July 12, 1753. 
 
 *3 Bacon, 1713, ch. 3. 
 
 ** Lower House Journal, October 14, 1724. 
 
 *= Bacon, 1724, ch. 6. 
 
62 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 system of grading was substituted. The public inspector, 
 an expert judge of tobacco, was set up to examine all crops 
 and, by personally repacking each hogshead, to make cer- 
 tain that no deceit was practiced. As the tobacco notes 
 issued by the inspectors told the weight, quality ,*° and condi- 
 tion of the hogshead, there could no longer be any doubt in 
 the mind of the receiver as to the coin in which he was being 
 paid. With efficient administration this act furnished the 
 best possible arrangement for correcting the defective homo- 
 geneity of tobacco money.'*' 
 
 In point of divisibility tobacco was all that could be de- 
 sired, but excellence in this respect was offset by defects in 
 other regards. Although easily separated into very small 
 parcels, tobacco when so divided rapidly declined in value. 
 Lack of durability was responsible for this condition. In 
 the first place, the amount of handling necessary to break up 
 a crop into small lots and to transfer these lots from man 
 to man was so injurious to the tobacco that its value was 
 much diminished. In the second place, since tobacco de- 
 pended for its value upon shipment abroad, and since ship- 
 ment was profitable only in large amounts, the acceptance 
 of one small parcel entailed the necessity of procuring enough 
 more to constitute a consignment or else the first parcel be- 
 came valueless. These considerations rendered small to- 
 bacco transactions comparatively rare. 
 
 The last, and in some ways the most important, quality 
 that a good monetary substance should possess is stability of 
 value. In this respect, also, tobacco failed. Fluctuations 
 in price were frequent and violent. For example, the year 
 1720 fell in a period of very cheap tobacco. Overproduction 
 had stocked the foreign market to overflowing, and as early 
 as 171 1 prices had fallen so low that a minister complained 
 to his bishop that " Tobacco, our money, is worth nothing, 
 and not a Shirt to be had for Tobacco this year in all our 
 
 *° Except of "transfer" tobacco (that which was paid away in 
 small parcels), as transfer hogsheads were composed of various 
 parcels of differing quality. 
 
 " Laws of 1747, p. 8. 
 
TOBACCO CURRENCY 63 
 
 county."^^ Tobacco remained at this low ebb until 1724, 
 when, failure of the crop sending prices soaring, a relief act 
 had to be passed permitting the suspension of payments for 
 a year. Prices gradually fell back into their old rates, and 
 another period of depression set in. In 1734 another failure 
 of the crop made tobacco so valuable that, whereas it had 
 been selling for about ten shillings per hundred pounds, 
 planters were willing to pay a fine of twenty shillings rather 
 than burn the hundred and fifty pounds of trash required by 
 law.*' The war period of 1739 to 1748 was in general a 
 time of cheap tobacco. Both the tobacco act and the 
 declaration of peace went into effect in 1748 and sent 
 tobacco prices up again for a short while.^" From that time 
 on to the end of the colonial period the value seems never 
 to have fallen quite so low as it did before the days of 
 public inspection ; but it still fluctuated with changing condi- 
 tions, especially showing much depression during the long 
 French War. These fluctuations were so great that prices 
 sometimes doubled in a single season. 
 
 Such a variable money furnished no standard of value and 
 left business on an exceedingly precarious basis. It was the 
 uncertainty of price as well as of place of payment that pre- 
 vented reasonable bids on a government contract in 1722.^^ 
 An example of the hardships caused by fluctuations in the 
 value of tobacco money is shown in a dispute between Henry 
 Callister and a neighbor named Maxwell, in which complaint 
 was made " that tobacco had risen 50 per cent currency from 
 the time I borrow'd till I paid."^^ Debtors naturally took 
 advantage of the years of cheap tobacco to pay off their 
 debts, and put forth all sorts of excuses for not paying in 
 years of high prices. At times the Lower House of As- 
 sembly countenanced this sort of trickery by smoothing the 
 
 *8 E. Ingle, " Parish Institutions of Maryland," in Johns Hopkins 
 University Studies, vol. I, no. 6, p. 9 n. 
 *^Acts of 1734, p. 6. 
 ^"Callister MSS., November 12, 1749; Maryland Gazette, April 5, 
 
 1753- 
 51 Upper House Journal, October 30, 1722 ; see above, page 57. 
 =2 Callister MSS., June 23, 1759. 
 
64 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 way wherever it was possible for delaying payments in 
 scarce years. An ironical advertisement, apparently written 
 by Henry Callister, refers to certain proceedings of the as- 
 sembly of 1759 directed toward this end. It advises people 
 not to pay foreigners' debts while they still have credit in 
 the country, and when they can go no further, to rely on the 
 courts as composed of fellow-countrymen and they will be 
 freed of all obligations to foreigners. It might be good 
 policy to remit a few bills now and then, so they can be 
 protested, but people are not to think of paying debts while 
 tobacco is high and goods are cheap.^^ 
 
 The credit system rested upon an unstable basis. Mer- 
 chants supplied the planters with goods on account through- 
 out the year, and received payment out of the crop when it 
 was packed in the spring or summer. To some extent they 
 bargained for a commodity of the value of which they could 
 have no idea. It was not until after the middle of August 
 that an estimate could be made of the size of the crop and, 
 consequently, of the course of prices. If the crop was 
 large, values of goods throughout the rest of the summer 
 and on to the next spring could be raised to allow for the 
 cheapness of the tobacco in which payments would be made. 
 If the crop was seen to be a failure, prices would be lowered 
 to attract as much as possible of the valuable tobacco. 
 Factors kept their principals closely informed of the weather 
 conditions and crop prospects, that goods might be selected 
 and prices set with the greatest possible intelligence.^ Not- 
 withstanding the best efforts of the merchants, however, the 
 purchase of tobacco with goods nearly a year before the 
 delivery of the crop was a very hazardous business. 
 
 In order to avoid the risks of dealing in tobacco for future 
 delivery, many merchants began about the middle of the 
 century to mark their goods in a new way. All goods were 
 priced in the stores at their sterling cost in England. When 
 
 53 Bound letters, Maryland Diocesan Library, No. 44. 
 
 ^* For examples of such reports see Callister MSS., May 4, 
 August 21, 1746; February 23, 1746/7; December 28, 1747; August 
 8, 1748; and passim. 
 
TOBACCO CURRENCY 6$ 
 
 the tobacco was offered in payment of accounts in this 
 " sterling goods " standard, the price of the tobacco was 
 made sufficiently low to allow for overhead charges and 
 profits. If the account was settled by the payment of money 
 instead of tobacco, the total was always increased from fifty 
 to a hundred per cent. The ledgers of many merchants 
 show a " sterling goods " column as well as " sterling," 
 " currency," and " tobacco " columns. The same article 
 when charged in the " currency " column is usually at double 
 the price that it bears in the " sterling goods " column.'^ 
 With money exchanging at £i66j^ currency for £ioo 
 sterling, it is evident that two thirds of the advance is ex- 
 change and one third profit, making a profit on the original 
 outlay of twenty per cent. The " sterHng goods " method of 
 keeping accounts had the appearance of a new standard of 
 value, in which the goods set the standard and the tobacco 
 was the commodity purchased. In reality, however, the 
 whole system was merely a safe method of employing to- 
 bacco as currency in deferred payments by counteracting the 
 effect of variations in price. 
 
 Along with the natural changes in the price of tobacco 
 there must be considered also the artificial variations caused 
 by legislation. It was clearly seen by the colonists that the 
 economic depression of the province was caused partly by 
 overproduction and partly by the poor quality of tobacco 
 shipped. Efforts for improvement, therefore, were largely 
 directed, first, toward limitation of the product, and, second, 
 
 55 See numerous ledgers in the Library of Congress, Firm Ac- 
 counts, Maryland and Virginia. Agreements like the following are 
 found at the ends of some accounts in these ledgers : " 1761 Sepf 28. 
 Then we the Subscribers Settl'd Accompts 'till this date and after 
 Examination finds a Ballance of Forty Nine Pounds, Sixteen Shil- 
 lings Currency (payable as by Inspection Law) due Edward Smoot 
 — And a Ballance of One hundred Pounds Crop Tobacco, And 
 Twenty Six Pounds, Eighteen Shillings and Six Pence Three 
 farthings Cost in Sterling Goods due by said Smoot to Thomas 
 Francis & Company which Ballance of Sterling Goods is to be dis- 
 charged by Edward Smoot in Crop Tobacco, When the Inspection 
 Opens in 1761 — and in the year 1762 — and he is to have the Price 
 that Cap'. Francis gives in first Cost of Goods in 1762 provided the 
 whole tobacco is paid that year" (Ledger 1761, p. 368). 
 
 5 
 
66 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 toward the prevention of the shipping of trash. In either 
 case the passage of a tobacco act meant the curtailment of 
 the amount of tobacco money that a planter might actually 
 spend. Since debts were fixed in terms of tobacco, it was 
 felt that they would be made much more burdensome if the 
 planter was limited in the amount that he might prpduce or 
 the proportion that he might ship. Moreover, as all legisla- 
 tion was intended to raise the price, it was further believed 
 that the actual value of the tobacco paid on a debt would be 
 increased if restrictions were placed upon the crop. For these 
 reasons, every tobacco act was accompanied by an attempt to 
 scale down tobacco debts so that the value paid under the act 
 would be about equal to the value as it would have been 
 had no such act been passed. The only time that such legis- 
 lation was actually put in force was in 1747. By the tobacco 
 inspection act of that year all outstanding tobacco debts that 
 should be paid in inspected tobacco were reduced one fourth ; 
 the ministers' salaries were reduced from forty pounds to 
 thirty pounds of tobacco per taxable; and a reduced scale 
 was established for officers' and lawyers' fees. In this in- 
 stance tampering with contracts proved a wise measure, for, 
 owing to the combined effect of the regulation and the peace 
 of 1748, the price of tobacco rose even more than a fourth 
 during the next few years. On the other hand, the expira- 
 tion of beneficial legislation would have as serious effects 
 as its enactment. When, therefore, in 1753 it looked as if 
 the act of 1747 might be allowed to lapse, merchants tried 
 to collect all outstanding debts so as to carry no accounts 
 over to the period of cheaper tobacco which seemed 
 imminent. '° 
 
 It is hardly too much to assert that artificial variations, 
 real and threatened, in the price of tobacco caused as much 
 anxiety and nearly as much hardship as variations from 
 
 58 Advertisement by Richard Snowden (Maryland Gazette, April 
 5) 1753)- Henry Callister feared that if the act was not continued 
 there would be little prospect of any addition to tobacco debts, and 
 suggested that two or three such enactments and repeals would wipe 
 out debts altogether (Callister MSS., July 9, 1751). 
 
TOBACCO CURRENCY 67 
 
 natural causes. There was no possible remedy for these 
 fluctuations, and not even any means of making public what 
 might be a proper rate for tobacco at any given time. An 
 interesting experiment along this line was conducted by the 
 court of Charles County. At its March meeting this court 
 settled the current price of tobacco for the ensuing year.^' 
 This declared price, of course, was binding only on the 
 charges of public houses^^ and ferries, and, possibly, on the 
 county fines and levies, should such be paid in money. Yet 
 in spite of the apparent merits of such a system, no other 
 counties seem ever to have adopted it.^° In ordinary trans- 
 actions, custom seems to have played a prominent role, and 
 even without any determination by the court, prices were 
 very apt to become fixed at some round figure. The 
 favorite rates per loo pounds were 8s. 4d. (id. per pound) ; 
 lo shillings; 12s. 6d. (i>4d. per pound); i6s. 8d. (2d. per 
 pound) ; and 20 shillings. Perhaps four fifths of the occa- 
 sional transactions of a given season would be at some one 
 of these figures. °° In the dealings of merchants, however, 
 the marking of the goods fixed the price of tobacco on 
 accounts kept in tobacco,^^ and ordinary competition set the 
 price on accounts kept in " sterling goods " and on purchased 
 tobacco. It is probable, therefore, that there was less petty 
 shifting of price and fewer discriminations between indi- 
 vidual planters than the uncertainties of the system seem to 
 make possible. 
 
 Far from filling the requirements for a good monetary 
 substance, it is evident that tobacco was defective at almost 
 every point. The supply was not well distributed among 
 individuals, it was seasonal, and it varied widely between 
 different years. The material itself was perishable, and this, 
 
 °^ Charles County, Court Records, March sessions. 
 
 ^5 After the assessment of public-house charges in money for 
 1725 is the following statement : " To be Discharged in Money (if 
 paid ready Down) or tobacco at the rate wch shall be assest by the 
 Justices here in March court next" (Charles County, Court Records, 
 August, 172s, Liber P No. 2, vol. 35, P- 65)- 
 
 so The records of Calvert and St. Mary's Counties are lost. 
 
 8° In the inventories these figures constantly recur. 
 
 «i CalHster MSS. 
 
68 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 1 in conjunction with its great bulk, rendered it so difficult to 
 transport that storage laws and tobacco notes were indis- 
 pensable. So great were the differences in quality, curing, 
 and packing that standardization was impossible, and an 
 expensive public inspection system had ultimately to be 
 established. Though highly divisible, defects in homogeneity 
 and durability rendered this quality useless. Finally, its value 
 was so fluctuating that it furnished no standard of value and 
 led to much hardship in cases of deferred payments. Legis- 
 lation had eased most of the difficulties arising from the 
 other deficiencies, but this last defect defied all efforts to 
 find a remedy. 
 
 One other count must be added to the indictment against 
 this form of money. Tobacco served not only as currency, 
 but also as the staple product of the colony, and it soon 
 developed that regulation of this substance as money was 
 often incompatible with its regulation as a staple product. 
 Thus, when tobacco had long been selling at from eight to 
 ten shillings currency per hundred pounds, it was wise, as 
 far as the commodity was concerned, to i^dopt heroic meas- 
 ures to raise the price ; but at the same time, as a money it 
 was also wise to keep its prices unchanged for the sake of 
 outstanding contracts. Every one in the colony, except pos- 
 sibly a few short-sighted buyers, was desirous of seeing 
 tobacco as a commodity advance in value, but at the same 
 time there were two clearly distinguished opinions as to its 
 value as money. All creditors and all those who, like the 
 clergy, the lawyers, and the officers, had fixed incomes in 
 tobacco were very anxious to have prices advance. All 
 debtors, however, and all who had to pay the fees to the 
 official classes were interested in having tobacco remain low 
 or even sink lower in value. These two classes were repre- 
 sented closely in the two houses of the legislature, the Lower 
 House representing the people, the debtor class, and the 
 Upper House representing the official or creditor class. 
 Every tobacco-improvement bill, therefore, to gain any con- 
 sideration in the Lower House had to carry some provision 
 
TOBACCO CURRENCY 69 
 
 for scaling down fees and debts to allow for the anticipated 
 rise in value; and at the same time the Upper House was 
 very loath indeed to permit reductions to be made while the 
 advance in price was still uncertain. 
 
 On this rock many a promising piece of tobacco legisla- 
 tion went to pieces. From 1720 to 1747 almost every legis- 
 lature took into consideration some proposed tobacco act. 
 In 1728 a bill succeeded at last in avoiding both of the diffi- 
 culties. Among other provisions for regulating the trade 
 was a clause reducing all tobacco fees and debts by one 
 fourth, if paid in inspected tobacco, and allowing an alter- 
 native payment of officers' fees and rectors' salaries in 
 money at ten shillings per hundred pounds, thus providing 
 that, whatever price tobacco might reach, fees could never 
 rise above their value at ten shillings per hundred."^ The 
 act was being put in force when in 1730 the violent protests 
 of the clergy brought upon it the proprietor's veto."^ For 
 seventeen years longer the controversy continued, and in 
 consequence the tobacco trade remained without any effect- 
 ive regulation. Only the direst necessity on the part of the 
 province, and the conviction that a tobacco act, though it 
 might reduce the amount of the fees, would increase their 
 value ultimately, brought the two parties to a rational con- 
 sideration of the subject.** Finally, in 1747, the inspection 
 law was passed. This act reduced fees and debts in accord- 
 ance with the demands of the Lower House, but it also put 
 tobacco under such stringent regulation that the advance in 
 price more than made good the reduction. Thus for about 
 twenty-five years the use of tobacco as money blocked all 
 legislation concerning its treatment as a commodity, and 
 entailed on the colony for that period of time extreme busi- 
 ness depression. 
 
 It was but natural that, seeing the disadvantages of to- 
 
 ^2 Upper House Journal, November 2, 1728; Lower House Journal, 
 July 30, 1729. 
 
 S3 Lower House Journal, May 26, 1730. 
 
 s* The situation is set forth in an address to the proprietor from 
 the governor and the council (Archives, vol. xxviii, pp. 308-310). 
 
70 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 bacco currency, the colonists should have tried to get away 
 from such a system. Before 1720 inroads were being made 
 on the monetary position of tobacco. In 1706 there was 
 passed an act making hemp and flax payable for debts. This, 
 of course, was as much for the encouragement of the cul- 
 ture of those products as for the discouragement of tobacco 
 money."^ For many years an act of 171 S made all sorts of 
 produce ultimately payable for tobacco debts after execution. 
 The members of the legislature by 1720 were being paid in 
 either tobacco or money at their option."^ Toward 1730 a 
 movement against tobacco currency gathered considerable 
 momentum. Several petitions asking for the privilege of pay- 
 ing fees and levies in money instead of tobacco reached the 
 legislature, but nothing was done.^^ In an open letter from 
 the London tobacco merchants to the people of Maryland in 
 1729 the use of tobacco money was singled out for attack, 
 and the colonists were advised to give up this sort of barter 
 and go on a cash basis."* It was generally thought that the 
 use of tobacco as currency was in some indefinable way re- 
 sponsible for the fact that Maryland remained an agricul- 
 tural community and did not develop a trade like that of the 
 northern colonies. The paper-money act of 1733, which 
 grew out of this feeling, was, as its preamble states, an 
 effort to free the colony from the grasp of tobacco money, 
 but the experiment was only partially successful. Tobacco 
 remained the money of fees and levies, and it also continued 
 to be the medium of most commercial transactions. Except 
 for the provision of the tobacco inspection act of 1747 per- 
 mitting those who grew no tobacco to pay public levies and 
 fees in currency, there was no further change in the status 
 of tobacco money during the entire period under discussion. 
 Though legislative attacks were largely futile, tobacco 
 money began to lose its hold in some parts of the province 
 about the middle of the eighteenth century. Since it de- 
 
 "^ Upper House Journal, August 3, 1721. 
 ^^ Lower House Journal, April 20, 1720. 
 07 Ibid., October 11, 1725. 
 «8 Maryland Gazette, April 15, 1729. 
 
TOBACCO CURRENCY "] 1 
 
 pended upon the simple relationship between planter and 
 merchant for its utility as money, when this relationship 
 ceased to exist the usefulness of tobacco inevitably declined. 
 As a community came more and more to depend on grain 
 raising to supply its needs, all former commercial connec- 
 tions were gradually sundered. The grain buyer was en- 
 gaged in the West India trade and had no way of disposing 
 of tobacco. Moreover, he was not always an importer, and 
 preferred to purchase grain for cash. Thus, with the ad- 
 vent of grain culture there came a new business field in 
 which tobacco money had no place. 
 
 As early as 1725 there are evidences of the breaking down 
 of this kind of currency at the two extremes of the Eastern 
 Shore. The committee of grievances recommended " That 
 Sommersett County and Some others that Cannot make any 
 Quantity of Tobacco or Flax, may have the Liberty of pay- 
 ing their Publick Dues in Country Commodities ;" and at 
 the same time they reported a grievance from Cecil County 
 " That officers fees are Rated in Tobacco and that in Scarce 
 Years they Exact Treble the Value viz. Twenty Shillings 
 Sterling P'- hundred & so always at an uncertainty, where- 
 as if officers' fees and other Publick Dues were Rated in 
 Money to be paid at a price Current in Tobacco or what 
 'twould be reduced to a Certainty.""' Evidently both these 
 sections were already abandoning the use of tobacco money, 
 but from the very causes here set forth they were unable to 
 get entirely away from the system. Until the passage of the 
 inspection act of 1747 it continued to be almost a necessity 
 to produce some tobacco in order to meet public charges. 
 The paper-money issue of 1733 undoubtedly furthered the 
 abandonment of tobacco money. About 1745 the merchants 
 in some sections began to transfer their accounts from to- 
 bacco to money. Henry Callister, a merchant of Talbot 
 County, writing about this time said : " Our method is new, 
 we rate every article in Pap'' Mony at abt. 300 Pet. advance 
 on the prime Cost & buy Tob° with this Mony debt dis- 
 
 *'!Lower House Journal, October 11, 1725. 
 
72 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 counted as above or with Paper Mony bought the same way. 
 By this method we shall lessen our Tobacco debts, & all our 
 dealings will be more certain, we shall know what we are 
 doing and make them [the planters] know likewise."'" The 
 tobacco act some two years later asserted that " several, or 
 most, of the Traders within this Province keep their Books 
 in Money, tho' in truth their Dealings have been for Tobacco, 
 and that the Intention both of Creditor and Debtor hath 
 been, that the Payment should be made in Tobacco."'^ 
 
 About 1750, therefore, the change seems to have become 
 more or less general, but an alteration in accounting does 
 not necessarily denote a change in the method of dealing. 
 Many records show, however, not only a change in book- 
 keeping, but also a change in the manner of payment. A 
 ledger from the upper part of Baltimore (now Harford) 
 County in 1750 shows trade almost entirely in terms of 
 money and tobacco. Another, of 1756, shows a decrease 
 in the tobacco entries and some entries in grain. Ledgers 
 after 1760 show practically no tobacco.''^ On the two ends 
 of the Eastern Shore after 1755 tobacco is rarely mentioned 
 as a credit on an account between merchant and planter. 
 Grain sometimes appears, but money is more frequent. For 
 instance, the volume of Cecil County court records covering 
 the years 1761 and 1762 shows no traces of tobacco except 
 in fines, which were by law assessed in tobacco, though prob- 
 ably paid in money. Evidently by 1765 the use of tobacco 
 as money was rapidly dying out in some sections. 
 
 Though very little record remains, it is probable that the 
 back-country trade centering in the young town of Balti- 
 more was also on a cash basis. The transportation of to- 
 bacco from the Monocacy to the Patapsco was such a diffi- 
 cult task that it is safe to conclude, in the absence of all 
 evidence to the contrary, that no tobacco was ever so trans- 
 ported. In fact, the back parts of Frederick and Baltimore 
 
 '"' Callister MSS., about 1745. 
 '1 Acts of 1747, p. 3c. 
 
 ■^2 Ledgers A, G, and F of Aquila Hall, and the ledger of Thomas 
 Archer (Harford County Historical Society). 
 
TOBACCO CURRENCY 73 
 
 Counties were so remote that little tobacco seems to have 
 been raised there. This western trade, which was destined 
 very shortly to become the most important in Maryland, 
 seems never to have felt the trammels of tobacco currency. 
 
 Thus by 1765 the use of tobacco as money was clearly 
 decadent. Important courses of trade were coming into 
 existence on a money basis, and old tobacco regions were 
 giving up not only the monetary circulation, but even the 
 culture of the plant. Only the central part of the Eastern 
 Shore and the tide-water regions of the Western Shore were 
 still transacting their business in terms of tobacco. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 Barter 
 
 In colonial Maryland the same conditions that made for 
 the rise of tobacco currency favored also exchange by barter. 
 The scarcity of coin was so great that all sorts of substitutes 
 were welcomed. Moreover, much of the trade was of a 
 very direct nature, all the manufactures passing in one 
 direction and all the produce of the soil passing in the other, 
 and it was a very simple matter for merchant and planter to 
 exchange directly without the intervention of any circulating 
 medium. As has been shown, the circulation of tobacco was 
 to a large extent merely barter rather than real circulation. 
 In localities and in individual cases where the planter had 
 crops other than tobacco, those other products were fre- 
 quently traded off very much in the same way as tobacco 
 was, and constituted a sort of barter currency. 
 
 Of the prevalence of barter in Maryland there is abundant 
 evidence. Advertisements in the newspapers mentioned 
 the produce that would be accepted in exchange. In 1729 
 Daniel Dulany advertised land to be let out with the rent 
 payable in tobacco, corn, wheat, or other produce.'- At 
 another time a house and lot were advertised for sale for 
 ready money, tobacco, wheat, corn, or good bills. ^ Some- 
 what more general cases were those of Patrick Creagh, a 
 merchant of Annapolis, who advertised his goods for sale 
 for bills, tobacco, current money, good clean barley at three 
 shillings three pence per bushel, wheat at four shillings, corn 
 at two shillings three pence, flour, or ship-bread,^ and George 
 
 ^ Maryland Gazette, April 8, 1729. 
 2 Ibid., December 16, 1747. 
 2 Ibid., August 10, 1748. 
 
 74 
 
BARTER 75 
 
 Rock, an iron manufacturer, who advertised bar iron for 
 ready money or for wheat at the highest market price.* 
 
 More significant even than advertisements are the many 
 instances of barter shown in private accounts.^ Rarely does 
 an account in the tobacco sections show a credit in any 
 medium except tobacco, but in those regions where tobacco 
 culture was passing away all sorts of farm produce appear 
 as credits on merchants' accounts against planters. A 
 typical account had the following credits : i pistole, 2 bushels 
 of wheat, 108 pounds of beef, and 2 fat hogs weighing 225 
 pounds. ° In Dorchester County staves often appear in ac- 
 counts. Two Somerset County bills carry an agreement 
 " to be paid in Cash or pork @ 10 S. P hundred " and " to 
 be discharged by agreement in Virginia money or bbl. pork 
 @ 40/.'"^ Occasionally accounts were kept entirely in terms 
 of wheat or other barter commodities.^ The frequency of 
 such entries attests the importance of barter in the business 
 of the day. 
 
 Barter currency was not confined to the simple role of 
 open accounts, but figured also in the more complicated 
 transactions involving notes, bonds, and contracts. A Balti- 
 more County contract of sale of seventy-four acres of land 
 calls for the payment of five thousand pounds of tobacco 
 at one penny per pound and £40 currency in Indian corn at 
 twenty pence per bushel." For a debt which he owed of £20 
 currency Nehemiah Darmon, of Somerset, obligated him- 
 self to pay Henry Lowe 2946 West India hogshead staves 
 
 * Maryland Gazette, June 10, 1746. The Ridgely Papers also show 
 a letter, written in 1766, which speaks of bargaining for iron in 
 exchange for goods. 
 
 ^ Note the assumption of barter in the following: "I would buy 
 pork to barrel, but that I fear the flesh will not be good on account 
 of the abundance of acorns. I mean I would buy with goods " 
 (Callister MSS., November 18, 1760). 
 
 6 Cecil County, Court Records, August, 1723, Liber SK No. 3. 
 p. 24. 
 
 7 Somerset County, Court Records, June, 173S, Liber XA No. Y, 
 p. 48; June, 1749, Liber P, p. 259. 
 
 8 Kent County, Court Records, March, 1748, Liber JS No. 34. 
 p. 469; November, 1749, Liber JS No. 35, p. 323. 
 
 » Baltimore County, Court Records, March, 1723/4, Liber JS No. 
 TW 3, p. 223. 
 
76 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 10 
 
 delivered at Chapel Landing on Wicomico Creek 
 Shingles, cider, corn, pork, and wheat are all to be found 
 as the media of payment in promissory notes/^ These con- 
 tracts were recognized by the courts, and judgments for 
 commodities are occasionally mentioned. ^^ 
 
 The legislature of the colony recognized the use of barter 
 currency only in certain exceptional cases. During the early 
 years of the eighteenth century the culture of flax and hemp 
 was being encouraged in the hope that they might develop 
 into staples. Consequently, in order to give these products 
 all the favors that tobacco enjoyed, it was enacted in 1706 
 that properly cured flax and hemp at six pence and nine 
 pence per pound respectively should be legal tender for one 
 fourth of any debt.^^ In 1724 this act was amended in some 
 details. The debates at that time show the Upper House 
 taking special care to protect the interests of office-holders 
 and merchants against losses which might ensue.^* The law 
 remained in force throughout the colonial period, but it is 
 impossible to know how often it was put into practical use. 
 
 In one other case the assembly gave legal-tender qualities 
 to commodities other than tobacco. In the code of 1715 
 there was an act making it legal for those who lacked specie 
 to pay all debts and judgments, except those due to British 
 merchants and those arising from foreign bills of exchange, 
 in the following commodities if produced within the colony : 
 beef and bacon at i^d. per pound, pork at 2d., dried beef at 
 3d., wheat and peas at 3s. 6d. per bushel, oats and barley at 
 
 ^° Somerset County, Court Records, November, 1756, Liber 1754- 
 1756, p. 225. 
 
 11 Somerset County, Court Records, August, 1756, Liber 1754- 
 1756, p. 212; March, 1748/9. Liber P, p. 226; March, 1750/1, Liber 
 1749-175 1, p. 263; Baltimore County, Court Records, June, 1725, 
 Liber JS No. TW 4, p. 249; Dorchester County, Court Records, 
 August, 1733, p. 22; Cecil County, Court Records, November, 1742, 
 p. 160; Baltimore County, Administration Accounts, 1759, Liber D4, 
 p. 280. 
 
 12 Cecil County, Court Records, March, 1760, Liber FK No 3, p. 
 257; Baltimore County, Court Records, November, 1733, Liber JWS 
 No. 9, p. 155; March, 1718/9, Liber JS No. C, p. 106. 
 
 13 Bacon, 1706, ch. 11; Parks, p. 47. 
 
 1* Lower House Journal, October 26, 31, November 3, 4, 1724; 
 Bacon, 1724, ch. 12. 
 
BARTER 7 J 
 
 2s., Indian corn at 2od., and beans at 2s. 6d. In the pay- 
 ment of tobacco debts tobacco was to be rated at one penny 
 per pound.^' Though the wording of this act seems to 
 imply that the debtor might be sent to prison before these 
 articles would have to be accepted by the creditor, yet the 
 act does not specifically state such a condition, and the effect 
 was to make these products practically legal tender. In 
 1722 the law was changed so as to require imprisonment of 
 the debtor before acceptance of the commodities. The price 
 of oats was raised to two shillings, debts for borrowed 
 money were excluded, and the debtor was required to make 
 oath that he had not, and could not procure, specie with 
 which to pay his debt.^' This act continued with a slight 
 intermission until 1750. Although under it a creditor might 
 be forced to accept commodities instead of money, yet the 
 debtor was so restricted that the commodities can hardly be 
 said to have been legal tender. Legislation of this character 
 does not seem to have interested the assembly very much in 
 later years, and renewals were always made with little dis- 
 cussion. It is possible that the act was working so satis- 
 factorily that no changes were deemed necessary, but it 
 seems much more probable that the increase of the money 
 supply made the act of less importance to the colony. 
 
 In conclusion, transactions by barter seem to have been 
 prevalent in Maryland and to have persisted throughout the 
 colonial period. Between planters, or between planters and 
 local merchants the arrangement appears to have been fairly 
 satisfactory, but in dealings with foreign merchants, and with 
 officials whose fees arose in small amounts all over the 
 province, and also in the payment of taxes the system en- 
 tirely broke down. In the laws requiring the acceptance of 
 barter commodities an exception was always made in favor 
 of foreign merchants. 
 
 15 Calvert Papers, MS., No. 823. 
 If" Parks, p. 234. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 Paper Currency 
 
 Paper money was one of the most prevalent economic 
 phenomena in the history of British America. The scarcity 
 of coin seen in every nev^r country was common to the 
 colonies, and the issue of paper money was their remedy. 
 Fiat money, moreover, was a novelty in the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, and its principles and shortcomings were not well 
 understood. From the first issue of paper by Massachusetts 
 in 1690 to the repudiation of the Revolutionary continental 
 currency, the American provinces show a long series of 
 failures in the use of this alluring device. Every mainland 
 British colony and several of the islands participated. 
 Maryland was comparatively late in issuing a paper currency, 
 and, therefore, with the accumulated experience of the other 
 colonies to guide her, she was a'ble to conduct one of the 
 most successful of all these experiments. 
 
 In Maryland there were other reasons besides the mere 
 lack of coin that induced the assembly to emit paper money, 
 chief among which were the defects of tobacco currency. 
 Tobacco money, as we have seen, was very poorly distributed 
 among the different classes and localities, was too bulky to 
 be handled, fluctuated in supply with the different seasons, 
 and varied sharply in value. The necessity of providing a 
 supply of tobacco to meet the public demands forced many 
 persons to continue the cultivation of the plant long after 
 conditions made dependence on some other crop desirable. 
 Moreover, the tobacco industry was at an extremely low 
 ebb, and it seemed impossible, as long as tobacco remained a 
 money, to regulate the industry without doing injustice to 
 some of those whose contracts called for tobacco payments. 
 One tobacco bill after another had failed because of this 
 difficulty. The imperative need of efficient regulation of 
 
 78 
 
PAPER CURRENCY 7g 
 
 the tobacco industry was the most important single reason 
 why Maryland began to issue a paper currency. 
 
 Many felt, also, that the use of tobacco money was in 
 some way to blame for the industrial backwardness of the 
 colony, and that a well-supported paper currency would 
 stimulate trade. In this strain Benedict Leonard Calvert 
 wrote in 1729 : " Money, or somewhat to answer its Current 
 Effects in trade, is Certainly much wanted here; wee may 
 Barter between one Another our Staple Tobacco, but to 
 Carry on and Inlarge our trade Abroad, & to Invite Artifi- 
 cers, Shipwrights &c to settle amongst us, another species 
 of Currency in payments Seems very desireable; New York, 
 Pennsylvania &c are vastly improved in foreign Trade, as 
 well as home Manufactures, by a Paper Currency ; it is that, 
 in lieu of Specific Coin, which Seems to give life. Expedition 
 and Ease to trade and Commerce, this has drawn them into 
 Communitys or Towns, they are daily growing more and 
 more populous, and are Supposed to Increase as proportion- 
 ably in Credit and riches. . . . When our Tobacco then is 
 Sold at home, whatever is the produce of it, returns not to 
 us in Money, But is either converted into Apparell, Tools 
 or other Conveniences of life; or Else remains there, as it 
 were Dead to us, for where the Staple of a Country, upon 
 foreign Sale, yields no return of Money, to Circulate in 
 Such a Country the want of Such Circulation must leave 
 it almost Inanimate ; it is like a Dead Palsie on the publick. 
 Since it can never Exert its members or faculties, in the 
 pursuit of trade and Commerce; An interesting Country and 
 growing people, as this is, and a Staple, at best Uncertain, 
 but of late visibly declining in Value, as Tobacco is ; invites 
 the people here to look about and enlarge their foundation in 
 trade, to the which money or Some Currency, which may 
 answer the same uses, is necessary, and the Expedient to 
 Such End, is a Paper Currency."^ 
 
 Both in 1727 and 1728 bills for the establishment of a 
 
 1 Calvert Papers, No. 2, pp. 69-71. A writer in the Maryland 
 Gazette of July 22, 1729, argues that a plentiful supply of money 
 will make interest low, and low interest will force capitalists to 
 
80 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 paper currency were considered by the Lower House,^ but 
 it was not until 1729 that the movement became really 
 serious. The Maryland Gazette, established about that time 
 in Annapolis, furnished a medium through which was 
 carried on a public discussion of the matter, and in this way 
 the idea obtained a popularity never before enjoyed by any 
 proposed piece of legislation in Maryland. The letter from 
 the London tobacco merchants to the people of Maryland, 
 which advised that the use of tobacco as money be given 
 up, was published in April, and probably helped to arouse 
 interest in the subject. In July several other letters ap- 
 peared. About this time, too was circulated the poem, 
 Sotweed Redivivus, which also advocated a paper currency.^ 
 
 invest in lands and trade rather than lend out their money at interest. 
 Therefore, a plentiful money supply will lead to high land values 
 and brisk trade. 
 2 Lower House Journal, October 25, 1727; November i, 1728. 
 2 One passage runs as follows : — 
 
 " For Remedy, both Houses joyn. 
 
 To settle here a Current Coin, 
 
 Without Exception, such as may, 
 
 Our Publick Dues and Clergy pay. 
 
 Grown Wordly wise, unwilling are, 
 
 To be put off with Neighbours Fare; 
 
 Hold Predial Tythes, secure in Bags, 
 
 Better than Paper made of Rags: 
 
 The Scribes likewise, and Pharisees, 
 
 Infected with the same Disease, 
 
 On Paper Money look a squint, 
 
 Care not to be made Fools in Print. 
 
 Thus what is meant for Publick Good, 
 
 I find to be misunderstood. 
 
 And taken in the worser Sense, 
 
 By those, care not for Paper Pence. 
 
 And tho' this Scheme should prove in vain, 
 
 The Case to me seems very plain; 
 
 Said I to Planter standing by, 
 
 And was for Paper Currency: 
 
 It's money, be it what it will. 
 
 In Tan-Pit coin'd, or Paper-Mill, 
 
 That must the hungry Belly fill. 
 
 When suramon'd to attend the Court, 
 
 Held at the Magisterial Port." 
 An amusing objection to paper money is put into the mouth of one 
 of the opposition : — 
 
 " AUedging, Planters, when in drink, 
 
 Wou'd light their Pipes with Paper Chink; 
 
 And knowing not to read, might be 
 
 Impos'd on, by such currency." 
 
 —Pp. 39, 42. 
 
PAPER CURRENCY 55 I 
 
 When the assembly met in July, the movement was still 
 vigorous, and the emission of paper money became one of 
 the chief issues of the session. The Lower House passed a 
 bill to emit £24,000 currency in bills which should be legal 
 tender for public levies, fees, and even sterling debts.* To 
 this extensive proposition the Upper House refused to agree ; 
 but the issue was not fought out between the two houses at 
 this time, as another difficulty had arisen on which there 
 could be no compromise. The Upper House — as was neces- 
 sary, according to the royal instructions, in all important 
 matters affecting trade — inserted an amendment suspending 
 enforcement of the bill until the proprietor's assent had been 
 received. Now, the Lower House just at this time was 
 engaged in an effort to break down the proprietor's right 
 of veto, and to suspend the enforcement of this act would 
 have been practically an abandonment of its position on the 
 veto. As this was impossible, the paper-money bill was 
 allowed to drop.® 
 
 During the next three years the currency question was a 
 burning issue. In 1730, apparently without much discus- 
 sion, the paper-money bill passed the Lower House,® but 
 was defeated in the Upper. ^ Whether the difficulty was 
 over the payment of fees and sterling debts in paper or was 
 a continuation of the fight of 1729 we cannot tell. By 1731, 
 however, the Lower House seemed rather docile. It 
 broached the subject by proposing to the Upper House that 
 a joint committee should draft an acceptable bill.* After 
 long debates an act was finally passed. It provided for the 
 emission of £36,000 currency in notes, and settled all dis- 
 puted points agreeably to the wishes of the Upper House. 
 Fees to lawyers only were payable in paper, and the act was 
 not to go into effect until the receipt of the proprietor's 
 
 * Upper House Journal, Lower House Journal, August 4, 1729. 
 ' Calvert Papers, No. 2, p. 69. 
 ® Lower House Journal, May 30, 1730. 
 ^ Upper House Journal, June 10, 1730. 
 8 Ibid., July IS, 1731. 
 6 
 
82 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 assent." This assent was never received, and the act re- 
 mained void.^" In 1732 the whole matter was fought out 
 again. At one time the contest 'became so heated that the 
 assembly was in serious danger of disbanding.'-^ The 
 Lower House agreed that no fees — not even those to 
 lawyers — should be payable in the paper, and, after a short 
 insistence, yielded also on the question of suspending en- 
 forcement until the proprietor should have given his assent 
 and procured that of the crown. Even after such sacrifices, 
 a comparatively trivial point — the right of the governor to 
 appoint the commissioners to carry out the act — ^was allowed 
 to defeat the project.'^ Thus was the plan frustrated for 
 six consecutive years. 
 
 In 1733 conditions were more favorable for the passage 
 of a paper-money act. The proprietor was in the colony, 
 and seems to have exerted himself to bring the official classes 
 to accept such a measure. At the very beginning of the 
 debate in the assembly a statement was received from the 
 ministers in which they agreed to accept their salaries in 
 paper provided no reduction was made in the amount.^^ A 
 bill to emit £72,000 in notes was introduced into the Lower 
 House on March 27, and passed to the Upper House on 
 March 29. On the same day a conference committee was 
 appointed, which reported on April 2, and on April 5 the 
 act was passed to final engrossment. In the conference 
 committee one important change was made. The amount of 
 paper money to be issued according to the several bills of 
 the preceding four years had been steadily increasing. The 
 bills of 1729 and 1730 called for only £24,000 currency, that 
 of 1 73 1 was for £36,000, and that of 1732, for £72,000. The 
 original bill of 1733 was also for £72,000; but in the con- 
 ference committee, in order to provide a greater sum to be 
 
 ^ Lower House Journal, August 21, 1731 ; Laws of Maryland, 
 1731, pp. 5-i6. 
 
 1" Bacon, 1731, ch. 21. 
 
 11 American Weekly Mercury, August 10, 1732. 
 
 ^2 Lower House Journal, July 26, 27, 29, 31, August 2, 4, 7, 8, 1732. 
 
 12 Upper House Journal, March 30, 1733. 
 
PAPER CURRENCY 83 
 
 lent out at interest and thus help pay the expenses of the 
 act, the amount was raised to £90,000 currency. 
 
 The treatment accorded to officers' fees and ministers' 
 salaries during the debates is of some importance. Early 
 in the session the clergy had made known their consent to a 
 change of their salaries from tobacco to paper provided no 
 change was made in the amount. The first draft of the 
 bill also included a provision making officers' fees payable in 
 paper. But a disagreement seems to have arisen over giving 
 the debtor the option of payment in either tobacco or paper, 
 as the conferees particularly condemned this plan. In the 
 final act it was settled that officers' fees, clergymen's salaries, 
 and all special assessments for the building or repairing of 
 churches should not be payable in paper money. Although 
 subsequent events show that the Lower House was anxious 
 to provide the option of paying these latter obligations in 
 either paper or tobacco, yet the governor repeatedly charged 
 that house with having defeated the project at this time. 
 Nowhere is the position of either house on this matter clearly 
 set forth. The best explanation seems to be that the Upper 
 House was willing to risk the chance that paper money 
 would maintain its value if all fees and dues were payable 
 in it alone, and stood ready to abolish tobacco payments 
 altogether, but was not willing to permit fees always to be 
 paid in the cheaper medium ; the Lower House, on the other 
 hand, feared that, if fees were accepted only in paper, 
 scarcity of this currency might cause hardship, or an ad- 
 vance in its value might increase the fees, which were 
 already too large. Thus was defeated one of the chief 
 objects for which paper currency had been issued, as it was 
 still necessary to produce tobacco in order to meet public 
 obligations, and all campaigns for regulation of tobacco had 
 still to be fought out in the heat of the controversy over 
 officers' fees.'^* 
 
 1* The preamble of the law rehearses the reasons for its enact- 
 ment: "Whereas the most probable means to enable the people to 
 discharge their taxes, and other engagements now payable in tobacco, 
 otherwise; and to destroy such ordinary and unmerchantable to- 
 
84 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 The main provisions of the act of 1733 were as follows: 
 Paper bills should be printed for £90,000 currency as estab- 
 lished by the proclamation of Queen Anne (£i33J^ cur- 
 rency equaled iioo sterling) . These bills should be placed 
 in an iron chest with three keys, one key being kept by each 
 of the three commissioners appointed to manage the cur- 
 rency. At the next county court, after the bills had been 
 prepared and signed, thirty shillings was to be paid to every 
 taxable in each county. The remainder of the money might 
 be lent out by the commissioners at four per cent interest on 
 the security of plate, leaseholds, or real estate. All notes re- 
 maining in the office after the expiration of one year might 
 be invested in good bills of exchange and remitted to London 
 along with the other money to redeem the paper. Redemp- 
 tion was provided for by the levy of one shilling three pence 
 sterling on every hogshead or cask of tobacco exported, 
 which money was to be sent to London and invested in stock 
 of the Bank of England. To take charge of the London end 
 of the business three tobacco merchants, Hyde, Hunt, and 
 Cruickshank, were named in the act, and authority was 
 granted to the lord proprietor to supervise their actions, to 
 remove any one of them in case of necessity, and to appoint 
 a successor should any one withdraw from the position. 
 Between September 29, 1748, and March 29, 1749, all 
 persons having paper notes in their possession should bring 
 them to the office of the commissioners and receive back two 
 thirds of their value in new notes and one third in sterling 
 bills of exchange at the rate of ii33/^ paper money for £100 
 sterling. These bills of exchange were to be met by sale of 
 the bank-stock purchased by the tobacco duty. Between the 
 same days of 1764 and 1765 the two thirds of the paper re- 
 maining in circulation were to be redeemed in the same way. 
 During their circulation these notes were to be payable for 
 
 bacco, which serve only to clog the markets, and depreciate the best 
 sorts of that commodity, as well as to put the people in a condition 
 to carry on the tobacco trade, to the advantage of Great Britain, 
 and this province, is to establish a Paper Currency, or bills of credit, 
 upon a sinking fund." 
 
PAPER CURRENCY 85 
 
 all contracts for current money made after the publication 
 of the act; for lawyers' fees, if paid immediately after the 
 conclusion of the case; for all levies, except those for the 
 ministers' salaries and for building churches; and for all 
 customs duties, except those payable to the proprietor or 
 crown and those levied by the act itself. Such of these pay- 
 ments as were levied in tobacco were to be discharged in 
 paper money at ten shillings per hundred pounds, and such 
 as were levied in money were to be discharged at the rate 
 of £133^3 paper bills for iioo sterling. 
 
 Two provisions of the act were somewhat foreign to its 
 general nature. Three thousand pounds in bills was appro- 
 priated for the erection of a mansion for the governor, and 
 £6500 was appropriated for the erection and repair of gaols 
 and other public buildings. The second irrelevant provision 
 was that for every taxable engaged in the production of 
 tobacco one hundred and fifty pounds of the worst tobacco 
 should be burned each year.^^ 
 
 The history of the paper-money issue falls into two clearly 
 distinguished periods : from 1734 to the first redemption in 
 1 748-1 749, and from 1749 to the final redemption in 1764- 
 1765. The act was put into execution at once. The 
 London agents had a paper manufactured under their per- 
 sonal supervision, and the bills were struck from engraved 
 copper plates.^^ During the winter of 1 733-1 734 everything 
 was prepared, and in the June courts, 1734, the thirty shil- 
 lings per taxable was distributed.^^ A report to the assembly 
 of the following April shows that £47,923^4 was sent to the 
 counties for distribution.^^ Several faults may be found 
 
 i=Acts of 1733; Board of Trade, Proprieties, vol. xiv (Public 
 Record Office, C. O. 5: 1269), T 23; Bacon, 1733, oh. 6. 
 
 1' Account of London agents, Scharf Papers, box 17 (Maryland 
 Historical Society). 
 
 "Dorchester County, Court Records, June, 1734, p. 411; Balti- 
 more County, Court Records, November, 1733, Liber JWS No. 9, 
 p. 131 ; Proprietary Papers, vol. iv, nos. 26, 27, 28, Maryland His- 
 torical Society. 
 
 ^8 Not all of this was distributed. In 1736 the auditing committee 
 complained that " although a greater sum of money has been trans- 
 mitted to the justices of the several counties than was demanded 
 from them by the inhabitants for the taxables in the said counties. 
 
86 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 with this method of distribution. It imposed upon the 
 future a burden of taxation the benefits of which would 
 long since have passed away. The next generation was 
 taxed that their fathers might enjoy thirty shillings for 
 which they had not labored.^" Daniel Dulany also attributed 
 to this method of distribution much of the depreciation 
 which the bills suffered. " The old Proverb, Lightly come, 
 Lightly go," he wrote, " was strongly exemplifyed."^" 
 
 During the course of the first ten months ^7374 was lent 
 on security. About £1500 was spent in sundry ways, making 
 a total of about £56,000 that went into circulation during 
 the first year after the opening of the office. The normal 
 way, according to the act, for the remaining £34,000 to get 
 into circulation was by means of loans and administrative 
 expenses. Until March 22, 1736/7, however, only £16,160 
 had been lent out, and £3054 had been paid back on interest 
 and principal. With all other receipts and expenditures con- 
 sidered, there still remained £20,131 to be put into circula- 
 tion." 
 
 Partly in order to get this balance into circulation, and 
 partly to ease the burden of immediate payment of appro- 
 priations, there followed a series of acts calling upon the 
 commissioners of paper currency to pay the expenses of 
 government. By the paper money act itself £9500 had been 
 appropriated for erection and repair of public buildings. By 
 acts of 1735, 1736, and 1737 the public expenses of these 
 years were discharged out of the paper money.^^ By these 
 
 yet there has not been any money returned by the said justices " 
 (Upper House Journal, April 6, 1736). Some £309 was returned 
 before 1748, but in that year a letter was sent to all delinquents 
 (Lower House Journal, June 11, 1748; Maryland Historical Society, 
 Red Book No. 2, 17). As late as 1758 the clerk was ordered to 
 write to the justices of Cecil Cotmty for an accounting (Lower 
 House Journal, May 6, 1758). 
 
 18 Essay Concerning Silver and Paper Currencies, in Prince 
 Society Reprints, vol. iii, p. 228. 
 
 2° Calvert Papers, No. 2, p. 245. 
 
 21 Upper House Journal, May 26, 1737. 
 
 22 Bacon, 173s, ch. 24; 1737, ch. 18; Acts of 1735, p. 24. The 
 purposes of the assembly in these acts are stated to be, first, prompt 
 payment of the public debts, and, second, a greater diffusion of the 
 bills (Lower House Journal, May 23, 1737). 
 
PAPER CUREENCY 8/ 
 
 three acts £9403 was put in circulation. The expeditions 
 against the West Indies in 1740 and against Canada in 
 1746 gave an opportunity for the assembly to float still 
 more bills ; and at the same time, the existence of the paper 
 money enabled the province to meet these contingencies 
 without undue effort. Altogether, the circulation of bills 
 was increased about £12,000 by appropriations for the two 
 expeditions.^^ By means of these public loans to the province 
 the balance of paper money remaining in the office was re- 
 duced from £20,131 in March, 1736, to £11,464 in April, 
 1740, and to £2851 in April, 1747.^* 
 
 Scarcely had the paper money entered circulation when it 
 began to depreciate rapidly in value. The inventories show 
 that by 1739 exchange had risen as high as £200 paper to 
 ^133/4 gold and silver, or £100 sterling. This rate became 
 generally accepted, and until about 1750 almost all estates 
 are inventoried in money at this value. Commercially, there 
 was a little greater fluctuation. At times £250 paper was 
 asked for £100 sterling.^^ A complaint is heard in Balti- 
 more County in 1742 of £300 being demanded.^" Henry 
 Canister's report of current exchange to his principals in 
 London shows that in 1746 and 1747 exchange varied be- 
 
 =3 Bacon, 1746, chs. i, 10; 1740, ch. 2; Acts of 1740 (First Session), 
 p. i; Acts of 1740 (Second Session), p. i. 
 
 =* Throughout this chapter unnoted figures are drawn from the 
 reports of the auditing committees of the assembly. These reports 
 are to be found in the journals on the following dates : April 19, 
 173s; April 6, 1736; May 26, 1737; June 9, 1739; May 12, 1740; 
 June 13, 1741; October 26, 1742; May 29, 1744; September 26, 174S; 
 July II, 1747; June 8, 1748; May 28, 1750; June 7, 1751; November 
 12, 1753; May 20, 1754; March 10, 1755; March S, October 8, 1756; 
 April 28, 1757; May 8, 1758; April 21, 1761 ; April 24, 1762; October 
 14, November 24, 1763; July 17, 1764; November 29, 1765. 
 
 25 Douglass, A Discourse Concerning the Currencies of the British 
 Plantations in America, p. 17; Douglass, A Summary, Historical and 
 Political, of the First Planting ... of the British Settlements in 
 North-America, vol. ii, p. 365. 
 
 2^ "Of 5/ currency and is:i:s sterl. for goods due from the 
 deceased to James Rigbie as per his acct. proved, and paid by this 
 accountant Margaret as per receipt aP which sterling sum this 
 accountant discharged in currency @ 300^ exchange and although 
 she endeavoured to her utmost to pay in an easier Manner, she could 
 not do it as per this accountant's oath . . . £15: g: 4" (Administra- 
 tion Accounts, Liber C No. 3, p. 29s). 
 
88 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 tween i200 and £230 paper for £100 sterling.^^ It may be 
 concluded, therefore, that during the first twelve or fifteen 
 years of its circulation paper money passed at a little above 
 £200 paper for £100 sterling,— a depreciation of 33^^ per 
 cent of its face value.^' 
 
 A contemporary writer on currency mentions and explains 
 this depreciation as follows: "They [Marylanders] then 
 [1734] emitted 90000 1. in Bills, which tho' payable to the 
 Possessors in Sterling well secured, the Sum being too large, 
 and the Periods too long, viz. three partial payments of 15 
 Years Periods each;=' Exchange immediately rose from 33 
 to 100 and 150 per Cent."^" It is always difficult to de- 
 termine just how much currency a country should have, but 
 from the best indications £90,000 does not seem to have been 
 very excessive, and the £70,000 or £80,000 in circulation 
 toward the end of the period does not seem to have been 
 excessive at all. Exchange fluctuations show that some coin 
 was displaced at the first issue of paper. Even before the 
 paper had reached circulation, bills of exchange rose so 
 rapidly that it was feared that the proprietor's income would 
 have to be transmitted in bullion instead of bills. ^^ Yet 
 evidences are very strong that in general during the years 
 of the paper currency, coin was increasing rather than 
 diminishing in the province.^^ So far was the colony from 
 
 2'' The ledger of Robert Morris, now among the court records of 
 Dorchester County, shows one hundred per cent exchange between 
 sterling and paper. 
 
 28 In March, 173S, the innkeepers of Prince George's County 
 declared " that the paper Money (the only currency at this Time) 
 is so Sunk in its Value of late and wines & other Liquors so Much 
 advanced in their Prices that Your PeP^ Cannot Carry on their 
 Business according to the Present Rates as last Assest by this 
 Worshipful Court without Suffering very great Loss thereby" 
 (Court Record, Liber W, p. 41). At the August court a slight ad- 
 vance was made in six of the wine rates (ibid., p. 158). 
 
 29 This is a mistake. There were two periods, one of fifteen and 
 one of sixteen years. 
 
 3" Douglass, A Discourse Concerning the Currencies of the British 
 Plantations in America, p. 17. 
 SI Calvert Papers, MS., No. 295*, p. 66. 
 82 See page 20. 
 
PAPER CURRENCY 89 
 
 being stripped of its coin that Marylanders traveling in New 
 England spoke of the scarcity of coin in those colonies.^^ 
 
 Another strong indication that excessive issue was not the 
 only cause of depreciation is the fact that when in 1756 about 
 £34,000 additional was issued, the exchange between paper 
 and sterling does not seem to have been seriously afifected. 
 Moreover, there could have been no excess of paper in 
 circulation about 1760, for at that time all sources agree 
 that paper had almost completely disappeared. The best 
 conclusion, perhaps, is that at first there was general lack of 
 confidence in the security of the paper. So many colonies 
 had issued paper with disastrous results that people could 
 not believe that this issue would be exceptional. This feel- 
 ing, taken in conjunction with a slight overissue, accounts 
 for the initial depreciation. In the later years, however, 
 after the currency had been somewhat diminished and the 
 business needs of the colony had somewhat increased, there 
 was no excess whatever in the issue. Moreover, the first 
 redemption of one third of the bills and the flourishing state 
 of the funds in London gave proof of perfect security. 
 Although under these conditions one would expect the 
 money to pass at par, yet the habit of discounting the value 
 of paper was so fixed in the public mind that bills still passed 
 current for less than their intrinsic worth.'* 
 
 A reason assigned at the time for the depreciation of the 
 currency, and one which very likely did affect its value, was 
 that paper money was not legal tender for officers' fees or 
 parish levies. We have already noticed that in drawing the 
 bill of 1733 the Lower House deliberately refused, probably 
 because of a disagreement as to rates, to make the notes 
 payable for officers' and ministers' fees. Just enough of 
 the public dues were thus left not payable in paper to 
 
 25 Dr. Alexander Hamilton of Annapolis, writing in Rhode Island, 
 said, " This is the only part ever I knew where gold and silver coin 
 is not commonly current" (Hamilton's Itinerarium, p. 180). It is 
 not clear whether he refers to Rhode Island alone or to all New 
 England. 
 
 5* This condition made possible the speculations of which there 
 was so much complaint. 
 
90 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 hinder its usefulness to some extent and to cast a shadow of 
 suspicion over it in general. 
 
 The struggle of the session of 1733 on this subject was 
 continued into the succeeding years. Excessive fees for 
 officers and clergymen formed one of the most serious griev- 
 ances of the colony, and every possible opportunity was 
 seized by the Lower House to fight the question out. The 
 change from a tobacco to a money basis offered an excellent 
 opportunity to make the fees payable in either tobacco or 
 paper, that the people might always have the advantage of 
 paying in the cheaper commodity. The Upper House, how- 
 ever, represented the fee-receiving classes, and was the 
 stronghold of privilege. It firmly refused to accept any bill 
 that did not make the fees payable in one medium only, or 
 any bill that tended under any pretext to reduce the fees. 
 
 Many bills were lost because of this disagreement between 
 the two houses of assembly. In 1736 the Upper House pro- 
 fessed itself willing to do anything to maintain the credit of 
 the bills, but refused to accept a Lower House bill making 
 officers' fees payable in paper. A conference committee on 
 the subject avoided the point at issue, and reported back a 
 novel scheme to enable the people to pay quit-rents in paper. 
 When the Lower House further suggested that all levies be 
 made payable in either paper or tobacco, the Upper House 
 again refused to agree to an alternative payment; and the 
 Lower House, fearing that " the people will be under great 
 Difficulties if they are obliged to pay their Levies in money 
 only," let the plan drop.^'' In 1737, probably because of the 
 hopelessness of the situation, the Lower House refused to 
 consider a bill for altering the method of payment of the 
 officers' and ministers' fees.^^ In 1739 the governor in his 
 opening address to the assembly recommended that these 
 fees be made payable in paper at ten shillings per hundred 
 pounds of tobacco, but even he, the leader of the government 
 
 36 Upper House Journal, March 31, April 3, 1736; Lower House 
 Journal, April S, 7, 8, 22, 1736. 
 2' Lower House Journal, May 6, 1737. 
 
PAPER CURRENCY 9 1 
 
 party, could not say how the clergy would look upon such 
 a change.^^ 
 
 In making a reply, both houses avoided the general ques- 
 tion, but suggested that some special action be taken to re- 
 lieve the settlers on the frontier, who raised no tobacco, by 
 making their dues payable in paper. The Lower House also 
 complained bitterly of the amount of the fees, and wished 
 that it "had not good Reason to be assured that the little 
 Credit given by his Lordship's Officers to a Currency struck 
 by his Lordship and the People here, on the best Security, 
 has not been the Means in a great manner to depreciate the 
 same." Nevertheless, it reiterated its intention not to yield 
 in the matter, but rather "to let it take it's Chance on the 
 Foundation whereon it now stands, which we are well as- 
 sured must give it a due Credit in Time."^^ There were a 
 few recriminations on both sides, but nothing further was 
 done in the matter. So complete was the deadlock that after 
 five or six years of fruitless debate the question was tacitly 
 dropped, and the paper currency was left to maintain what 
 credit it could in its partly efficient state. 
 
 It was not until the passage of the tobacco act of 1747 
 that the question of making fees and parish levies payable 
 in paper was again taken up. By that act officers' fees in 
 general were reduced when paid in inspected tobacco, and 
 were also made payable in money at twelve shillings six 
 
 3^ Lower House Journal, May i, 1739. 
 
 ^^ Lower House Journal, Upper House Journal, May 4, 1739. The 
 governor in answer to this address said : " I am obliged to you for 
 acknowleging that you have good Reason to be assured, that the 
 little Credit given by his Lordship's Officers to our Currency, has 
 not been the Means in a great manner to depreciate the same, this 
 is but doing them Justice; Our Paper Money not paying the Clergy 
 and Officers, being the chief, if not only Reason of the present 
 low State of it's Credit: But however that may be, I cannot but be 
 concerned to find anything weigh with the Representatives of the 
 good People of Maryland, to let it take its Chance on the Founda- 
 tion whereon it now stands, especially as you seem to acknowledge, 
 that it is of the utmost Importance to this Province to Circulate and 
 give a Credit to our Currency . . . : What Evils you apprehend in 
 raising the Value of our Paper Money, I must own I cannot 
 imagine; but should be glad that they were to be fairly examined, 
 being perswaded, that if your Apprehensions should be found to be 
 ill grounded, you would readily quiet them for the Good of the 
 Province" (Lower House Journal, May 10, 1739). 
 
92 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 pence per hundred pounds. The forty pounds of tobacco 
 per poll for the clergy was also reduced to thirty when paid 
 in tobacco, but along with special assessments for the build- 
 ing of churches it was made payable in money for those 
 who took oath that they produced no tobacco. This added 
 greatly to the usefulness of paper, and for the first time 
 made it possible for bills to accomplish one of the chief 
 purposes for which they had been issued by completely re- 
 lieving the inhabitants of the necessity of producing tobacco. 
 Another difficulty in this connection arose with the 
 sheriffs. Since, by the paper-money act, county and pro- 
 vincial levies were payable in either tobacco or paper, it 
 followed that the sheriffs received both currencies in their 
 collections, and they were thus able, by paying an undue 
 proportion of accounts in the cheaper medium, to hold back 
 as illegal profit for themselves the excess of value they had 
 received in the better currency. Furthermore, they often 
 resorted to various schemes to prevent the payment of levies 
 in money when tobacco happened to be the more valuable.^® 
 In 1735 the assembly sought to remedy this abuse by chang- 
 ing the terms in which all levies and public payments were 
 made from the time-honored tobacco to a money basis.*" 
 This, however, proved to be merely a change of names, for 
 the real difficulty continued to exist. In 1736 another act 
 was passed against the practice, but it was not until 1742 
 that a satisfactory law was devised. By this statute sheriffs 
 were required to make out sworn statements of the amount 
 of money and tobacco received from each taxable; these 
 statements were to be conspicuously posted at the court- 
 houses, and each payment made by a sheriff must be in the 
 same proportions of money and tobacco that the statement 
 showed that sheriff to have collected. This act seems 
 effectively to have remedied the difficulty, for it was con- 
 tinued from time to time as long as the paper money was in 
 circulation.*^ 
 
 2° Lower House Journal, April 2, S, 7, 1736. 
 *° Acts of 1735, p. 2. 
 "Bacon, 1742, ch. 7. 
 
PAPER CURRENCY 93 
 
 Whatever may have been the cause of the depreciation of 
 the paper currency, — excessive issue, lack of confidence, or 
 contempt on the part of the officials, — the management and 
 growth of the sinking fund for redemption were only such 
 as would furnish the greatest security. In accordance with 
 the paper-money act a central office was established in 
 Annapolis with a secretary and three commissioners. At 
 almost every session of the assembly during the first fifteen 
 years an auditing committee was appointed to go over the 
 books of the commission and to make certain that its affairs 
 were in proper order. The act of 1733 required that loans 
 be made only on the best security, and as far as can be told 
 from the reports of the several auditing committees not a 
 shilling was lost on loans throughout this period. The 
 amount of money lent out at interest during the first eleven 
 months was £7374, but the loans gradually diminished to 
 about £1500 per year after 1740. The total amount of 
 borrowed money in circulation reached £19,727 in 1739, 
 gradually dropping to between ii6,ooo and £17,000. Down 
 to 1748 the interest paid on loans aggregated £5663. 
 
 To take charge of the paper-money affairs in London the 
 act of 1733 designated three English merchants, Hyde, Hunt, 
 and Cruickshank, who had wide business relations in Mary- 
 land. About 1745 Hyde and Cruickshank both failed, and 
 Lord Baltimore, by virtue of the power vested in him by the 
 act, appointed as their successors Hanbury and Adams, two 
 other London merchants in the Maryland trade.*^ These 
 men seem to have performed faithfully the duties of receiv- 
 ing the money transmitted to them from Maryland and in- 
 vesting it in stock of the Bank of England, in which form it 
 was held as a sinking fund for the paper. From time to time 
 statements were sent to the Annapolis commissioners and 
 the assembly. On one occasion only does there appear any 
 doubt as to the accuracy of these statements and their agree- 
 
 *2 Upper House Journal, July 2, 1746; Calvert Papers, MS., 
 No. 1 136. 
 
94 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 ment with the accounts of the commissioners and the naval 
 officers.*^ 
 
 The money transmitted to the London trustees was raised 
 principally by the duty of fifteen pence sterling per hogs- 
 head on all tobacco exported. With the tobacco crop 
 amounting to nearly thirty thousand hogsheads per year, this 
 tax alone would have been sufficient to sink the bills at the 
 appointed times ; but when the province began borrowing so 
 largely from the paper-money office to meet the expenses of 
 government, it became necessary to provide other funds to 
 repay these loans. Several loans, such as that for the erec- 
 tion and repair of public buildings, which is in the act 
 of 1733, and an act for the relief of Charles Sewell,^ had 
 no provision for their repayment. The acts of 1735) ^736> 
 and 1737, which provided that part of the current expenses 
 of those years should be paid in paper, declared that the 
 regular levies should be collected by the sheriffs and paid 
 over to the paper-money commissioners.*^ So, also, the ap- 
 propriation of 1740 for the encouragement of enlistments 
 was to be repaid from the pubHc levies of 1741 and 1742.*" 
 The act for the transportation of troops to the West Indies 
 in 1740 showed a new principle in that it abandoned the 
 custom of laying special assessments in the general levy and 
 appropriated specific taxes and duties for the repayment of 
 the loan. For this purpose the assembly set aside one half 
 of the import duties on liquors, negroes, and Irish servants, 
 which had previously been used to help to pay the running 
 expenses of the colony, and levied a new license tax on 
 ordinaries, or public houses, amounting to £$ for those in 
 Annapolis and fifty shillings for those in the counties.*' 
 The latter tax proved so productive that in 1746 import 
 duties were abandoned, and the Hcense tax on ordinaries 
 
 *2 Upper House Journal, June 4, 1744. 
 ** Bacon, 1741, ch. 12. 
 
 *5 Ibid., 1735, ch. 24; 1737, ch. 18; Acts of 1735, p. 24; and reports 
 of the auditing committees. 
 ^^ Acts of 1740 (April session), p. i. 
 *^Acts of 1740 (July session), p. i. 
 
PAPER CURRENCY 95 
 
 was continued to pay back the new loans for the Canadian 
 expedition."*^ 
 
 These provisions were rarely sufficient to repay all the 
 money borrowed. The loans in the years 1735, 1736, and 
 1737 to pay current expenses showed a deficit of £3388 after 
 the public levies had been turned in to the commissioners. 
 The money paid for bounties to encourage enlistments in the 
 Cuban expedition of 1740 was not repaid by £686. The 
 appropriation for the transportation of troops in that cam- 
 paign, however, was overpaid by £1010, which was turned 
 over to the Canadian expedition of 1746. The productive 
 license tax on ordinaries was in 1749 still being paid toward 
 the loan for the latter expedition.^^ Altogether, omitting all 
 account of the Canadian expedition loan, which was still in 
 process of repayment, the paper money had by 1749 con- 
 tributed more than £15,000 currency toward the expenses of 
 the colony.^" 
 
 Notwithstanding these unprofitable dealings with the 
 government, the revenues provided for sinking the paper 
 money were more than sufficient to bear the burden. Be- 
 tween 1734 and 1749 there were sent to the London agents 
 bills of exchange for £28,907 sterling. This money was in- 
 vested in bank-stock at premiums varying from 119 to I49j4- 
 The semiannual dividends on stock amounted to £7697 ster- 
 ling. The total amount of the fund on January i, 1749, was 
 £190. 17s. sterling in cash and £24,000 in bank-stock, which 
 had cost £32,977. IDS. sterling," a total currency value of 
 £44,223.^^ Moreover, there was due the currency com- 
 mission at this time £17,182 currency from well-secured 
 private loans. This makes a grand total of £61,405 cur- 
 
 *8 Bacon, 1746, chs. i, 10. 
 
 "Lower House Journal, May 20, 1754; March 10, 1755. 
 
 5" For public buildings and county gaols in accordance with 
 
 act of 1733 £11,567 
 
 To Charles Sewell for Indian lands 605 
 
 Balance unpaid on the various loans 3,064 
 
 Total £15,236 
 
 "1 Scharf Papers, box 17. 
 
 B2 One hundred pounds sterling was equal to ii33>^ currency. 
 
96 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 rency, which in fifteen years had become available for sink- 
 ing the £90,000 currency issued. In other words, in half 
 the time the issue was to run more than two thirds of the 
 sinking fund had been completed. Such was the condition 
 of the paper currency when the time arrived for retiring 
 £30,000 of the bills. 
 
 According to the act of 1733, between September 29, 1748, 
 and March 29, 1749, one third of the money issued was to 
 be redeemed in sterling bills at the rate of i^ZZVi paper to 
 £100 sterling. Holders of notes were to bring them to the 
 office in Annapolis and to receive back one third in bills and 
 two thirds in notes of a new series. Thus, in order to have 
 one third redeemed it was necessary to produce the other 
 two thirds. 
 
 As the time for redemption approached, the first effect 
 noticeable was a sharp rise in the value of paper. On 
 August 6, 1748, Henry Callister wrote : " Paper Money has 
 risen in value on accot. of the approaching Sale [ ?] of J^ 
 sinking this year & Ex^. has fallen in 10 Weeks time from 
 130 to 75% our paper mony is now as good as gold Cur- 
 rency (for whoever wants to exch''. J^ must produce the % 
 or the whole at the office wherefore it is hoarded up and 
 made scarce) by next May I expect to see it down again to 
 150." In order to get paper to redeem at its full face value, 
 merchants collected their currency debts as closely as pos- 
 sible, and cut the prices of their goods to all who would pay 
 in paper.^^ Unfortunately, some took advantage of the 
 opportunity to squeeze their debtors. We are told that the 
 rise of paper was caused "by such griping Cred™. as my 
 
 Neighbours Mr. B 1 [Bennett], who calling in bonds of 
 
 such as had not the Mony to lay down, bonded them anew 
 reducing the Paper to Gold Currency, & with some the whole 
 Debt was so discounted with the Paper Mony almost on a 
 foot with the Gold."^* 
 
 During the period set the commissioners paid off and can- 
 
 ^3 Several letters from Richard Bennett to his factor appear in 
 Chancery Record, Liber DD No. i, pp. 209, 210. 
 " Callister MSS., August i, 1748. 
 
PAPER CURRENCY 9/ 
 
 celed £27,987. I2S. of the paper. This amount was paid by 
 bills on the London agents to be met by sales of bank-stock. 
 Unfortunately for the province, just at the time when this 
 stock had to be marketed its value was at almost its lowest 
 point. Though much had been bought as high as £1450 per 
 iiooo, the first sold brought only £1270. During the course 
 of the year, however, the price gradually rose, and the last 
 shares sold for more than £1350 per £1000. The average 
 cost had been £1374 per £1000, and the average proceeds of 
 the £12,000 sold was £1310. By this mishap the province 
 lost £767 sterling.^^ 
 
 The redemption of 1748-1749 brought to a close the first 
 period of the paper-currency issue. The second period, 
 1 749-1 764, was in many respects different from the first. 
 The tobacco act of 1747 went into effect at almost the same 
 time that the redemption occurred; this meant that just as 
 the amount of bills in circulation was diminished one third, 
 their usefulness was somewhat increased. Moreover, the 
 growing population and trade of the province were con- 
 stantly increasing the demand for a circulating medium. 
 Confidence in the backing of the notes, also, was strength- 
 ened by the prompt cancelation of the first instalment. 
 Thus, many reasons converged to increase the demand for 
 paper currency and to raise its credit. 
 
 The new situation was reflected in the exchange value of 
 paper. Previous to the period of redemption the exchange 
 between paper and sterling had been about two to one. Dur- 
 ing the months while the redemption was in progress ex- 
 change had fallen to one and a third to one, or par value 
 (£133 J^ currency equalled £100 sterling). Immediately 
 after the abnormal conditions had ceased, exchange again 
 'declined. Habit, and ignorance of the real value of paper 
 money seem to have carried it below a normal figure, but it 
 soon began a gradual and steady rise.^'' For several years 
 
 ^5 Scharf Papers, box 17. 
 
 58 In 1750 a rate of £180 paper to £100 sterling is found (Balti- 
 more County, Administrative Accounts, Liber C 3, p. 299; Callister 
 MSS., July 9, 1751)- See quotation on page 99. 
 
 7 
 
98 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 persons seemed unable to adjust themselves to the new 
 value of paper. Henry Callister wrote on July 9, 1751, as 
 follows: "Our Currency (tho its' value be raised in Ex»- 
 with those who are sensible of its' worth) is not so much in 
 Esteem with the less discerning, or greatest part of us, as 
 the Sterling seems to be debased or depreciated by the 
 Exchange & by the prodigious quantitys of Goods in the 
 Country — for example The Planter seems to think no more 
 of 25/ now than he did 7 or 8 years agoe & yet there's 60 pet. 
 odds in the Exchange."" In 1752 exchange ranged from 
 £155 to £160 paper to £100 sterling.^* In June of that year 
 the court of Frederick County, Virginia, " Ordered that 
 maryland money be rated at the same value as Pennsylvania 
 money."'' 
 
 By 1753 the exchange was down to £150 paper to £100 
 sterling, a depreciation of about eleven per cent of its 
 nominal value. It fluctuated about this point for nearly a 
 decade.^" A Maryland writer, probably Governor Sharpe, 
 wrote in 1764: "In the year 1749 the Difference between 
 Maryland Currency and Bills of Exchange in London was 
 at Eighty pcentum and it continued to lessen untill the End 
 of the Year 1753 when Exchange was at £155 Currency for 
 £100 Sterling, . during the late War the Exchange was very 
 fluctuating sometimes so high as Seventy pcentum and for 
 sometime in 1759 so low as a hundred and Fifty for a hun- 
 dred, but for these four years the Exchange here hath been 
 gradually lowering as the time when Our Bills of Credit are 
 
 " Callister MSS. 
 
 °^ Ibid., April 5, August 7, 1752 ; Somerset County, Court Records, 
 1751-1752, p. 162. In the latter the term " whole gold " can mean 
 only sterling. 
 
 »» Court Records, Liber OB No. 4, p. 182 (Winchester, Virginia) . 
 
 *" Frederick County, Court Records, 1753, Liber H, p. 189 ; 
 Chancery Record, Liber DD No. i, p. 166; Worcester County, In- 
 ventories, 1759, p. 369. June 4, 1761, Symmer Brothers advertised in 
 the Maryland Gazette for settlements, offering fifty per cent ex- 
 change between paper and bills; June 12, 1759, Henry Callister 
 wrote: "Cannot you send me a bill? . . . But it will not do above 
 50 pet. exchange, as current here of a long time; . . . There is 
 more art than reality in your [Pennsylvania] Exchange; ours goes 
 on the intrinsick value of its fund more than the fluctuation of 
 Demands" (Callister MSS.). 
 
PAPER CURRENCY 99 
 
 to be sunk approaches so that at present it is under Forty 
 pcent and will certainly be very Soon at Thirty Three and a 
 Third for the Reason abovementioned.""^ As the writer 
 was comparing the value of paper money with that of bills 
 of exchange, it is evident that the premium on foreign ex- 
 change is here included against the paper. Moreover, the 
 fluctuations during the French War were probably due more 
 to the foreign exchange than to the paper. The statements, 
 however, agree very closely with such quotations as can be 
 found in other records. °^ In general, during the second 
 period in the life of the paper-money issue of 1733 the value 
 of the paper first fell to depths like those of the previous 
 period and then gradually rose to about £150 paper to £100 
 sterling. There it stood until about 1760, when, after some 
 further fluctuations, it gradually rose to its par value, £i33>^ 
 paper to £100 sterling. 
 
 Prices were sensitive to these variations in the value of 
 money. On September i, 1752, the Maryland Gazette re- 
 quested its subscribers to take notice "That as our Paper 
 Currency is now of greater Value, and much scarcer, than 
 when this Gazette was first publish'd, . . . They [the sub- 
 scribers] shall not be charged, any more than Twelve Shil- 
 lings and Six Pence a Year, instead of Fourteen, as it has 
 been heretofore." Two weeks later an Annapolis carter 
 advertised a cut in prices, adding that as he was the first to 
 lower rates since the paper money improved, he hoped to 
 receive preference in patronage.^^ The stores also gradually 
 adjusted their prices. Callister wrote on July 9, 1751 : 
 " Since I came hither [Chester River] I opened sale ©150 
 pet. advance Paper Mony** which is approved by Mr. 
 Hanmer [at Oxford] , though they have not yet begun on that 
 
 *i MS. in Maryland Historical Society. 
 
 ^2 In 1762 Ringold and Galloway, merchants, agreed to accept 
 paper money at forty-five per cent advance over sterling (Provincial 
 Court Record, Liber DD No. 3, p. 44). See also Land Office, In- 
 ventories, No. 83, p. 284; No. 84, pp. 83, 311. 
 
 63 October 5, 1752. 
 
 «* That is, goods that cost in London £100 sterling were sold in 
 Maryland for £250 paper. 
 
lOO MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 lay yet, nor hardly any other Store. ... At the same time 
 this rate lays on a better advance (if you consider the 
 Exch^'.) than 200 pet. advance did before, & yet the Planters 
 are little sensible of this." 
 
 The additional strength of the paper money during the 
 last fifteen years of the issue vi^as not by any means due to 
 good management during that period. The assembly itself 
 grew somewhat lax in its supervision, and in 1761 was repri- 
 manded by Governor Sharpe for its neglect.^^ The books of 
 the commissioners became confused, and the auditing com- 
 mittees repeatedly advised that they be kept in the " Italian 
 method or double entry," but no change seems to have been 
 made.**" In 1760 the accounts were so tangled that the com- 
 mittee could not understand the books during the sickness 
 of the clerk, and had to forego an inspection. 
 
 Notwithstanding this confusion in bookkeeping, few losses 
 seem to have occurred. In 1761 discrepancies were found 
 between the accounts of the London agents and those of the 
 naval officers. This led to the discovery that two naval 
 officers. Young of Pocomoke and Darnall of Patuxent, had 
 not made remittances to London in accordance with their 
 accounts. Young soon secured the money and made good 
 the defalcation, but Darnall's bond was the only security for 
 about £900 sterling of arrears. There is nothing to show 
 whether the money was ever secured. °' In several instances 
 sheriffs also were found in arrears,"^ and in 1760 the auditing 
 committee complained that much money was due from irre- 
 sponsible persons."' These are apparently the only cases 
 of loss through dishonesty of officials. 
 
 In a still larger sense the management of the paper issue 
 during the later period was inferior to that during the earlier 
 period. The colony during these years was under severe 
 financial strain because of the French War, and the assembly 
 
 '^ Lower House Journal, May s, 1761. 
 
 «°Ibid., March i, 1756; December 14, 1757; May 8, 1758; April 4, 
 1760. 
 "'Ibid., May 2, S, 1761 ; Archives, vol. ix, p. 511. 
 ^8 Lower House Journal, March S, 1756; December 14, 1757. 
 «»Ibid., April 3, 1760. 
 
PAPER CURRENCY 10 1 
 
 freely risked the credit of the bills in order to meet its 
 obligations. At the time of the first redemption the colony 
 owed the loan-ofifice nearly £4000 currency that had been 
 borrowed for the Canadian expedition of 1746. There had 
 also been appropriated by the tobacco inspection act an 
 indefinite sum for the erection of warehouses and other in- 
 spection expenses. The loan-office was to be repaid out of 
 the inspection fees. Over £4000 was certainly drawn in 
 accordance with this act, but a gap in the accounts makes it 
 impossible to know whether this is all that was withdrawn 
 and what portion was repaid. Slight balances, also, were 
 carried over from other loans to the colony, so that in 1754 
 there was a total indebtedness of £10,513 due from the 
 government to the loan-office.'''' 
 
 In 1754 the French War began, and the colony was called 
 upon to make great exertions in defense. In that year £6000 
 currency was appropriated for His Majesty's service out of 
 the uncirculated bills in the loan-office.''^ Adequate pro- 
 vision was made for repayment. Duties were levied upon 
 all servants (Germans excepted) and slaves and upon 
 Madeira wine imported. A wheel tax was laid on all 
 coaches, chairs, and chaises, and a license was required of all 
 peddlers. The license for ordinaries, which was already ap- 
 propriated for the repayment of the loan for the Canadian 
 expedition, was raised twenty shillings, and continued after 
 the former loan was repaid. These revenues proving reason- 
 ably productive, by 1760 the fund should have been com- 
 pleted, but much money was in the hands of the sheriffs 
 and uncollectable. The taxes were continued another year, 
 and the loan seems to have been entirely repaid about the 
 beginning of 1761.'^ 
 
 Paper money proved such an easy financial expedient in 
 1754 that when still greater sums were demanded the as- 
 sembly naturally resorted to the same device. In 1755 the 
 Lower House, presuming that the £4015 which had not been 
 
 ""> Lower House Journal, May 20, 1754. 
 
 '1 Bacon, 1754, ch. 9. 
 
 ^2 Lower House Journal, April 3, 1760. 
 
102 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 presented for redemption in 1747 and 1748 was lost and 
 would never be presented, wished to reissue that amount as 
 part of a £7000 appropriation. The governor, however, 
 feared for the credit of the paper, and refused to permit the 
 bill to pass/' The year 1756 opened with a serious state of 
 affairs in the Indian War and with the frontiers almost de- 
 fenseless. Something had to be done at once. Without 
 waiting to frame a formal bill, two ordinances were passed 
 empowering the governor to draw from the paper office 
 £750 for immediate use." No provision was made for re- 
 payment. The assembly then proceeded in a more leisurely 
 way to enact a law providing £40,000 for military uses. 
 
 Of this large sum £5984 was borrowed from the loan- 
 office and £34,015 was raised by a new issue of paper 
 money'^ To make returns to the loan-office and to retire 
 the new notes a series of taxes was laid. Duties on foreign 
 liquors were increased and excises were laid on those of 
 domestic production. Those importing horses, naval stores, 
 and negroes had to pay duties on them. Taxes were also 
 laid on bachelors, billiard-tables, land,'^ and a long series 
 of legal documents. These revenues, it was thought, would 
 make up the full sum in five years, but for certainty a com- 
 mission was appointed to meet in August, 1760, to go over 
 the accounts, and, if a deficiency was found, to calculate 
 what land-tax would make up the deficiency, and to author- 
 ize the sheriffs to collect the necessary tax.''' 
 
 Scarcely a single one of these revenue schemes proved as 
 
 ■^3 Archives, vol. vi, pp. 158, 162. 
 
 '* Lower House Journal, March 6, April i, 1756. 
 
 ^° Only £30,000 of new money was actually printed; £4015. 6s. in 
 notes was in the paper office signed but not circulated, and this 
 made up the balance. It is not clear just what fund this could have 
 been. When turned over to the commissioners for the new issue, 
 it was not charged on the books, nor was it ever returned. The 
 amount corresponds exactly to the amount that was not presented 
 for payment in 1748-1749. This suggests that it was probably the 
 money prepared for delivery in 1748 which was never called for. 
 
 '* Land belonging to Papists was taxed two shilhngs per hundred 
 acres; all other land, including the proprietary manors, paid but 
 one shilling per hundred acres. 
 
 '7 Bacon, 1756, ch, 5. 
 
PAPER CURRENCY IO3 
 
 productive as was expected. The ^5984 of borrowed money 
 was not repaid to the paper-money office until after 1758; 
 and when the commissioners met in 1760, they found a 
 deficiency of over £14,000, making necessary an assessment 
 of seven shillings seven pence per hundred acres on all land, 
 including the proprietary manors/^ Though this was an un- 
 reasonable tax, the commissioners had no choice but to order 
 its collection/" Great alarm prevailed among landholders 
 until the assembly relieved the situation by authorizing that 
 the taxes laid by the act of 1756 be increased and continued, 
 and requiring the commissioners to meet again in August, 
 1762.^" The duties ran until November, 1763, and when the 
 accounts were finally settled, a balance of £5564 was carried 
 to the credit of the original paper money .^^ 
 
 The acts of 1754 and 1756 were by far the most important 
 cases in which the government shifted its burdens to the 
 paper money, but there were also several minor instances of 
 the same character. In 1756 and 1762 acts were passed 
 appropriating a total of £700 to pay Jonas Green of An- 
 napolis for public printing.^^ In 1757 over £200 was ordered 
 to be paid on small bills to various persons.*^ In all of these 
 cases the paper money was called on merely to make im- 
 mediate payment, and repayment was to be made from the 
 general levy. It is doubtful whether much of this money 
 was ever repaid. Out of a total of nearly £1000, accounts 
 now available show the return of only about £173. 
 
 Though such heavy demands on the paper-money office, 
 and especially the issue of £34,000 of new bills in 1756, were 
 highly dangerous to the credit of the paper, it is hard to see 
 how the colony could have been financed during this trying 
 period in any other way. The exploitation of the public 
 credit by means of bonds was unknown to the colonies ; and 
 even if it had been known, because of the scarcity of specie 
 
 ''^ Roman Catholics, of course, paid double. 
 
 ''^ Lower House Journal, October 4, 1760; Archives, vol. ix, p. 453. 
 
 8° Bacon, 1760, ch. 9. 
 
 81 Lower House Journal, November 29, 1765. 
 
 82 Acts of 1756 ; Bacon, 1762, ch, 24. 
 
 83 Acts of 1757, p. 12. 
 
104 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 it would have been difficult in Maryland. The paper money, 
 on the other hand, enabled the colony to meet its obligations 
 when crises presented themselves, and still spread the burden 
 over a considerable period of years. Moreover, the loss 
 suffered by paying out about £150 currency for £100 ster- 
 ling and redeeming at i^ZZVs currency for iioo sterling 
 constituted a lighter interest rate than the colony could 
 possibly have obtained on a straight loan. Strange to say, 
 all this tampering with the paper money seems to have had 
 very little, if any, effect on exchange. As has been shown, 
 the exchange stood at about £150 paper to £100 sterling 
 throughout most of this period. Though there were some 
 fluctuations about 1760, when the French War was at its 
 height, yet there was no sharp rise in exchange in 1757 and 
 1758 such as one would expect to follow the injection of 
 £30,000 of paper into the circulation. 
 
 The value of paper currency was undoubtedly maintained 
 by the exceptional strength of the funds against which it was 
 issued. Notwithstanding the heavy demands that had been 
 made by the government, when the time came for redemp- 
 tion the funds were sufficient. During the French War, 
 stock of the Bank of England declined very sharply, and it 
 was thought that it would ultimately fall to 112 or lower. 
 Consequently, between 1755 and 1759 the trustees purchased 
 no stock whatever, but allowed the cash to accumulate on 
 deposit. The Lower House estimated that the loss of 
 dividends more than counterbalanced the gain in purchase 
 price. The loss to the province, however, by this mistake in 
 judgment was very slight.** In 1761 the fund amounted to 
 £27,500 in bank-stock, worth at the time £36,245 sterling, 
 and about £500 in cash. In 1763 it was enacted that money 
 collected after December i, 1763, should not be sent to 
 London for investment, but be turned over at once to the 
 commissioners at Annapolis.*^ On June 7, 1764, the colony 
 was in possession of £40,800 of stock, worth at the time 
 
 8* Lower House Journal, May 8, 1758; April 21, 1761. 
 '^ Bacon, 1763, ch. 22. 
 
PAPER CURRENCY IO5 
 
 £50,731 sterling. About the same time there was in the 
 office £9184 currency of gold and silver, which had accumu- 
 lated through payments of principal and interest of loans and 
 in accordance with the act of 1763. Against this total of 
 about £76,000 currency there was then in existence £62,012 in 
 paper money, £20,716 of which was in possession of the com- 
 missioners ready to be burned.*" Thus there existed to the 
 credit of the colony after all paper was redeemed a surplus 
 of nearly £36,000 currency. 
 
 Redemption of the paper money was carried out at the 
 prescribed time in the winter of 1 764-1 765, but the accounts 
 are too meagre to permit this redemption to be followed as 
 closely as that of 1748-1749. A statement of May 30, 1766, 
 shows several thousand pounds in bills of exchange still un- 
 presented and the accounts, therefore, not closed.*' As late 
 as May 21, 1767, there was still £688 outstanding in bills of 
 exchange and one bill under protest worth £287. At this 
 time the colony held in bank stock £31,000, which had cost 
 £39,179; there was also a cash balance of £1235 sterling.** 
 This is, perhaps, very near the final balance of the paper- 
 money accounts. 
 
 Few complaints of the paper currency were heard, and of 
 these the chief one was that the wealthy made use of it for 
 speculative purposes. By the paper-money act of 1733 most 
 of the duties and fees due to the province, with the exception 
 of the officers' and ministers' fees, were made payable in paper. 
 In 1747 an option was given by which those fees also might 
 be paid in paper instead of tobacco. These provisions were 
 intended to give a wide field of usefulness to the paper, and 
 they created a demand for the bills which rendered their 
 possession almost a necessity. It therefore became possible 
 at times for persons with a supply of paper money to demand 
 high exchange from those who were in need of the bills to 
 meet some public obligation payable in no other available 
 
 *" Lower House Journal, July 17, 1764. 
 8' Ibid., November 26, 1766. 
 ** Ibid., May 31, 1768. 
 
I06 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 medium.*'' To remedy this trouble, sections inserted in the 
 tobacco act of 1754 and continued by later acts determined 
 the value of coins when paid for these purposes, thus en- 
 abling persons to pay in coin instead of paper. This act, 
 however, did not end the difficulty. The £40,000 act of 1756 
 laid new duties payable only in paper money. When in 
 1760 it appeared that a heavy assessment was to be laid on 
 land in accordance with this act, the money speculators ex- 
 pected a strong demand for paper, and dropped exchange 
 from £150 to £140 paper for £100 sterling.'" In 1762 these 
 duties also were made payable in gold and silver."^ 
 
 As the time for redemption of the paper approached, it 
 was very evident that exchange must advanpe, and paper 
 became a profitable speculation. Those who, in that time of 
 no banking facilities, hoarded up their savings found that 
 paper money paid a fair interest while lying idle, and con- 
 sequently paper began to disappear from circulation to lie in 
 the tills of the speculators."^ As early as possibly 1761 or 
 1762 Henry Callister wrote: "I said Currency; which does 
 not imply Maryland money, of which there is hardly any 
 current."^' In 1763 the Upper House, speaking of an alter- 
 native of paper payments in a bill under consideration, said: 
 " at this time it can be of no possible Benefit to the People, 
 because no one, of the very few who possess Paper Money, 
 can be imagined to be so regardless of his Interest as to part 
 with it at a great and certain Loss "'* (that is to say, loss 
 
 80 " Every Person that did not make Tob° (which numbers do not) 
 was obliged to pay his Levies or Debts of a pubHck nature in paper 
 Currency, which many being oftentimes not Masters of (as there is 
 not £60000 issued & most of that in the hands of the wealthy) they 
 were obhged to pay their Gold and Silver at any Rate their Creditors 
 would please to affix or on such Occasions be obliged to recur to any 
 Person that would advance paper Cash which the Possessors would 
 not often do but on hard Terms" (Archives, vol. vi, p. 85). See 
 also Lower House Journal, September 26, October 4, 9, 1760. 
 
 »" Archives, vol. ix, p. 453. 
 
 '1 Bacon, 1762, ch. 33. 
 
 82 Lower House Journal, October 4, 1760. 
 
 03 Daniel Clark of Philadelphia wrote to his agents in 1760 to have 
 Maryland money saved for him should any be received (Clark 
 Letter-book) . 
 
 8* Lower House Journal, November 3, 1763. 
 
PAPER CURRENCY lO/ 
 
 of the advance in the value of paper). Secretary Calvert 
 was much incensed at the money speculators, and as usual 
 showed his feeling by rather strong expressions. " If I am 
 right," he wrote in 1764, "the present Loan to be paid is 
 £6000 [i6o,ooo] Sterl^ to whom, but to almost infamous 
 Jobbers, — little currency has had circulation, the utility pre- 
 vented, Lock'd up in the hands of merciless wretches that 
 grind the very Poor."'' 
 
 Partly because of complaints against speculators, but more 
 especially because of complaints coming from British mer- 
 chants, Parliament early began to concern itself with the 
 issues of colonial money. In some of the colonies paper 
 had been made legal tender for sterling debts, and British 
 merchants had lost heavily by having accounts then stand- 
 ing paid in depreciated currency. Throughout the contin- 
 uance of these issues, moreover, all business had to be 
 transacted on a paper basis, much to the inconvenience 
 and uncertainty of the merchant. Complaints soon reached 
 Parliament,'" and in 1739 an investigation was undertaken. 
 Full accounts of all paper issues were called in from the 
 colonies. Governor Ogle in a long letter to the Board of 
 Trade set forth the history of the Maryland paper issue, 
 and made clear the point that sterling debts were not affected 
 by the new currency.'^ The outcome of the investigation 
 was an address by the House of Commons to the king re- 
 questing that the act of 6 Anne 6e more strictly observed, 
 and that no act of a colonial legislature be approved by the 
 governor without a clause suspending enforcement until 
 sanctioned by the king.'^ Letters calling attention to the 
 matter were sent to the governors of Maryland, Pennsyl- 
 vania, Connecticut, and Rhode Island."' 
 
 '5 Archives, vol. xiv, p. 141. 
 
 8" Board of Trade, Plantations General, vol. xii (Public Record 
 Office, C. O. 323: 10), N 14. 
 
 i!' Board of Trade, Proprieties, vol. xv (Public Record Office, C. 
 O. 5: 1270), T 3S; T S3- 
 
 88 Board of Trade, Proprieties, vol. xv (Public Record Office, C. 
 O. S: 1270), T 40. 
 
 «9 Board of Trade Journal, vol. xlix (Public Record Office, C. O. 
 391 : 43). 7T, Acts of Privy Council, Col., vol. iii, §496- 
 
I08 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 In 1748 the question of paper money in the colonies was 
 again taken up by Parliament. Again statements were de- 
 manded of the governors.^"" After investigation, the Board 
 of Trade requested that Parliament provide for rigid regu- 
 lation of all paper money in the colonies. In protest against 
 this measure, Lord Baltimore declared in a petition that the 
 legislative power in Maryland did not rest in the crown, and 
 that some of the provisions for regulation provided in the 
 bill were in direct violation of his rights in the province.^"^ 
 The bill failed at this time ; but the investigation was con- 
 tinued,^"^ and in 1751 an act was passed prohibiting the 
 issue of bills of credit in New England, except in emer- 
 gencies, and requiring the royal sanction to all paper-money 
 acts of other colonies.^"^ During the ensuing war, however, 
 paper was the only possible financial medium, and the re- 
 straining clauses of this act were ineffective. 
 
 After the close of hostilities, in 1764, the Board of Trade 
 again reverted to the topic of paper money. Although a 
 report on the subject was submitted by Maryland,^"^ the 
 paper issue was then approaching so nearly the date for 
 •withdrawal that this colony had little immediate interest in 
 the proceedings. At this time Parliament passed the well- 
 known act making void after September i, 1764, all colonial 
 acts that rendered paper legal tender.^'^ As the force of 
 this act falls in the years subsequent to the period under 
 discussion, it needs no treatment here. It is sufficient to 
 note that Maryland did issue other currency but without 
 making it legal tender. Paper money had become so much 
 a part of the business life of the colony that it, or some sub- 
 stitute, was indispensable. As Dulany wrote : " Tho Acts 
 of Parliament may prevent our emitting Bills of Credit under 
 one Denomination, we shall have a paper Circulation under 
 
 i"" Maryland Historical Society, Proprietary Papers, vol. vii, no. 3. 
 i"! Calvert Papers, MS., No. 428. 
 
 i°2 House of Commons Journal, vol. xxv, pp. 746, 792, 793, 806, 818, 
 819. 
 
 "s 4 George II, 53. 
 
 1"* Archives, vol. xiv, pp. 141, 174. 
 
 i»s 4 George HI, 34. 
 
PAPER CURRENCY IO9 
 
 another, if not under a puWick Law; it may be upon the 
 Bottom of private Security. The Old Course may be 
 stopped, but a new Channel will be made."^"' In general, 
 interference by the British Parliament with colonial paper 
 currency worked little hardship in Maryland, and during 
 the years preceding 1764 it was not felt at all. 
 
 It is almost hopeless to try to generalize as to the effects 
 of the issue of paper on the economic life of the colony. 
 Too many factors enter for any particular change to be 
 assigned to any one cause. A fe,w results only can be 
 mentioned. The convenience of paper as an instrument of 
 public finance has already been set forth. This was a bene- 
 fit not anticipated by the advocates of the currency, but it 
 is hard to see how the colony could have financed the French 
 War without some such aid. Another almost incidental 
 use of paper was the running of the loan-office. Money was 
 lent at four per cent interest on the security of land or 
 plate. There were no banks in the colony, and before the 
 establishment of this office all loans were by private in- 
 dividuals and on whatever terms of interest, medium, and 
 penalty bond a grasping creditor could wring from a needy 
 borrower. Though easy credit is not always a good thing, 
 this office seems to have been a decided benefit to the 
 colony. A list of loans standing in 1755 contains the names 
 of the most prominent men in the colony, including a sur- 
 prising number of those engaged in mercantile affairs. ^"^ 
 The borrowed funds must, therefore, have been largely used 
 in productive investments. From the banker's point of view 
 the success of the office was remarkable. We have no 
 means of knowing how many foreclosures were necessary, 
 but only one appears in the records at hand. In 1765 it 
 was reported that principal money still out amounted to 
 only £222.^°^ Thus, losses through bad loans were almost 
 negligible, while interest paid in amounted to thousands of 
 pounds. Both as a business venture for the public and as a 
 
 1°^ Calvert Papers, No. 2, pp. 245, 246. 
 
 107 upper House Journal, March 10, 1755. 
 
 108 Lower House Journal, November 29, 1765. 
 
no MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 Stimulus and aid to private industry the loan-office seems 
 to have been an unqualified success. 
 
 As a means of abolishing the use of tobacco as money 
 and thus opening the way for efficient regulation of the 
 tobacco trade and the more extensive culture of grain, the 
 paper currency was not an immediate success. The act of 
 1733 left most of the fees still payable only in tobacco, and 
 it was not until 1747 that the inspection act made these fees 
 payable in paper by those who did not produce tobacco. 
 Thus, tobacco regulation, though tardy, did ultimately result 
 from the paper currency, and where every one previously 
 had been compelled to produce tobacco, it now became pos- 
 sible to devote land exclusively to grain. This was one 
 of the chief objects sought in issuing the money. 
 
 Undoubtedly the greatest result of the issue was the 
 economic stimulus caused by the presence of a large amount 
 of paper currency. Just what effect this had on the amount 
 of trade done or the methods of doing it can never be told. 
 The framers of the law felt that the currency of the northern 
 colonies was the chief agency enabling them to carry on 
 their trade, and that the absence of currency in Maryland 
 was the handicap preventing that colony from becoming 
 equally active. Though it now seems clear that the char- 
 acter of the products and the location of markets were 
 responsible for this condition, yet it must be admitted that 
 Maryland developed very greatly in trade during the life 
 of the paper currency. During these years came also the 
 opening of the western section and the change in a large part 
 of the colony from tobacco to grain culture. These events 
 were the causes of the rise of trade, but paper money, with- 
 out doubt, greatly facilitated the movement when it was 
 once begun. The best proof of the way in which the bills 
 had woven themselves into the commercial fabric of the 
 colony is to be found in the necessity of another issue to 
 fill their place after redemption. All evidence concurs in 
 showing that in 1765 money was extremely scarce and 
 
PAPER CURRENCY III 
 
 difficult to obtain.^"' In this crisis, as Daniel Dulany wrote, 
 " Some Medium of an internal Intercourse we must have, 
 if our old one is demolish'd another will spring up in its 
 place. "^^" The legislature finally determined to issue paper 
 bills against the bank-stock and coin accumulated by the 
 paper-money commissioners. At first $173,733 of these 
 notes was issued to pay the debts of the colony. Three 
 years later $318,000 more was issued to establish another 
 loan-office. To avoid the act of Parliament, these bills 
 were not made legal tender, but the promise of the colony 
 with its iron-bound backing of stock in the Bank of England 
 was depended on to float them.^^^ So great was the need 
 of a circulating medium that the legislature was almost 
 forced to this action. 
 
 Considering the peculiar benefits to grain and tobacco 
 culture, the conveniences offered to trade, the exception- 
 ally high exchange that the bills maintained throughout 
 most of their life, and the faithful redemption of every 
 shilling at face value, it is hardly too much to say that this 
 was the most successful paper money issued by any of the 
 colonies. 
 
 i"' Callister MSS., November 10, 1765; January 22, 1766; Lower 
 House Journal, September 23, 1765; Calvert Papers, No. 2, pp. 245- 
 246. 
 
 ii" Calvert Papers, No. 2, pp. 2451-246. The " Bottom of private 
 Security" had already been tried for small change; witness the 
 quotation on page 23, note 51. 
 
 "IT. W. Griffith, Sketches of the Early History of Maryland, 
 pp. S9, 60. This is the first official use of the dollar denomination 
 in Maryland. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 General Consideration of Money 
 
 In reviewing the subject of Maryland's monetary system 
 in the time under consideration the most striking single fea- 
 ture is the confusion which accompanied the complications 
 of standard. Mention has already been made of the con- 
 fusion in the various values of coin. Other currencies 
 served to increase the difficulty. If in 1760 an agreement 
 had been made calling for the payment of " one pound " 
 without further specification, the obligation might have 
 been met by paying any one of no less than seven different 
 pounds : the pound in goods at their sterling cost in England, 
 the pound in sterling exchange, the pound sterling, the pound 
 proclamation money, the pound running money, the pound 
 paper, and the pound of tobacco. All these meanings of the 
 word were in daily use, and it would require but a very 
 slightly unusual use to include also a pound of hemp, flax, 
 pork, or beef. The greater dissimilarities between circulating 
 media, such as those between paper or tobacco and sterling, 
 caused less confusion than the slighter differences, such as 
 those between proclamation money and running money, or 
 sterling and sterling exchange. The former, however, made 
 accounting more burdensome. It was simple enough to 
 transpose quickly from sterling to proclamation money, and 
 to keep an account entirely in one or the other, but in using 
 also tobacco and paper, each of which was somewhat un- 
 certain in value, it became almost necessary to keep sepa- 
 rate accounts for each medium. Ledgers show from one to 
 four or five columns^ for entries of different payments. 
 Before the emission of paper money two columns, one for 
 money and one for tobacco, are usually found. After the 
 
 1 Baltimore County, Administration Accounts, Liber E 5, p. 225. 
 
 1 12 
 
GENERAL CONSIDERATION OF MONEY I 1 3 
 
 emission of paper a separate column for this medium is 
 customary. In some cases proclamation currency is sepa- 
 rated from sterling. Rarely are these columns reduced to 
 a single total, but balances are usually given in two, three, 
 or four amounts, as the case may be. The unnecessary 
 labor and the errors of bookkeeping under a system like 
 this are easily conceived. 
 
 A feature of no little importance in the colonial monetary 
 situation was the total lack of banking facilities. Nowhere 
 was there any institution to set standards of exchange, in- 
 terest, or coin value, to handle the business of foreign re- 
 mittances, to store surplus cash, or to lend to those seeking 
 capital for investment. Values of the various currencies, 
 as has been shown, fluctuated violently and unevenly. Dif- 
 ferent merchants often accepted the same currency at dif- 
 ferent values. Only a few of the more common exchanges, 
 such as the values of foreign coins, became fixed by custom ; 
 all others were matters of individual bargaining. In foreign 
 exchange the same confusion prevailed. Each planter drew 
 his own bills of exchange, and disposed of them himself 
 at whatever price he and the purchaser could agree upon. 
 
 In the storing of money also the lack of banks was severely 
 felt, every individual being under the necessity of hoarding 
 up sufficient money to meet all his needs. This made nec- 
 essary a large supply of currency, and exposed the individual 
 to heavy losses by fire and theft. The mere preservation 
 of money was no small burden.^ The careful provision in 
 the paper-money act for an iron box with three locks in 
 which the money was to be kept is an instance of the care 
 that had to be exercised. The fact that on at least two oc- 
 casions attempts were made to break into the paper-money 
 office shows the reality of the dangers which threatened. 
 
 Though no banks settled a discount rate, interest was de- 
 termined by law. By an act of 1704" the legal interest rate 
 
 2 In 1721 Samuel Young requested the assembly to dispose of 
 public money in his hands (Lower House Journal, July 31, 1721). 
 
 3 Bacon, ch. 69; Parks, p. 41. 
 
I 14 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 was fixed at six per cent for money and eight per cent for 
 tobacco, wares, or merchandise. Although no specific rea- 
 son is shown why there should be discrimination between the 
 two currencies, it is possible that the greater fluctuations in 
 the price of tobacco made the higher rate a necessary mar- 
 gin of safety for the creditor. From time to time efforts 
 were made to reduce the interest rate on tobacco and, on 
 one occasion at least, on money also ;* but such efforts failed, 
 and the act of 1704 remained law until the end of the period. 
 
 One topic about which there seems to be much misunder- 
 standing "is the legal-tender quahty of the various Maryland 
 moneys, especially tobacco. By many writers it is assumed 
 or stated that tobacco was tender for all debts.^ Nothing 
 could be further from the truth, for Maryland had no gen- 
 eral legal tender. Each form of currency was legal tender 
 for contracts drawn in that medium. There seems never 
 to have been a general act regulating tenders in commercial 
 transactions, but the common law of contract prevailed by 
 which contracts drawn in sterling were payable only in ster- 
 ling and those drawn in tobacco were payable only in to- 
 bacco. Even efforts to fix a definite rate of exchange at 
 which foreign coins were to be accepted in payment of ster- 
 ling debts were uniformly unsuccessful,^ and sterling debts 
 were payable only in British coins unless the creditor agreed 
 to accept other things. For currency debts there were for 
 a while two legal payments, — foreign coins at values set by 
 statute, and Maryland paper currency, — ^but when paper de- 
 preciated in value, discrimination was made, and contracts 
 drawn in gold and silver currency were executed in that 
 medium alone, to the exclusion of paper. 
 
 In public affairs, roughly speaking, all payments due to 
 the crown or to the proprietor were payable only in ster- 
 ling, and all payments due to the province or to officers were 
 
 * Lower House Journal, June 12, 1749; June 3, 1751; March 28, 
 1760. 
 
 5 T. W. Griffith, Annals of Baltimore, p. 47; J. McSherry, History 
 of Maryland, p. 94. 
 
 ^ Lower House Journal, April 6, 9, 1733; May 30, 1750. 
 
GENERAL CONSIDERATION OF ' MONEY IIS 
 
 payable only in tobaccou No effort was ever made to gain 
 the privilege of paying the crown duties in any other medium. 
 On several occasions, as has been shown, the privilege was 
 sought of paying the proprietor's quit-rents and other dues 
 in paper. The only point ever gained was the granting of 
 favorable rates of exchange at which foreign gold and silver 
 would be accepted. The provincial and county levies were 
 soon made payable in gold, silver, and paper. The com- 
 mutation of ofKcial fees, however, brought on one of the 
 bitterest political fights that the colony ever experienced. 
 Not until the passage of the tobacco act of 1747 was paper 
 money under certain restrictions made legal tender to officers 
 from those who produced no tobacco, and in 1754 an ex- 
 change was agreed on by which coin might be offered in- 
 stead of paper. The acts for the encouragement of the cul- 
 ture of hemp and flax and for the relief of debtors, as has 
 been seen, made agricultural produce legal tender under some 
 narrowly limited circumstances. In 1721 it was reported as 
 a grievance that these acts had no clause obliging persons to 
 accept tobacco for money or money for tobacco,^ but no 
 change was made in the law. Thus, with slight exceptions, 
 there was in Maryland no legal tender except the medium 
 named in each contract. 
 
 A question of importance in the financial situation of 
 any country is the ease or difficulty with which capital can 
 be obtained. In colonial Maryland the availability of capital 
 was of less significance than it would have been in a more 
 extensively commercial community, but there were occa- 
 sions when a supply of money in the hands of the proper 
 individuals would have led to the improvement of a planta- 
 tion or the establishment of a business. It was in this 
 respect, probably, that the absence of a bank was most 
 severely felt. The great scarcity of money was the more 
 unfortunate because of the lack of facilities for bringing 
 together the borrowers and the lenders of what little money 
 there was. Such being the case, it is important to notice the 
 sources from which capital was to be obtained. 
 
 "^ Lower House Journal, February 27, 1721. 
 
Il6 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 To US the most interesting source of money during the 
 years between 1734 and 1764 was the colonial loan-office. 
 It has already been shown that in the esta;blishment of the 
 paper-money system the conference committee increased the 
 amount of the issue in order to have a larger supply to be 
 lent out on good security. Although the interest on these 
 loans was to be only four per cent, yet the security require- 
 ments were such as to hamper the usefulness of the office. 
 If lent on lands or tenements, twice the value of the loan was 
 required as security; if lent on messuages, three times the 
 value was demanded. Plate might serve as security at five 
 shillings per ounce. Moreover, not more than £100 might 
 be lent to one person within six months.' These prowsibns 
 may have been very proper as a safeguard to the paper 
 money, but they must have prevented many a worthy man 
 from securing a satisfactory loan. Another difficulty with 
 the loan-office was that it had no branches and did business 
 only in Annapolis. The distribution of its money shows the 
 result of this. Of the loans outstanding in 1755 over sixty- 
 six per cent were held by residents of the three adjoining 
 counties, — Anne Arundel, Baltimore, and Prince George's." 
 The amount of money, £14,876, outstanding at the time, 
 however, shows that in spite of the difficulties the loan-office 
 was being fairly well patronized. The list of borrowers 
 includes many of the wealthiest men and most of the well- 
 known merchants of the province. The conditions made 
 this essentially a rich man's loan-office; and even while the 
 paper money was at the zenith of its usefulness. Governor 
 Sharpe expressed the desire that some scheme might be 
 devised for lending small sums to the manor tenants when 
 it seemed evident that the money would be used for im- 
 provements.^" The loan-office justified itself by its work, 
 
 8 Acts of 1733; Board of Trade, Proprieties, vol. xiv (Public 
 Record Office, C. O. 5: 1269), T 23; Bacon, 1733, ch. 6. 
 
 ^ Upper House Journal, March 10, 1755. These counties con- 
 tained only about twenty-five per cent of the free white men of the 
 province (Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xxxiv, p. 261). 
 
 1" Archives, vol. ix, p. 62. 
 
GENERAL CONSIDERATION OF MONEY II/ 
 
 but it would have been difficult for a man to start in business 
 on capital borrowed under such terms. 
 
 The second source of capital was the surplus held by 
 wealthy individuals. Mortgages on land and bills of sale 
 on personalty appear so frequently in the county records that 
 little doubt is left as to the relations between the signers of 
 many of these documents. The chances are strong that the 
 regular method by which a poor man purchased a small plan- 
 tation or set himself up as a tenant was by procuring a loan 
 from a wealthy neighbor on whatever security the borrower 
 might be able to furnish. Certain individuals seem to have 
 engaged very extensively in such lending. The Dulanys and 
 the CarroUs, for instance, had many bills of sale and mort- 
 gages recorded in both the provincial and the county records. 
 One form of such individual loans is shown in a case from 
 St. Mary's County. Lothian and Jordan of that county 
 entered into a partnership with Richard Chase, an attorney 
 of Baltimore County, and Chase purchased a stock of goods 
 from a merchant of Annapolis. Later, on dissolving the 
 partnership. Chase assumed the debt for the goods and took 
 a note from Lothian and Jordan.^^ Another example is 
 the case of George Neilson of Annapolis, brewer, who, being 
 in need of capital, applied to William Diggs to buy malt for 
 him. Diggs, unable to fill the order, went security for 
 Neilson to Charles Carroll, who imported the malt from 
 London. The matter was brought into court because Car- 
 roll, it was alleged, retained a large part of the malt and 
 sold it to Neilson's customers.^^ Such personal loans, 
 whether disguised as a partnership or made on a note, or 
 secured by mortgage or bill of sale, probably constituted 
 the greatest volume of borrowed capital in the colony. 
 
 The third source of capital was the merchant. As a class 
 merchants seem to have engaged rather largely in loans as 
 means of " creating an interest."^^ William Vernon, for in- 
 
 " Chancery Record, April 21, 1759, Liber BT No. i, p. 197- 
 
 12 Chancery Record, Liber JR No. 2, pp. 487-500. 
 
 13 This condition still obtains in the tobacco sections of Maryland. 
 On June 22, 1899, Mr. J. B. Ayer, master of the state Grange of 
 
Il8 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 Stance, borrowed iioo sterling from John Hanbury, a London 
 merchant, in order to buy a plantation. The loan was sat- 
 isfied by shipments of tobacco and the execution of a mort- 
 gage on the land.^* A more interesting example was that 
 of John Stewart and Duncan Campbell of London, mer- 
 chants, who through William Lux, their factor at Elk 
 Ridge, lent Caleb Dorsey £263 on the security of his pros- 
 pects of inheriting a fortune from his father, Basil. When 
 Caleb died before his father, the latter agreed to pay his 
 son's debts. Stewart and Campbell, however, demanded 
 payment in bills of exchange ; and before the bills were pro- 
 cured, Basil Dorsey died. The creditors were then forced 
 into court because Basil's executors claimed that they had 
 no authority to pay the debts of the testator's son.^^ Both 
 merchants^^ and planters regularly overdrew on their Lon- 
 don factors whenever occasion arose. A big London firm 
 wrote as follows : " The Small Shippers generally draw to 
 the full; and most of them exceed the value, some very 
 much so."^^ Another firm wrote : " Our Concern have al- 
 ways been very liberal to friendly planters in lending Cash 
 upon emergency without interest."^' On this matter William 
 MoUeson, merchant, instructed his factor, Charles Ridgely, 
 as follows : " my plan is to get head among the good planters 
 who dont always want favours, yet if you should find it 
 necessary to advance some of the more needy ones Cash 
 upon their Bills to you for Shipping their Tobacco, you 
 may endorse as far as three hundred pounds Sterling upon 
 
 Maryland, testified before the Industrial Commission as follows : 
 " As far as Maryland is concerned, especially in the southern part, 
 where they grow tobacco, which is a crop that does not bring in 
 money frequently, they go to Baltimore and obtain supplies from 
 the merchants there, and I presume they take a lien on the crop. 
 They obtain their fertilizers and necessary provisions, and so on, 
 and when they sell the Tobacco they settle with the merchants " 
 (S7th Cong., 1st sess., H. Doc. No. 179, p. 105). 
 
 1* Chancery Record, Liber JR No. 2, p. 281. 
 
 1^ Chancery Record, Liber DD No. i, pp. 342-348. 
 
 1' See a letter in which Charles Ridgely requested such credit 
 (Ridgely Papers, September 28, 1764). See also Russell to Ridgely 
 (ibid., 1766). 
 
 " Ibid., March 23, 1767. 
 
 18 Callister MSS., May 9, 1763. 
 
GENERAL CONSIDERATION OF MONEY II Q 
 
 the whole and the Bills so endorsed by you shall be paid, 
 but for God Sake be cautious of your Men."^^ 
 
 The merchant's loan often assumed the familiar form of 
 the book credit. This form of business was very extensive, 
 and was much complained of at the time.^" Book credits 
 to planters, however, though really loans, were seldom pro- 
 ductively engaged, and can hardly be classed as an impor- 
 tant source of capital. Similar to book credits, but far more 
 important, was the custom among Maryland merchants of 
 dealing on the credit of correspondents in London, Philadel- 
 phia, or some other trade center. This form of borrowing 
 showed all gradations from the factor sent over from Lon- 
 don to take charge of the goods of his principal to an ordi- 
 nary Maryland merchant doing business on long-time credit. 
 The same individual often began as a factor, later received 
 consignments of goods to be sold on commission, and finally 
 bought outright on such credit as might be necessary. ^^ A 
 large volume of trade was done on the commission system, 
 which is clearly a form of capital borrowing. 
 
 There were drawbacks to each of these methods. The 
 difficulties in borrowing from the provincial loan-office have 
 already been pointed out, but this was the only place where 
 the borrower could expect anything like just treatment. 
 Here all could receive loans if they met the conditions, and 
 
 18 Molleson to Ridgely, in Ridgely Papers, March lo, 1763. 
 
 2° Henry Callister wrote as follows : " The Substantial people 
 here complain that the large Credits ruin the Country, but by the 
 by, they Speak feelingly for their private Interest, for these Credits 
 keep down the price of their Crops, but it is a question with me 
 whether the Country is not enrich'd by Credits, & whether the 
 Merchants have not the greater cause to complain, the Tobacco 
 bought in this manner turning out on the long run the dearest 
 purchase" (Callister MSS.). 
 
 21 For instance, Robert Morris and Henry Callister. _A letter 
 from James Russell, an English merchant, to Charles Ridgely, a 
 merchant of Baltimore County, shows an effort to deal on borrowed 
 capital. " I am very willing & ready," he writes, " to Ship you goods 
 on the following terms viz to be paid for in twelve months from 
 the date of the Invoice what is not remitted in that time to allow 
 S P ct Interest till in cash & if any part is remitted before the 12 
 Months you to be allowed Interest for the time, if these terms are 
 agreeable to you I am very ready & willing to do your business " 
 (Ridgely Papers, March 3, 1766). 
 
120 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 the same conditions applied to every one. Loans from in- 
 dividuals were, of course, individual affairs. A private loan 
 might be made or withheld at the whim of the lender. This 
 plan, moreover, exposed the debtor to the utmost rigor of 
 the bargaining power of the creditor, and complaints of the 
 severity of the grasping creditor were filed.^^ The third 
 method of obtaining credit was possible only to merchants 
 or shippers. It was peculiar in that frequently no interest 
 was paid, the creditor being remunerated by trade advan- 
 tages alone. Its great disadvantage was that it often ex- 
 posed a debtor merchant's business to interference from 
 without. Nevertheless it was the method by which most 
 credit mercantiling was transacted, and was the means by 
 which many large enterprises were established. On the 
 whole, though there were no regularly established banks or 
 other institutions of credit, it was not difficult for one 
 properly qualified with security or business ability and not 
 afraid to risk exposure to the debtor's prison to procure 
 capital for any productive undertaking. 
 
 During the years through which we have followed the 
 history of Maryland's currency there were many minor im- 
 provements, but the great monetary problems remained 
 unsolved. Among the points of advance we may note that 
 there was more money in the province in 1765 than in 1720. 
 On the other hand, the greater volume of business was in- 
 creasing the demand for money so rapidly that the scarcity 
 of coin was as keenly felt in the later as in the earlier period. 
 In the use of tobacco' as currency these years saw the solu- 
 tion of many perplexing problems, and by 1765 notes, official 
 inspection, and other improvements had rendered tobacco a 
 far less awkward medium than it had been in 1720. 
 
 Possibly the greatest step forward was the gradual aban- 
 donment of tobacco currency. In 1765, however, this move- 
 ment had only begun, and large sections were still transact- 
 ing most of their business in terms of that crop. Its decline 
 as a standard of value was more complete and the results 
 
 22 See pages 96, 107. 
 
GENERAL CONSIDERATION OF MONEY 121 
 
 were most important. Paper money entered the field, and 
 although it was a dangerous financial instrument, it was suc- 
 cessfully used by the colonists. At the same time the period 
 closed with one problem not only unsolved, but actually more 
 grave than before. The multiplicity and the confusion of 
 standards were far worse at the end than at the beginning. 
 From 1720 to 1765 was, on the whole, a time of patient ex- 
 periment and slow advance, but it cannot be considered a 
 period of brilliant financial achievement. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 Transportation and Communication 
 
 As economic factors money and transportation are very 
 closely akin. Just as money facilitates the bargaining for 
 exchange of goods when people are met together, so roads 
 and post-offices facilitate the meeting of individuals and the 
 moving of the goods bargained for. Both money and roads 
 are lubricants in the machinery of trade. It is proper, there- 
 fore, that all agencies of transportation and communication 
 should be considered side by side with a study of money. 
 
 The system of road administration in Maryland was laid 
 down by an act of 1704,^ in which control of the roads 
 was vested entirely in the counties. Every year the county 
 court enumerated in its records what routes were to be con- 
 sidered public roads, and appointed overseers for their su- 
 perintendence. With the exception of the county justices, 
 these overseers were the only road officials. As many as 
 fifty or sixty^ were sometimes appointed for a single county, 
 and the roads in the care of each were exactly specified. 
 The duties of the overseers were to assume complete control 
 over the maintenance of highways in their sections and to 
 open any new roads that the county court might order. 
 They were empowered to summon every taxable man of 
 their districts^ to work upon any part of the road that they 
 might direct. A fine of one hundred pounds of tobacco 
 was provided for every laborer or his master who failed to 
 
 1 Bacon, ch. 21 ; Parks, p. 26. 
 
 2 Just before Prince George's County was divided sixty-three 
 road overseers were appointed (Court Records, November, 1746, 
 Liber F F, p. 184). 
 
 3 Owners of iron works were required after 1750 to send only 
 one tenth of their laborers to work on the roads (Bacon, 1750, 
 ch. 14). 
 
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION 1 23 
 
 obey this summons.* The overseer's office paid no salary, 
 but was compulsory under a fine of five hundred pounds of 
 tobacco for neglect of duty.^ The office was naturally not 
 popular. It involved a great deal of work and the neces- 
 sity of requiring one's neighbors to perform an unpleasant 
 task. At times overseer and laborers were compelled to 
 work as far as twenty miles from their homes and on roads 
 that they never used.® Men of the lower class were usually 
 appointed overseers, and petitions to be relieved of the office 
 were occasionally received.^ 
 
 The overseers had no authority to extend or change the 
 roads, as this duty was vested only in the county court.^ The 
 regular procedure was for the inhabitants of a region to 
 petition the county for asiy desired changes or extensions; 
 the court then appointed a commission to view the loca- 
 tion and report to the next court; and on receipt of this 
 report the court either rejected the petition or ordered the 
 overseer to make the desired changes. Often when the 
 road was to be made at the request of a single individual 
 the expenses were borne by the petitioner. Frequently, 
 however, people cleared roads for their own private use 
 without reference to the courts, and these private ways con- 
 stituted a large proportion of the total mileage. Some of them 
 
 * By the act of 1704 this fine was laid by the county court on 
 prosecution being brought by the overseer. This was found bur- 
 densome, and in 1723 the fine was made recoverable before a single 
 justice of the peace (Bacon, 1723, ch. 17). 
 
 5 For some prosecutions see Frederick County, Court Records, 
 August, 1752, Liber G, p. 259. 
 
 " Frederick County, Court Records, June, 1750, Liber A, p. S52 ; 
 Dorchester County, Court Records, August, 1733, p. 99. A Prince 
 George's overseer complained of an unfair division of roads between 
 the overseers (Court Records, March, 1730/1, Liber R, p. 16). 
 
 ' Governor Hart said to the assembly in 1719 that the disregard 
 of the road laws " proceeds from the want of a sufficient penalty 
 on the overseers and on those that refuse to pay obedience to their 
 orders & that Generally the meanest of the people are appointed to 
 those offices which obliges me to repeat what I said on another 
 Occasion no man is too good to serve his Country" (Lower House 
 Journal, May 14, 1719)- 
 
 s The governor and the council were empowered by law to order 
 the change of a public road, but I know of no instance in which 
 they ever did so. 
 
124 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 seem to have served large communities and in every re- 
 spect except legally to have been public roads.' In many 
 instances they were probably as well maintained as the 
 public highways • in other cases they were mere bridle-paths. 
 In fact, some of them were occasionally spoken of as paths.^" 
 A Cecil County petition, for instance, spoke of a ferry that 
 was much used over the Susquehanna, and complained that 
 there was " no direct road leading that way, but small paths 
 very difficult to strangers. "^^ In one case a " road or path " 
 is spoken of as being sufficient for " loaded carts and 
 wagons. "^^ The road system grew in large part by the 
 gradual extension of private roads and paths back to new 
 settlements and the ultimate recognition of these roads as 
 public highways. 
 
 The roads in Maryland, being laid out by each county, 
 developed according to no regular or systematic plan, except 
 in so far as most counties faced similar obstacles of land 
 and water and overcame them in similar ways. The main 
 feature of the system was that a road ran up each side of 
 the bay, cutting across from the head waters or the ferry 
 of one river to the head waters or ferry of the next, with 
 branch roads running off into each of the many necks of 
 land between the more important streams. This plan is a 
 geographical necessity, and remains to the present day the 
 outline of a great part of Maryland's road system. The 
 multiplicity of creeks and rivers made necessary a vast 
 number of roads, often short and unimportant and always 
 crooked. Moreover, even the main routes did not run 
 straight from place to place, but zigzagged about, avoiding 
 a hill here and a swamp there, until they formed a veritable 
 maze in the forest. 
 
 9 Baltimore County, Court Records, March, 1739/40, Liber HWS 
 No. II, p. 149. 
 
 1" Frederick County, Court Records, August, 1749, Liber A, p. 
 13s; Queen Anne's County, Court Records, November, 1737, Liber 
 
 1735-1739- 
 
 11 Petition Book, June, 1731, p. 165. 
 
 12 Cecil County, Court Records, August, 1760, Liber FK No. 3, 
 p. 452. 
 
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION 1 25 
 
 The most important roads in the province were those 
 forming the main line of travel between Philadelphia and 
 Virginia. This route divided in Delaware and entered Mary- 
 land by two branches. One branch ran down the Eastern 
 Shore, crossed the Elk River at Bohemia Manor, thence to 
 Frederick and Georgetown on the Sassafras River, thence 
 to Chestertown on the Chester River, thence either to Rock 
 Hall or East Neck Island on the bay side of Kent County 
 and by boat to Annapolis, or across the river at Chestertown 
 and down through Queen Anne's County to Kent Island, 
 where a boat was taken to Annapolis. This was the route 
 most frequently taken. The other branch of the road from 
 Delaware reached Annapolis around the head of the bay,^^ 
 running past the head of Elk River to North East, to Sus- 
 quehanna ferry near Port Deposit, to Joppa, to Baltimore, 
 thence either across the Patapsco at Ferry Bar or around 
 by Elk Ridge, and to Annapolis. A little way from An- 
 napolis the road again divided, one branch crossing the 
 Patuxent at Queen Anne Town and leading to Upper Marl- 
 boro and Addison's ferry opposite Alexandria, and the other 
 crossing the Patuxent at Nottingham and passing through 
 Piscataway to the main ferry across the Potomac near the 
 mouth of Pope's Creek.^* All of these roads were probably 
 in existence by 1720. 
 
 The territory along the Monocacy and to the west fur- 
 nished through traffic that demanded a separate road system. 
 This region was settled by two streams of immigrants, the 
 first moving across southern Pennsylvania and then turning 
 south along the mountains, and the second pushing slowly 
 up the Potomac River. Each stream of settlers constructed 
 its own road. As the Pennsylvanians were the first to 
 
 13 In Cecil County this road is often spoken of as the King's Road 
 or the King's Highway (Cecil County, Petition Book, November, 
 1721, p. 26). 
 
 1* Maps by Jeflferson and Fry and B. F. Pownall ; L. Evans, 
 Geographical . . . Essays; T. Chalkley, A Collection of the Works 
 of, pp. 309-312; The Vade Mecum for America, Or a Companion 
 for Traders and Travellers, p. 203; Callister MSS., July 14, 1762; 
 Hamilton's Itinerarium, p. i; "William Gregory's Journal," in' 
 William and Mary Quarterly, vol. xiii, pp. 226-229. 
 
126 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 arrive, the great wagon road from Philadelphia and Chester 
 west through Lancaster and York to the mountains served 
 for some years as the only outlet from all this region. 
 Branches of this route extended through Harper's Ferry 
 and well down into the Virginia valleys. As the Potomac 
 settlers moved westward, they extended link by link their 
 tide-water road system farther up the river. In 1720 the 
 Prince George's County roads seem to have extended about 
 to Rock Creek.^^ By 1728 a road had been pushed as far 
 back as the Monocacy,^^ and shortly thereafter an elaborate 
 system was developed connecting the western settlements 
 with the county seat and with tide-water on the two branches 
 of the Potomac.^'^ 
 
 Neither the Philadelphia wagon road nor the Potomac 
 River roads were suitable to the needs of the western com- 
 munities. A road directly across from the Monocacy to 
 the Chesapeake would be much shorter, consequently in 
 1739 there were sent to the assembly "a Petition of the 
 Inhabitants about Monoccacy, and above the Mountains on 
 Potowmack River, A Petition of the Inhabitants on the West 
 side of Patowmack River, on the back Parts of Virginia. 
 A Petition of the Inhabitants at and about Manoccacy 
 Creek. And, a Petition of the Inhabitants to the North- 
 ward of the Blue Ridge, alias Chenandore Mountain: By 
 which Petitions the several Petitioners pray, that a Road may 
 be cleared through the Country from the City of Annapolis, 
 for the more easy Carriage of their Grain, Provisions, and 
 other Commodities."^' Although this request was the birth 
 certificate of Baltimore City, it received very little attention 
 from the assembly, and was referred to the next session. 
 There is nothing to indicate that the legislature ever resumed 
 the subject of a through highway to the western part of the 
 province. Roads were county affairs, and this road was left 
 
 15 Prince George's County, Court Records, November, 1720, Liber 
 K, p. 7. 
 1" Ibid., November, 1728, Liber O, p. 331. 
 1' See road enumerations in successive November courts. 
 1* Lower House Journal, May 14, 1739. 
 
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION 12/ 
 
 to those sections. Just when the road was cleared is not 
 certain. In neither Prince George's nor Frederick County- 
 do the records make any mention of the first construction 
 of the highway, but a petition in 1749 mentions " the main 
 Waggon Road from Annapolis to Fred"" Town " and " the 
 Road that leadeth from Baltymore Town to Diggs Copper 
 Works."^^ The silence of the records indicates that these 
 roads were cleared by private initiative. 
 
 The great outburst of activity and interest in Frederick 
 affairs about 1745 suggests that the opening of the first 
 road might have occurred about that time. The route of 
 the road is as doubtful as the time of its construction. In 
 a general way, of course, it struck across from the Patapsco 
 as directly as possible to Frederick, probably following the 
 route of the Frederick Road of later days. Branch roads 
 led not only to the several districts of Frederick County, 
 but also across the border into Pennsylvania, down to Win- 
 chester, Virginia, and farther and farther back into the 
 mountains as settlements were made.^" This system was 
 greatly extended, especially up the Potomac to Cumberland, 
 by the military operations of the French and Indian War.^^ 
 It is probable, also, that several roads were soon cleared 
 across to Baltimore, through trafSc thus following various 
 channels. ^^ 
 
 As a part of the general system of roads mention should 
 
 1' Frederick County, Court Records, August, 1749, Liber A, p. 13S. 
 
 20 Ibid., June, 1750, Liber A, p. 552; November, 1761, Liber L, p. 
 291 ; March, 1762, Liber L, p. 373. 
 
 21 W. Sargent, ed.. The History of the Expedition against Fort 
 Du Quesne in 1755, p. 308; Archives, vol. ix, pp. 164, 165, 206. Gov- 
 ernor Sharpe feared that the Pennsylvanians would oppose the build- 
 ing of an army road from Frederick to Cumberland because it would 
 give Maryland an advantage in trade (Archives, vol. ix, pp. 230-231). 
 
 22 Two petitions to the Frederick County court in 1761 ask for 
 the clearing of roads to Baltimore Town to fall in with " a Road 
 lately open'd from George Touxes to said Town " (August, 1761, 
 Liber L, pp. 230, 231). Records never speak of "the road to Balti- 
 more ;" they always speak of " a road to Baltimore," or " the road 
 
 that runs from to Baltimore." These expressions leave little 
 
 doubt that several roads were in use between Baltimore and Fred- 
 erick County. Pownall's map also shows a road from Baltimore 
 north into Pennsylvania. Such a road would belong to this same 
 system. 
 
128 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 be made of the portages that became of much use in the 
 transportation of freight on the Eastern Shore. Difficulties 
 of land traffic forced the colonists to resort as often as pos- 
 sible to water. Consequently, wherever the head of navi- 
 gation of a river flowing into the Chesapeake approached 
 the head of navigation of a river flowing into the Delaware, 
 there developed a traffic up the one, then across by portage, 
 and down the other stream. The Maryland and Delaware 
 peninsula has many such portages, and the records of the 
 counties along the Eastern Shore show that much traffic 
 passed in this way. The northernmost portage was from the 
 head of Elk River across to Christiania Bridge, the modern 
 Wilmington, a distance of about twelve miles. Somewhat 
 more used than this — in fact, the most used of all the port- 
 ages — was one from Cantwell's Bridge at the head of Apo- 
 quinney Creek to Bohemia Landing on Elk River near the 
 present Elkton. Large ships could come up to both landings, 
 and the distance between them was only about eight miles. 
 Just below Bohemia, on the Sassafras River, was Frederick- 
 town. From here, also, by a haul of about fourteen miles 
 goods often went across to Cantwell's Bridge. From Salis- 
 bury on Duck Creek, Delaware, there were pontages across 
 to both the Sassafras and the Chester River, each about 
 thirteen miles distant. About the middle of the peninsula 
 there was a somewhat less used portage of six or seven miles 
 from Choptank Bridge to the Motherkill. Still farther south 
 there were three very much used portages : from the Nan- 
 ticoke River to Broadkiln Creek, from the Nanticoke to In- 
 dian River, and from Snow Hill on the Pocomoke River to 
 Sinepuxent Bay, in length about twelve miles, thirteen miles, 
 and five miles respectively.^^ Over these portages was car- 
 ried much of the merchandise entering and leaving the 
 Eastern Shore, and not a little to and from points on the 
 Western Shore and in Virginia.^* 
 
 These three systems — ^the roads leading north and south 
 connecting Virginia and Pennsylvania, those leading out 
 
 23 Pownall's Map ; Evans. 
 2* Clark Letter-book, p. 92. 
 
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION 1 29 
 
 north and west from Baltimore, and the portages connecting 
 the heads of rivers in Maryland and Delaware — constituted 
 the main arteries of through travel. Off from them in 
 every direction a vast number of local roads, public and 
 private, led down each neck, or peninsula between creeks 
 or rivers. These roads formed a network without system 
 or regularity. Their design in the tide-water counties was 
 not to feed into the main arteries, but merely to strike the 
 shortest and best route to the great objective points, — ^the 
 church, the public landing, the county court, and sometimes 
 the mill.^^ In the western regions, while of course the local 
 needs were taken care of, there was also the idea of con- 
 necting with the main roads to Baltimore. ^° 
 
 The extension of highways made by the colony during 
 
 25 A Prince George's County road was described as " a very 
 Publick Road out of Charles County to a ferry from Permonkey 
 over into Virg^ also very much used by the Neighbourhood being 
 a Church Road Market and Mill Road for most of the Neigh- 
 bours" (Court Records, March, 1741, Liber Z, p. 531). Such ex- 
 pressions are not infrequent. 
 
 28 Petitions for opening roads in the several counties reveal the 
 purposes of the petitioners concerning their road system. The 
 following are two examples. 
 
 "Inhabitants! .j.^ ^j^^ Worshipful Court of Dorchester nowe 
 
 sitting. The Petition of us the Subscribers humbly sheweth that 
 there is a certain large Neck bounding upon Fishing bay and run- 
 ning between firm Creek and raccoon Creek and running to Hunger 
 River Chappell and a Considerable number of people living in it 
 and we have no road to the Chappell or Elsewhere out of the said 
 Neck we therefore humbly desire of Your Worships to grant us an 
 Order to Clear a Road from the said Chappell into the said Neck 
 and that the men living between the said two Creek and the Chappell 
 may be appointed to clear the said Road and further that Your 
 Worships appoint one of those said Men Overseer of the said Road 
 and Your Petitioners as in duty bound shall ever after pray" (Dor- 
 chester County, Court Records, November, 1733, p. 241). 
 
 " To the Worshippfull Court of Frederick County now sitting the 
 Petition of a number of The Inhabitants of the Upper Hundred of 
 Monocacy Humbly Sheweth that whereas we have Laboured under 
 much Hardship and disadvantage for want of a good Road to the 
 nearest Landing Vizt. Baltimore Town We humbly Request that 
 your Worships would be pleased to grant us an order for opening 
 and clearing a Road from the Temporary Line along a Gap in the 
 Mountain to John Lillies Mill and from thence a straight Course to 
 Baltimore Town until it fall in with a Road lately open'd from 
 George Touxes to said Town " (Frederick County, Court Records, 
 August, 1761, Liber L, pp. 230, 231). 
 
130 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 the period between 1720 and 1765 was the source of much 
 of its progress in other ways. No estimate of mileage is 
 possible, but successive enumerations in the county court 
 records leave no doubt about the rapid opening of new 
 roads. For example, in Queen Anne's County the enumer- 
 ation of 1730 divided the county into nine overseers' dis- 
 tricts; that of 1758 showed thirty. The significance of 
 these figures is that in 1720 the colony was still a series of 
 scattered settlements spread along the waterfront with little 
 communication by land, while in 1765 it had become a com- 
 munity every part of which was accessible from every other 
 part. 
 
 The character of these roads varied in diiiferent sections. 
 On the Eastern Shore and in other parts where the land was 
 level, road-making was a comparatively simple matter, but 
 in the rough country of western Maryland many more diffi- 
 culties were encountered. While the roads in different sec- 
 tions thus differed in the matter of rocks, hills, and streams, 
 they were all alike in being built and maintained in the 
 cheapest possible manner. Little more was done in road 
 construction than to clear away the trees and undergrowth, 
 and here and there, where the necessity was great and the 
 traffic warranted, to build a bridge or a causeway. The 
 small cost of roads is best attested by the willingness with 
 which the people undertook to construct new roads or to 
 change old ones. A Queen Anne's County petition says of 
 a proposed new road, " as the road will not be above five 
 miles long, it will be no expense."^^ Very frequently in- 
 dividuals presenting petitions that roads be changed under- 
 took to do the work at their own cost. The trivial reasons as- 
 signed in many of these petitions throw an interesting light 
 upon the character of the roads. John Gwinn and Charles 
 Yates, of Charles County, requested that a new road be 
 built because the old one passed through their land, and in 
 consequence their gates were frequently propped open and 
 
 2' Court Records, March, 1764. 
 
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION I3I 
 
 their fences pulled down.^* In another instance a road 
 was turned partly because it was " used by Sundry Persons 
 resorting to the . . . ferry where getting disordered does 
 not Value leaving Open such Gates they shall come across."^^ 
 In Cecil County a new road was constructed, " somewhat 
 longer than the old," because the latter passed through a 
 plantation that was " scarce of rail timber " and could not 
 well afford to maintain fences.^" Changes for this reason 
 are not infrequent. Another petition to change the course 
 of a road was granted because the petitioner lived on the 
 main road and was much troubled by travelers and was 
 frequently aroused at unseasonable hours. ^^ These state- 
 ments show how little work a road represented, and we can 
 draw our own conclusions as to the kind of highways such 
 work must have produced. 
 
 One feature of the colonies which is very apt to be for- 
 gotten, or at least to be underestimated, is the prevalence 
 of forests and the fact that the roads ran almost exclusively 
 through the woods. As late as 1788 Brissot de Warville 
 said that the road from Susquehanna to Baltimore was al- 
 ways in the midst of forests.'^ Schoepf also complained of 
 the monotonous woods on the way from Baltimore to Alex- 
 andria.^' The inhabitants, in fact, preferred that their roads 
 should be through forest.'* Routes were cleared regardless 
 of the ownership of the land, and ran almost continuously 
 through tracts belonging to private individuals. When these 
 lands were brought into cultivation, the owners laid off and 
 
 28 Court Records, June, 1728, Liber Q No. 2, binding 36, p. 117. 
 2^ Prince George's County, Court Records, March, 1742, Liber 
 AA, p. 3SS. 
 
 30 Petition Book, p. 90; see also Court Records, August, 1760, Liber 
 FK No. 3, p. 452. 
 
 31 Baltimore County, Court Records, August, 1728, Liber HWS 
 No. 6, p. 26. 
 
 32 Vol. i, p. 364. 
 
 33 J. D. Schoepf, Travels in the Confederation [1783-1784], (Alfred 
 J. Morrison, tr.), vol. i, p. 348. 
 
 3* In 1788 Brissot de Warville said that from Wilmington " to the 
 head of Elk you see but few plantations, you run through eight 
 miles of woods, only meeting with a few log-houses, when you 
 arrive at Henderson's tavern, a very good inn, alone in the midst of 
 vast forests" (vol. i, p. 363). 
 
132 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 fenced their fields without regard to the highways, only plac- 
 ing gates where their fences crossed the roads. ^^ When the 
 road was not enumerated by the county justices, or even 
 when it was, the planters, either by petition to the justices or 
 in defiance of the laws, often turned the roads aside so that 
 they would not interfere with the new plantation. A Fred- 
 erick County petition in 1758 spoke of an old Indian road 
 " which is now rendered almost impracticable by planta- 
 tions."^" A Cecil County petition says still more explicitly : 
 " Neighbours and New Comers are now Settling so Close 
 & thick that we are likely to be Stopped from having any 
 passage that way which will be a great & Grievous In- 
 convenience causing us to Travel a great many Miles 
 (Meander like) to seek our way."^^ In 175 1 the governor 
 referred to this matter in his speech to the assembly as fol- 
 lows : "While other Nations are improving their Commerce, 
 by opening Canals, and shortening and mending their Roads, 
 we are lengthening Ours in many Parts of the Province, by 
 Windings and Turnings, and obstructing their Passage, with 
 Gates and other Incumbrances."^^ 
 
 The care with which the roads were maintained varied 
 in the different communities and with different overseers. 
 In general, the road administration was rarely ever efficient. 
 The laws required that the roads should be cleared and well 
 grubbed and should be twenty feet wide, and that all dead 
 trees that might fall across them should be removed. All 
 roads to a ferry, court-house, church, the city of Annapolis, 
 or the town of Oxford were to be marked by two notches 
 cut into the trees at each side of the road. At the point 
 where one road left another, distinguishing notches or brand- 
 ings were to be placed, which told whether the road led to 
 
 3^ A Charles County man asked permission to turn a road aside 
 because in its old course it had three gates in a quarter of a mile 
 (Court Records, June, 17S7, Liber F No. 3, binding No. 50, p. 484). 
 
 38 Court Records, August, 1758, Liber K, p. 7. 
 
 2'' Petition Book, November, 1729, p. 141. See also Cecil County, 
 Petition Book, June, 1723, p. 28; Queen Anne's County, Court 
 Records, November, 1737, Liber I73S-I739; Charles County, Court 
 Records, June, 1725, Liber P No. 2, binding 35, p. 3. 
 
 33 Lower House Journal, May 15, 1751. 
 
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION I 33 
 
 a church, ferry, court-house, Annapolis, or Oxford. Wher- 
 ever a road ran through " old fields " or a plantation, posts 
 tearing these marks were to be erected near enough together 
 to be seen from one to the other. 
 
 These provisions sound very well, but they were not often 
 adhered to.'° In 1750 the council appointed the attorney- 
 general to look after the administration of the road laws, 
 and made the following complaint : " It appears to this 
 Board that in the several Counties of this Province the 
 Publick and main Roads therein are not cleared, and well 
 grubbed, fit for traveling, neither are they twenty feet wide, 
 nor marked agreeable to the Act of Assembly."*" Other 
 complaints frequently heard were that the roads were 
 allowed to grow up in bushes, that they were miry, and that 
 they were stopped up by trees blown across them.*^ A 
 Dorchester petition says : " the Road that leads from Trans- 
 quaking bridge to the Lower Bridge of Chicomacomico . . . 
 
 5^ Schoepf complained that the roads were supposed to be kept up, 
 but were nowhere attended to (vol. i, p. 34^). 
 
 *<• Archives, vol. xxviii, p. 492. 
 
 *i A petition of Augustine Hermann in 1775 said that " part of 
 Delaware highway Road leading from Choptank to Delaware . . . 
 being not only an Antient Way for Travelers but also the bounds 
 of your Petitioners Bohemia Manner has for some time been 
 Neglected to be Cleared & is much stopped and Grown up to the 
 prejudice of Travellers" (Cecil County, Petition Book, p. 89). 
 Brissot de Warville's description of the road from Susquehanna 
 Ferry to Baltimore runs as follows : " Du bac de la Susquehannah 
 jusqu' a Baltimore, va compte environ soixante milles. — Nous con- 
 sacrames un jour a les parcourir; nous trouvames presque par- tout 
 des chemins aiireux, dans un terrein argilleux, rempli de profondes 
 omieres, toujours au milieu des forets, souvent obliges de nous 
 ouvrier un nouveau chemin, I'ancien etant obstrue par des arbres 
 que le vent avoit abattus. On ne congoit pas comment les voitures 
 ne versent pas souvent. On le doit a leur construction particuliere; 
 elles out peu de ressorts, & consequemment peu de jeu; on le doit 
 a I'adresse des conducteurs, qui dirigent fort bien leur chevaux, 
 habitues a ces sortes de routes. — Mais pourquoi ne les repare-t-on 
 pas ? II y a bien des inspecteurs nommes pour examiner les chemins, 
 & quelquefois meme on prononce des amendes. Mais la collusion 
 & la difEculte de les lever rendent la loi inutile: tout se degrade 
 done, c'est un des effets de I'esclavage " (J. P. Brissot de Warville, 
 Nouveau Voyage dans les fitats-Unis de I'Amerique septentrionale, 
 fait en 1788, vol. ii, pp. 177, 178.) See also Charles County, Court 
 Records, Liber Q No. 2, binding 36, p. 117; Cecil County, Petition 
 Book, March, 1724/s, p. 79- 
 
134 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 is now tolerably well repaired," but "the path that leads 
 Down the Neck amongst us is so grown up with bushes and 
 old trees blown down across the same and the heads of 
 several Branches so wet and miry that man and horse can 
 scarcely pass without great Danger in the winter."*^ These 
 accounts do not make a very flattering picture of the roads, 
 but all sources agree on the lines of the picture as painted. 
 The most favorable comment to be found is by Alexander 
 Hamilton, who said of Kent County, " The roads here are 
 exceeding good and even, but dusty in the summer, and deep 
 in the winter season."*' 
 
 A very essential part of the road system in a country as 
 well watered as Maryland is the means of crossing marshes 
 and streams. The custom of transporting tobacco hogs- 
 heads by rolling made it particularly necessary for roads 
 to be dry and streams to be bridged. Over the numerous 
 swamps, therefore, causeways were frequently built. A de- 
 scription of such a causeway is given in the specifications 
 for the construction of one across the marshes of Kent 
 Narrows in Queen Anne's County. It was to be thirteen 
 feet wide at bottom, ten feet at top, and was to rise two 
 and a half feet above the level of the marsh. Where need- 
 ful in soft and miry places it was to be underlaid with poles 
 or logs, and enough stakes were to be planted to keep them 
 in place. The whole causeway, possibly about a mile long, 
 was to be constructed at the contract price of twelve thou- 
 sand pounds of tobacco (about £50 sterling), the county 
 furnishing labor to haul the logs and poles.** By an act 
 of 1753 it was required that mill owners building dams 
 where roads had formerly passed should make the top of 
 the dam twelve feet wide so that it might serve as a cause- 
 way. They were then excused from work on any other 
 part of the road.*^ 
 
 Causeways were not equal to the emergencies of tide or 
 
 *2 Court Records, August, 1733, p. 99. 
 
 *3 Hamilton's Itinerarium, p. 10. 
 
 ** Court Records, 1723, Liber JK No. B, p. 205. 
 
 *^ Bacon, ch. 16. 
 
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION 1 35 
 
 running water. In dealing with these it was natural that the 
 colonists should at first follow up the smaller streams to 
 fording places, and use them as their regular means of 
 crossing. Not a few fords or " wading places " are spoken 
 of in the county records, but in rolling tobacco a ford, no 
 matter how passable, is a serious obstacle, and at times of 
 freezing and freshets may become impassable.*^ Across the 
 smaller streams nothing but bridges could meet the needs of 
 the colonists. There were no special legal provisions for 
 the erection of bridges, the makers of the law of 1704 prob- 
 ably assuming that such work would be carried out by the 
 overseers in the course of the regular road work. The task 
 proved too difficult for the overseers, however, and the 
 counties fell into the habit of building bridges by special 
 contract. The expense was borne by the county levy.*' 
 A peculiar arrangement was occasionally made by which 
 the contractor agreed not only to build the bridge, but also 
 to maintain it for a period of years.*^ Bridges between 
 counties were built by a joint commission from the two 
 counties and the expense was divided.*" On several occa- 
 sions attempts were made to have the assembly aid in the 
 construction of bridges, a proposal to this effect in 1719 being 
 rejected by the Lower House.^" In 1737 Baltimore County 
 petitioned for provincial aid in constructing a bridge. The 
 Upper House decided that if any money was to be con- 
 tributed to such a purpose it should be distributed equally 
 
 *^ " Passage over Senecar Creek is often Dangerous by Reason 
 of Freshes & Frost & very Difficult at all times to Transport To- 
 bacco often to its Damage" (Prince George's County, Court Records, 
 Liber X, p. 115). The keeper of the ferry over the mouth of the 
 Monocacy River in 1748 agreed to keep a cart to carry over tobacco 
 and other things when the water was low (Frederick County, Court 
 Records, March, 1748, Liber A, p. 15). 
 
 *^ Cecil County, Petition Book, November, 1722, p. 40. 
 
 *s Frederick County, Court Records, June, 1762, Liber L, pp. 448, 
 450; Prince George's County, Court Records, August, 1738, Liber X, 
 p. 177; November, 1739, p. 276. 
 
 ^" Appointments of commissions may be found in Queen Anne's 
 County, Court Records, March, 1732, June, 1747- 
 
 s" Lower House Journal, May 29, 1719. 
 
,136 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 between the counties." The principle of county control of 
 roads was again upheld, and no money was appropriated. 
 
 All bridges, except those repaired by contract, were regu- 
 larly kept up by the road overseers. In 1724 the complaint 
 was made that many bridges were much out of repair, and 
 that the overseers contended that they were unable to make 
 repairs because the owners of land had warned them against 
 cutting the necessary timber. It was enacted that overseers 
 might cut timber from adjacent lands regardless of the 
 owner's warning, but no timber suitable for clapboards or 
 coopers' use should be taken.^^ 
 
 Though small bridges were very numerous, it was far 
 beyond the engineering resources of the colonists to bridge 
 the large rivers. Over these streams was established a series 
 of ferries, becoming gradually very numerous, and the 
 system was thought at that time to be remarkably efificient. 
 Governor Sharpe wrote in 1764 that ferries were established 
 over every river where roads crossed and that a ferryman 
 was constantly in attendance.^' Eddis also, after remark- 
 ing that one could not travel any considerable distance with- 
 out crossing rivers, added : " Over these, regular ferries are 
 established, at the charge of the respective counties; but 
 though every proper method is adopted for expedition, yet 
 such a number of considerable waters unavoidably occasion 
 great delay."^* 
 
 The usual ferry consisted of a flat-bottomed scow, about 
 eight feet by thirty,^^ which was propelled back and forth 
 by the ferryman's pulling on a heavy rope stretched across 
 the river. A Baltimore County contract called for a rope at 
 least four and a half inches around.^" Other contracts re- 
 quired that the scow be well floored, and that it carry from 
 
 ^''- Upper House Journal, May 3, 1737. 
 
 52 Bacon, 1724, ch. 14. In 1751 the assembly voted to continue 
 this method of confiscating timber for repairing bridges (Lower 
 House Journal, June, 1751). 
 
 ^2 Archives, vol. xiv, p. 180. 
 
 °* W. Eddis, Letters from America, p. 19. 
 
 ^5 That is the size of one mentioned in Prince George's County, 
 Court Records, November, 1742, Liber AA, p. 222. 
 
 ^« Court Records, August, 1754, Liber BB No. A, p. 443. 
 
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION 1 37 
 
 three to six horses.^' These boats, being flat-bottomed, were 
 able to come close ashore, so that by the letting down of a 
 large apron, or gang-plank, horses and men might pass over 
 to dry land. Occasionally mention is made of a causeway, 
 or even a wharf, built out to facilitate landing. Another 
 sort of ferry was employed to transport passengers across 
 the Chesapeake Bay or such mighty rivers as the lower 
 Potomac. The water at these places varied from three or 
 four to twenty or thirty miles in width, and the ordinary 
 rope-hauled ferry was impracticable. To meet these condi- 
 tions, commodious sailing boats were provided sufficient to 
 accommodate men and horses on what might prove a tedious 
 and perilous voyage. Sometimes small boats were also kept 
 to provide for travelers without horses.^* 
 
 Passage over these ferries was not always easy or safe. 
 The longer ferries, such as those across the lower Potomac 
 and those from Annapolis to Kent Island and Rock Hall, 
 were on waters noted for sudden gusts and squalls, and were 
 subject to all the difficulties of inland-water navigation. 
 Even the shorter ferries across smaller rivers were not 
 entirely safe. Especially dangerous was the passage with 
 horses. Chalkley tells us that while crossing the Potomac 
 at Piscataway, where the river is about four miles wide, his 
 boat was struck by a great swell which knocked the horses 
 from their footing and nearly filled the boat with water.'" 
 Hugh Jones also tells us that he lost a brother at the Chicka- 
 hominy ferry in Virginia.^" 
 
 Even when the element of danger was omitted, the ferries 
 were a constant source of trouble and delay. At best, it was 
 slow traveling when a heavy, loaded boat had to be pulled 
 across a stream by the ferryman and his passengers. Often 
 the ferry-boat was on the other side when needed, and two 
 complete trips had to be made before the traveler was landed 
 
 5^ Court Records, November, 1733, Liber JWS No. 9, p. 126 ; No- 
 vember, 1750, Liber TR No. 6. 
 
 =8 Maryland Gazette, March 24, April 26, 174S; June 24, 1746; 
 Callister MSS., July 14, 1762; "William Gregory's Journal," p. 228. 
 
 6» P. 312. 
 
 «» P. SI. 
 
138 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 on the opposite shore. When this happened on the An- 
 napoHs-Rock Hall ferry, several days might be lost.^^ What 
 was still more exasperating was to find the boat on the other 
 side and the ferryman indifferent about responding to the 
 hail, or even away from his post altogether. In order to 
 avoid the delays incident to finding the boat on the opposite 
 side of the river, Queen Anne's County in- 1728 established 
 a second ferry across the Chester River at Chestertown so 
 that one boat might be maintained on the Queen Anne's 
 side.^^ 
 
 Complaints against the ferrymen are numerous. A Cecil 
 County petition of 1721 charged "that the County ferry 
 over Elk River to and from our s* Court house hath of 
 Late been kept by Negroes whose Master being for the most 
 part absent hath been very Negligient in Discharging their 
 Duty.""^ So frequent were complaints about this time in 
 Cecil County that in November, 1722, the court entered on its 
 records the following memorandum : " It is Mutually agreed 
 by the Justices af* as a Standing rule of this Court that 
 in Case aney Just Complaint be made, against the ferry men 
 of the County, before Two Justices of the peace that then it 
 shall be in their power to turn out Such Delinquant and 
 Put in another in his Stead and Place.""* 
 
 As to the manner of control, ferries fell into two great 
 classes, private and public. The private ferry was the ordi- 
 nary toll institution supported entirely by fees from patrons. 
 In this class belonged all the bay ferries, most of those 
 across the Potomac,"' and probably many across rivers lying 
 entirely within the colony. These private ferries were sub- 
 ject to no legal control, but competition for business was in 
 some cases very keen and must have exerted some beneficial 
 influence. 
 
 ^1" William Gregory's Journal" [October 12, 1765], p. 228. 
 
 «2 Court Records, November, 1728, Liber PT No. A. 
 
 ^3 Petition Book, p. 25. 
 
 «4Ibid., p. 41. 
 
 ^^ Maryland Gazette, April 26, May 24, 1745 ; June 24, 1746, etc. 
 An advertisement in the Maryland Gazette of July 29, 1746, shows 
 that Virginia maintained at least one public ferry across the Poto- 
 mac. Residents of Maryland, however, probably had to pay tolls. 
 
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION 1 39 
 
 The public ferries were usually superintended by the county 
 courts. The courts located the ferry, contracted with the 
 ferryman, and included in the county levy the ferryman's 
 pay. The amounts of these salaries varied widely. Five 
 hundred pounds of tobacco was all that Baltimore County 
 paid for the maintenance of Patapsco ferry in 17x9.** The 
 same ferry in 1723 paid seven thousand pounds of tobacco,'"' 
 while three, four, five, six, and even eight thousand pounds 
 of tobacco per year were ordinary sums paid by the courts 
 for such service.*® The memorandum quoted above is the 
 only exception to the general rule that the whole court ap- 
 pointed the ferrymen. Occasionally, special requirements 
 or exemptions were inserted in the contract. The number 
 of horses to be carried, the number of men to be in attend- 
 ance, the time of attendance (either from sunrise until sun- 
 set or at all times), the requirement that the ferry transport 
 wheat or other produce, and the exemption from the same, 
 the transportation of church-goers on Sunday, — all these are 
 to be found in one or another contract between ferrymen and 
 the court."' At times the public ferries seem to have been 
 free to all persons,^" and at other times this privilege seems 
 to have been enjoyed only by the residents of the county that 
 maintained them.''^ The lack of evidence on this point 
 would indicate that in general the public ferries must have 
 
 ^^ Court Records, November, 1719, Liber JS No. C, p. 242. 
 
 «' Ibid., November, 1723, Liber JS No. TW, p. 83. 
 
 ''Ibid., 1731, Liber HS No. 7, p. 158; November, 1750, Liber TR 
 No. 6; Queen Anne's County, Court Records, November, 1728, Liber 
 PT No. A ; Cecil County, Court Records, November, 1718, Liber DK 
 No. I, inverted p. ISO; Baltimore County, Court Records, November, 
 1718, Liber JS No. C, p. 39; Prince George's County, Court Records, 
 November, 1742, Liber AA, p. 222. 
 
 "5* Baltimore County, Court Records, November, 1733, Liber JWS 
 No. 9, p. 126; November, 1750, Liber TR No. 6. 
 
 ■'o Maryland Gazette, March 22, 1753. 
 
 ^1 A petition was submitted in 1721 to the Baltimore County court 
 from several planters, who lived in Anne Arundel but had quarters 
 with taxables in Baltimore County, asking that as they paid taxes 
 in Baltimore, they and their messengers should have free passage 
 on Patapsco ferry the same as if they lived within the county (Court 
 Records, March, 1720/1, Liber JS No. C, p. 438). A Frederick 
 County contract restricted the ferryman to not over four pence for 
 man and horse and four shillings for wagons belonging to non- 
 residents (Court Records, March, 1748, Liber A, p. 15). 
 
I40 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 been free to all, for otherwise some complaints about rates 
 would surely be heard. 
 
 Though the county courts managed to keep their control 
 of ferries, their jurisdiction was constantly in dispute. The 
 charter granted the lord proprietor " as ample rights, juris- 
 dictions, privileges, prerogatives, royalties, liberties, immuni- 
 ties, and royal rights, and temporal franchises whatsoever, 
 ... as any bishop of Durham . . . ever heretofore hath had." 
 Somewhere in this blanket grant of power, the proprietor 
 claimed, was the right to establish and license ferries. In 
 the instructions to the agent, Nicholas Lowe, in 1723, ferry 
 licenses are referred to as an established thing,''^ and in 1731 
 an account of the proprietary revenues shows a total of 
 £13. IDS. sterhng from this source.''^ In 1733 the agent was 
 instructed as follows: "whereas the Justices of Several 
 County Courts have taken upon them to agree for certain 
 rates with persons for keeping Ferrys over several of the 
 Rivers within my province, for the Inhabitants of their 
 Several Countys, & to assess those Rates upon the In- 
 habitants without any law to warrant such assessment which 
 practice is not only an Invasion of our Right, but an Injury 
 to the people who are assessed contrary to Law; you are 
 therefore hereby Directed to take proper measures to put a 
 Stop to such Illegal practices & to take all necessary care 
 that neither our Right nor property be Invaded or the people 
 Injured or imposed on in that particular."'* From that 
 time on the contest was waged. 
 
 At the November court of that same year in Baltimore 
 County there was read a letter from Daniel Dulany claiming 
 for the proprietor the right to allow ferries, and threatening 
 prosecution against all ferrymen who failed to take out a 
 license from the proprietary agent. The justices entered a 
 formal denial of the proprietor's claims in this matter, and 
 wrote to Governor Ogle to that effect. '^ Notwithstanding 
 
 '2 Calvert Papers, MS., No. 278. 
 
 73 Ibid., No. 912. 
 
 7* Ibid., No. 278; No. 29SJ4, p. 61. 
 
 '5 Court Records, November, 1733, Liber JWS No. 9, p. 127. 
 
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION I4I 
 
 the popular protest, the proprietor's representatives began 
 to enforce their claims by a series of lawsuits against all who 
 failed to purchase licenses. Just what success was attained 
 is not known; but in 1741 the committee of grievances of the 
 Lower House of Assembly reported as follows : " Com- 
 plaint is made to your Committee, that Persons Travel- 
 ing the King's High- Ways of this Province, are stopt and 
 hindered in their Journeys, and prosecuting their lawful 
 Affairs, tho' of never so great Importance Publick or 
 Private, by means of the Restraint laid on the several Ferries 
 on such High-Ways, by his Lordship's Agents and Ministers, 
 who by vexing and terrifying the People with vexatious Law 
 Suits and heavy Fines who should (as usual it had been) 
 transport or carry over such Ferries in the High-Ways 
 aforesaid, his Majesty's Subjects, unless they should have 
 First compounded with his Lordship's Agents or Ministers 
 for an exorbitant and yearly Sum, to be paid out of their 
 Labour, by way of a Fine for a License for so doing.'' This 
 was followed by a long argument against the proprietor's 
 right to such a prerogative. The report was concurred in 
 by a vote of 36 to 3.''° The protest of the assembly brought 
 the proceedings to a halt, and throughout the life of the old 
 proprietor the claim was allowed to sleep. 
 
 The young proprietor again put forth this claim, and in 
 1752 issued instructions that " It is necessary also to have a 
 distinct account of all Tenants holding Ferrys in each 
 County, whether granted by Leases to the County Courts or 
 private Persons. "^^ No headway whatever was made in the 
 matter.''^ In 1761 Lord Baltimore must again have been 
 
 ■'^ Lower House Journal, June 12, 15, 1741. A copy of the license 
 issued to a Severn River ferryman includes the following list of 
 tolls that might be charged: for every man with horse, i2d. cur- 
 rency; man alone, 6d. currency; for every coach, chaise, wagon, or 
 cart, 2s. 6d. currency; for every horse drawing the same, 6d. cur- 
 rency; for every steer or cow, 6d. currency; and for every sheep or 
 hog, 2d. currency; the proprietor, governor, councillors, chancellor, 
 commissary-general, secretary, agent, and attorney-general, with their 
 servants, attendants, and horses, were to travel toll free. 
 
 '' Calvert Papers, No. 2, p. 143. 
 
 '8 Governor Sharpe wrote the following summary of the con- 
 troversy : " His Ldp also claims as his Right by prerogative a Fine 
 
142 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 seeking to revive this claim. Something from the proprietor 
 elicited the following reply from Governor Sharpe : " I beg 
 leave to inform Your Ldp that there never hath been since 
 the Country was settled any Money paid by the Keepers of 
 Ferries in this Province for Leave or Lycence to keep them 
 most of the Ferries over the Rivers in this Province are 
 supported & the Keepers of them paid by an Allowance made 
 them every year in the County Levy, & those who are not so 
 paid demand & receive from Passengers such Rates as they 
 have themselves settled."^" Although Sharpe was not ex- 
 actly accurate in his historical statements, he expressed 
 the final conclusion on the condition of the ferries. He 
 might well have added in the words of a former letter, " most 
 certainly a Regulation is necessary but the people will never 
 vest the proprietor with the Right & power of granting 
 Lycences, & he will not pass a Regulating Bill witho^ it." 
 This last statement shows why ferries were left entirely to 
 county control without any provincial legislation. 
 
 Over these highways passed the traffic and travel of the 
 colony. The most important article of transportation was 
 tobacco. In the earliest days every plantation stretched 
 along the water front, and the tobacco did not have to be 
 moved a great distance ; consequently, wagons were unneces- 
 sary, and the colonists fell into the habit of rolling the hogs- 
 heads from the barns to the landings.*" As settlements 
 
 for Lycencing Ferries, so did the late Lord once & to quiet the 
 peoples Clamour immediately dropt the Affair, at this time some of 
 our Ferries are kept by Order of the County Courts the person who 
 keeps the Boats has a Sum of Tob" levied by the Justices on the C'^ 
 for his payment and the Ferry is free, other Ferries are kept by 
 private persons who demand of Passengers what they please & 
 passengers must pay their Demand or be refused conveyance, most 
 certainly a Regulation is necessary but the people will never vest the 
 proprietor with the Right & power of granting Lycences, & he will 
 not pass a Regulating Bill Witho' it" (Archives, vol. vi, p. 236). 
 
 " Ibid., vol. ix, p. 509. 
 
 s" In most instances the method of rolling the tobacco was simply 
 to put several men behind the hogshead to push it. There are, 
 however, still traditions in the tobacco counties of the State of so 
 packing the hogshead that a pole could be put through the center, 
 to which a horse might be harnessed. This method may have been 
 
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION 1 43 
 
 pushed back, this method of transportation continued in 
 vogue, so that in the middle years of the eighteenth century 
 tobacco was sometimes rolled over great distances. As 
 settlements pushed up the Potomac, tobacco-producing com- 
 munities were located as much as thirty or forty miles from 
 water facilities. From the upper waters of the Patuxent, 
 from the region of Sugar Loaf Mountain, even from Seneca 
 and Monocacy Creeks tobacco was rolled down to tide-water 
 on the Potomac.^^ 
 
 This method of transporting tobacco was, from the point 
 of view of the merchants, anything but satisfactory. The 
 shattering of the tobacco caused by a long roll was such as 
 to diminish greatly its value, and occasionally the head was 
 jostled out of the hogshead, with very disastrous results.*^ 
 In 1719 several shipmasters petitioned against the practice. 
 In the letter from the London merchants to the Maryland 
 planters in 1729 it was said that the Virginia planters had 
 ceased to roll tobacco, and Marylanders were strongly urged 
 to do likewise.*^ But the merchants had another interest in 
 the moving of tobacco besides the protection of the crop. 
 It was an old custom that the sailors of the vessels should 
 receive the hogsheads at the planters' barns, and roll them to 
 the water. When plantations were along the rivers, this was 
 a slight burden, but as settlements pushed back, the sailors 
 began to complain. A sympathetic description of the sailors' 
 lot was given in an anonymous pamphlet of 1727. "The 
 Rolling of our Tobacco," it says, " which may be easily done 
 with Horses, and is indeed unfit for Men, wou'd remove the 
 
 in use in Maryland during colonial days, but I have seen no records 
 that indicate it. Hugh Jones, spealdng of Virginia, said that tobacco 
 was rolled, drawn by horses, or carted (p. 55). 
 
 81 Prince George's County, Court Records, August, 1746, Liber 
 FF, p. 6; November, 1746, Liber FF, p. 178; March, 1744, Liber CC, 
 p. 294. 
 
 8^ " The Tob°. they buy is often roll'd 20 Miles & upwards w"". is 
 not only a great charge upon it, but it is always damaged by it & 
 shaken to pieces both inside and outside" (Callister MSS., about 
 174s). See also "Letter by A. B.," in Maryland Gazette, May S, 
 1747. 
 
 83 Lower House Journal, May 21, 22, 1719; Maryland Gazette, 
 April IS, 1729. 
 
144 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 Reproach which Maryland but too justly lies under, of being 
 one of the worst countries in the Universe for Sailors ; For, 
 beside the Fatigue of long Rolls, the People are so very 
 backwards (in many parts of the Country,) in getting their 
 Tobacco ready, that it is mostly to be Roll'd when the 
 Weather is excessively hot. The Labour and Heat together 
 being vastly disproportionable to a Man's Strength, his 
 Spirits are exhausted to that degree that he is in danger of 
 being destroyed by the Draught of cold Water he drinks, 
 which has been the melanchoUy Fate of many an able 
 Sailor."** We omit the picture of the sailor's bereaved 
 family which follows. 
 
 In response to the complaints of the merchants, the as- 
 sembly in 1727 required under a penalty of one hundred 
 pounds of tobacco that all persons paying out tdbacco should, 
 within five days after receiving a written request, roll their 
 hogsheads to within a mile of some convenient landing. Six 
 pence per mile was to be allowed on every hogshead by the 
 person ordering it to be rolled. All persons who shipped 
 their own tobacco were also to roll it within a mile of a land- 
 ing.*^ In the next year complaints were so numerous that 
 the assembly repealed this clause.^^ There appears to have 
 been no other legislation on this subject until the tobacco 
 inspection act of 1747. This law relieved the merchants of 
 the necessity of having their sailors gather up the tobacco, 
 but it did not make any change in the custom of rolling it. 
 In fact, this remained the regular method of transporting 
 that crop in Maryland down to the end of the colonial period. 
 
 The prevalence of rolling does not necessarily argue the 
 absence of horses. Packhorses seem to have been used 
 
 ^*A Letter from a Freeholder, to a Member of the Lower-House 
 of Assembly, Annapolis, 1727, p. g (New York Pubhc Library). 
 
 85 Laws of 1727, p. II. 
 
 ^' Lower House Journal, October 31, 1728; Laws of 1728, p. 15; 
 Bacon, 1728, ch. 10. A Memorial Relating to the Tobacco-Trade. 
 Oflfer'd to The Consideration of the Planters of Virginia and Mary- 
 land, Williamsburg, 1737 (John Carter Brown Library), says that 
 Marylanders have to roll tobacco to landings so that sailors can 
 get it. 
 
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION I4S 
 
 occasionally on the frontier,*' but no mention is ever made 
 of them in the tide-water region. In the early years of the 
 eighteenth century wagons seem to have been very scarce, 
 for few references are made to them in the records ; but as 
 the century advances notices become somewhat more fre- 
 quent. The merchants' letter referred to above asserted that 
 the people had plenty of horses and might have carts or 
 sledges, which certainly implies that the latter were not very 
 numerous. The inventories of intestates' property, though 
 occasionally showing a cart, wagon, or pair of wheels,** 
 make it evident that carts were not common. 
 
 In two parts of the colony carts and wagons seem to have 
 been more plentiful than in the rest, — the northern part of 
 the Eastern Shore, and the far west. In both these regions 
 road petitions make constant reference to cart and wagon 
 roads, and transportation by these means is frequently men- 
 tioned. As early as 1729 John Carnan advertised that he 
 kept " Carts and Horses, for carrying Goods by Land 
 between the Two Bays of Del. and Ches., that is, between 
 Apoquinonny and Bohemia Landings."*^ By 1760 it was 
 apparently not uncommon for men to peddle such supplies 
 as butter over a large part of the Eastern Shore."" The 
 extensive use of wagons in western Maryland is very well 
 attested. Goods were regularly hauled to and from Balti- 
 more by people living as far west as the Monocacy and 
 beyond.®^ Wagon roads to Baltimore were the most im- 
 
 87 Frederick County, Court Records, March, 1750, Liber C, p. 296. 
 Braddock was informed that fifteen hundred " Carrying horses " 
 could be provided from the Frederick region (Sargent, p. 288). 
 
 88 A wagon " completely ironed " is mentioned in a bill of sale in 
 Kent County (Bills of Sale and Mortgages, 1757, Liber A, p. 143). 
 Such notices as this are occasionally seen. 
 
 8" Maryland Gazette, June 10, 1729; Callister MSS., June 28, 1763. 
 
 '""If any butter monger should come to G. town [Georgetown, 
 Kent County] whos a quantity of both tub and pot butter, I shall 
 take it as a favour that you get some good woman to chuse for me 
 60 or Sol of pQj- fresh butter & 200' of salt d°. and I will pay him the 
 price you agree with him to deliver it to me here; which perhaps 
 may be in his way to Talbot, or not much out of his way if he goes 
 with the rest to Newton" (Callister MSS., October 16, 1762). 
 
 91 " We have sent Mr. Wolgamots Wagon for the Goods men- 
 tioned in the Enclos'd Invoyce" (Shelby, of Frederick, to Hughes, 
 of Baltimore, in Chancery Record, Liber DD No. 2, p. 334). 
 
146 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 portant part of the road system in this region. The best 
 proof of the wide-spread use of wagons in the western 
 county is the well-known instance of the procuring by 
 Franklin and others'^ of hundreds of wagons to transport 
 the Braddock Expedition. These two regions— the first 
 with greater opportunities and the second under severer 
 necessities — outstripped the other parts of the colony in 
 methods of transportation, and were making wide use of 
 wheeled vehicles for hauling at a time when a farm wagon 
 or even a cart was exceptional in the other counties."^ 
 
 The history of the transportation of persons is somewhat 
 different from that of goods. The most primitive and, until 
 very recent years, the most effective way of transporting 
 persons, for long distances or short, was on horseback. 
 Every colonial traveler who has left us an account of Mary- 
 land came into the colony either by sea or on horseback. It 
 was the only method of long-distance land travel, for stage 
 coaches had not yet begun to run. 
 
 For traveling short distances, coaches, chaises, and chairs 
 (two-wheeled gigs) were very common. It is impossible to 
 tell when these luxuries were first introduced, but it is prob- 
 able that they were not numerous before the fourth or fifth 
 decade of the eighteenth century. In 1732 John Stokes of 
 Baltimore County had two carts with broken wheels and a 
 chariot valued at i4S.°* After about the middle of the 
 century notices of carriages of one kind or another are more 
 frequent, especially in the northern part of the Eastern 
 Shore, where the level country made fairly good roads pos- 
 
 °2 Sargent, pp. 288, 308. Many of these came from Pennsylvania, 
 but there were practically no economic differences between western 
 Pennsylvania and western Maryland. 
 
 ^3 The following are some references to other counties: Maryland 
 Gazette, October S, 1752, contains the advertisement of a carter in 
 Annapolis, and speaks of competition in the business. A bill for 
 carting in Charles County is to be found in Court Records, March, 
 1725/6, Liber P No. 2, binding no. 35, p. 203. A road passable for 
 rolling or carting is mentioned in Court Records, Baltimore County, 
 November, 1729, Liber HWS No. 6, p. 312. 
 
 »* Inventories, 1732, Liber D 4, p. 441. 
 
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION 1 4/ 
 
 sible. Wagon and chaise makers are sometimes found.'' 
 In Queen Anne's County in 1747 there was advertised for 
 hire a two-wheeled chair, a horse, and a driver, convenient 
 for traveling between Chestertown, Kent Island, and Talbot 
 court-house.''^ Carriages were sufficiently numerous in 1754 
 to constitute a convenient taxable article, and among the 
 imposts laid for the sinking of i6ooo of paper money issued 
 for war expenses was five shillings currency per wheel on all 
 coaches, chairs, and chaises."' Returns from this tax be- 
 tween February, 1758, and November, 1762, amounted to 
 £726. 7s. 5d.°* Making some allowance for collector's com- 
 missions, and estimating two two-wheeled chairs to each 
 four-wheeled vehicle, it is seen that this tax represents about 
 three hundred vehicles of all sorts. This estimate is prob- 
 ably low, for it is not conceivable that the tax lists were 
 exhaustive, and it is very probable that the two-wheeled 
 vehicles were in a much larger proportion. Probably about 
 four hundred is a fair estimate of the number of carriages of 
 all sorts in use at that time by the one hundred and fifty 
 thousand inhabitants. 
 
 An important adjunct to the road system was the means 
 of entertaining travelers. Maryland was not inhospitable to 
 visitors if hospitality may be judged by the number of 
 houses of public entertainment, or ordinaries. The license 
 reports for 1746 show 845 licensed ordinaries in thecolony.°° 
 
 ^"Maryland Gazette, November 18, 1756; Kent County, Court 
 Records, March, 1758, Liber JS No. 23, p. 188. The value of a 
 riding chair is placed at £22. 
 
 8* Maryland Gazette, June 23, 17A7- 
 
 "'' Bacon, 1754, ch. 9. Coachmen and footmen are occasionally 
 mentioned (C. M. Andrew^s, Guide to the Materials for American 
 History, to 1783, in the Public Record Office of Great Britain, vol. 
 ii, pp. 322, 323). 
 
 '8 Lower House Journal, April 24, 1762. 
 
 88 The list of coimties is as follows : — 
 Prince George's 164 Calvert 22 Somerset 35 
 
 Anne Arundel 91 St. Mar/s 27 Worcester 20 
 
 Queen Anne's 61 Charles 79 Kent 59 
 
 Dorchester 27 Talbot 31 Baltimore 130 
 
 Cecil 99 
 
 — Upper House Journal, March 27, 1746. 
 
148 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 The report of the year before showed 58 in the city of 
 AnnapoHs.^"" 
 
 This large number of taverns is to be accounted for in 
 several ways. The legitimate business of entertaining the 
 traveling public could not have been very large, but in a 
 thinly populated country, hospitality to the stranger is a 
 prime necessity, and tradition ruled that nobody should be 
 turned away from one's door. As the law forbade the sale 
 of food and drink without a license, any household that 
 wished protection from the drain of a somewhat enforced 
 hospitality was compelled to take out a license as a regular 
 ordinary. Petitions for licenses on these grounds are very 
 f requent.^"^ A typical request of this kind says " that your 
 Worships petitioner hath for some Years past and still is by 
 reason of his living on two publick roads very much op- 
 ressed by Travellers particularly by divers persons driving 
 large droves of Cattle to the great detriment of your peti- 
 tioner & trouble of his family w'^'' grievance cannot be 
 remedyed otherwise than by your petitioners keeping House 
 of publick Entertainment."^"^ In some instances, however, 
 the taking out of a license for an ordinary was not an act 
 of unwelcome necessity. Ordinary-keeping was at times a 
 paying business, and locations much frequented by travelers 
 were in demand for this purpose. ^°^ 
 
 The most valuable part of the ordinary's trade was not 
 the accommodation of travelers, but the satisfaction of the 
 local appetite for strong drink. It was at the ordinary that 
 the country-side gathered for its revels. Hamilton tells of 
 seeing " a drunken Club dismissing " at Tradaway's inn near 
 
 i"" Lower House Journal, August 16, 1745. 
 
 1"^ Baltimore County, Court Records, August and November, 1721, 
 Liber JS No. C, pp. 549, 621 ; Cecil County, Petition Book, Novem- 
 ber, 1724, p. 68; June, 1727, p. in; November, 1731, p. 174; Queen 
 Anne's County, Court Records, November, 1735 ; November, 1736, 
 passim. 
 
 i»2 Queen Anne's County, Court Records, June, 1739, Liber 1735- 
 1739. 
 
 i°2 Henry Callister, in offering his land for sale, says that it is a 
 location fit for a merchant, innkeeper, or ferryman (Callister MSS., 
 1763)- 
 
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION I49 
 
 Joppa. The landlord "made that trite apology, — That in- 
 deed he did not care to have such disorderly fellows come 
 about his house; . . . biit these were country people, his 
 neighbours, and it was not prudent to disoblige them upon 
 slight occasions."^"* Herein lay the profit in the business. 
 
 Persistent attempts were made to regulate taverns by 
 law.^°^ In 1717 an act was passed for this purpose, but of 
 its provisions very little is known.^"' From the county 
 court records it is evident that a license tax of five hundred 
 pounds of tobacco was laid, that a bond of £20 sterling was 
 required to guarantee that no dissolute person would be en- 
 tertained (unless such person was capable of giving a vote 
 for the delegates to the Lower House), and that the justices 
 were enabled to set the prices for the various kinds of food, 
 drink, and entertainment.^"^ This act expired in 1729, and 
 another law for the same purpose was passed in 1735 and 
 ran until 1739. In this act also a license fee was levied, 
 which was granted to the proprietor,^"^ but when the time 
 came for renewal in 1739, the Lower House disputed the 
 right of the proprietor to these revenues, and though the 
 governor threatened to reject all bills that had been passed 
 that session, the house stood firm.^°° During the next year 
 ordinaries were entirely without regulation. 
 
 In 1740 the expedition to the West Indies gave the Lower 
 
 House an opportunity to defeat the proprietor's claim to 
 
 ,the license money from ordinaries by appropriating the 
 
 money in a way which the governor dared not reject. After 
 
 a controversy between the two houses,^^" an act was passed- 
 
 1"* Hamilton's Itinerarium, p. 5. 
 
 105 Xhey had been regulated before 1689, and a license imposed' 
 before that date had proved a great bone of contention during the 
 royal government. 
 
 108 Bacon, 1717, ch. i. The volume of laws, LL No. 4, covering: 
 this period is lost. 
 
 i»7 Kent County, Court Records, August, 1724, Liber JS No. AB, 
 p. 213 ; November, 1724, Liber JS No. AD, p. 46 ; Baltimore County, 
 Court Records, August, 1719, Liber JS No. C, p. 230; Queen Anne's- 
 County, Court Records, March, 1718/9. 
 
 los Bacon, 1735, ch. 8. 
 
 109 Lower House Journal, June 8, 9, 1739. 
 "" Ibid., July 16, 17, 1740. 
 
150 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 by which a Ucense tax of £5 currency was laid on all 
 ordinaries in Annapolis, and fifty shillings currency on all in 
 the counties. These revenues, with others, were appro- 
 priated to the sinking fund for the expenses of the West 
 India expedition. A full code of regulations was included 
 in the act. The county courts, as usual, were permitted to 
 draw up a schedule of tariffs, a copy of which must be posted 
 in each ordinary.^^^ In the county seats ordinaries were re- 
 quired to have at least four beds and stabling for ten horses, 
 and in other places, two beds and stabling for six horses. 
 Keepers were excluded from public office, and were required 
 to give bond for £40 currency as a guarantee that they 
 would not permit tippling and gaming. Servants were not 
 to be entertained without the consent of their masters, and 
 sailors and persons with families and no estates were not 
 to be trusted for anything except necessary victuals and 
 drink.^'-^ After the expiration of this act, it was in all 
 essential points continued by an act of 1746, which in turn 
 was continued in 1754 and 1756, but expired in 1763.^^^ 
 During all these continuations the revenue from licenses was 
 
 I'^i The following is a copy of such a schedule : — 
 
 s. d. 
 
 Hot meal with pint of small beer or cider i 3 
 
 Cold meal with pint of small beer or cider i o 
 
 Lodging o 6 
 
 Canary wine per qt 6 o 
 
 Port wine per qt 5 o 
 
 Madeira wine per qt 3 o 
 
 Horse pasturage o 6 
 
 Corn or oats per peck i 6 
 
 Stablage with hay or fodder o 6 
 
 Rum per qt 3 
 
 — Baltimore County, Court Records, November, 1742, Liber TB No. 
 
 D, p. 65. 
 
 112 Acts of July, 1740, p. I. The last provision runs as follows : 
 "Whereas it is a general Complaint throughout this Province, that 
 Ordinary-keepers have made it their constant practice to entertain 
 Tradesmen and other Persons having Families, and no other Means 
 of Supporting them but their own Labour and Industry, and single 
 disorderly Persons, Tippling and Gaming in their Houses, and 
 wasting their Time and Substance, to the Ruin of their Families, 
 and themselves, and the encouragement of Idleness, Drunkenness, 
 and all other Irregularities and Disorders, be it enacted," and so on. 
 
 113 Bacon, 1746, ch. i ; Acts of 1746, pp. 10-17. 
 
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION 15I 
 
 appropriated to some fund for provincial defense, which 
 made it difficult for the governor or the Upper House to 
 reject any of the bills. 
 
 The proprietor, however, did not surrender his claim to the 
 right to license ordinaries and to receive the revenues there- 
 from. When Frederick, Lord Baltimore, came into posses- 
 sion, he attempted to assert this claim along with several 
 others, and granted the proceeds from these licenses to his 
 uncle, Cecilius Calvert, as part payment of his salary as 
 secretary.^i* Governor Sharpe was instructed to issue these 
 licenses and collect the fees, but he found it impossible to 
 obey as long as the act of 1746 was in force."^ He took 
 up the fight in 1754 and 1755, when the subject again came 
 before the assembly, but his council was weakening in its 
 support of the proprietor's claim, and on its advice Sharpe 
 ignored his instructions and passed the act of 1754. In 
 1755, however, with peremptory orders from the proprietor, 
 the governor became stricter, and allowed the appropriations 
 for war expenses to fail entirely because the Lower House 
 insisted on mortgaging these licenses still further.^^" For 
 five successive sessions the assembly was at a dead-lock over 
 this matter, and the colony was left without any provision 
 for defense. This state of affairs could not continue long, 
 and in 1756 the proprietor was forced to give way and 
 permit Sharpe to pass the act of that year, which mortgaged 
 the licenses until an appropriation of £40,000 then made 
 should be entirely refunded."^ 
 
 Even this defeat did not settle the controversy, for in 
 1763, after the expiration of all the acts appropriating the 
 license money, the battle was renewed. In that year a move- 
 ment was started to appropriate this money to the mainte- 
 nance of a military force on the western border. This seems 
 to have given place to an attempt to use the money for the 
 
 ^1* Lower House Journal, July 7, 1755. 
 lis Archives, vol. vi, p. 12. 
 
 11^ Lower House Journal, March 2.6, 1755 ; Archives, vol. vi, pp. 
 23s, 236. 
 
 11' Archives, vol. vi, p. 424. 
 
152 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 support of a college. A bill for this latter purpose was 
 favored by the council, but was rejected by the proprietor.^" 
 Notwithstanding the opposition of almost every one in the 
 colony,"^ in 1765 the proprietor again instructed the gov- 
 ernor to insist upon the claim. In 1766 the members of the 
 council were themselves so strongly opposed to the pro- 
 prietor^^" that he was finally induced to yield, and from 
 this time on ordinaries were peacefully regulated by the 
 assembly. 
 
 Consideration has been given thus far only to methods of 
 travel and trade by land, but a large part of the traffic in 
 Maryland was by water. No one unfamiliar with the mag- 
 nificent rivers and bays of this region can appreciate the 
 wonderful facilities for transportation by water, and no one 
 who has not had personal experience of the canoes,^^^ 
 bateaux, and larger vessels in use today in Maryland is in 
 a position to picture the amphibious life of the colonist. The 
 streams in colonial times were navigable much farther up 
 than they are today. Almost every up-stream community 
 at the present time has its tradition that large ships once 
 came up to some neighboring mud-hole now scarcely navi- 
 gable by a skiff. Bladensburg and Elk Ridge boasted of 
 their sea-going shipping, and even Beall Town, far up the 
 
 lis Archives, vol. xiv, pp. 152, 175, 193; Calvert Papers, No. 2, pp. 
 252, 255. 
 
 11^ Calvert Papers, No. 2, pp. 239, 240. Sharpe wrote to Secretary 
 Calvert in 1763: "Since I am on this Subject which will probably 
 be a Fund of much Contention at future Sessions I think it my Duty 
 to observe to you that upon my saying one Day when the last men- 
 tioned Bill was on the Carpet that His Lordship conceived he had a 
 Right to a Fine on granting Ordinary Lycenses Mr Dulany declared 
 that for his part he had no Idea of a Right without a Remedy & 
 that he could not see how His Ldp could support any Claim or Pre- 
 tentions to such an Emolument, Such being the Doctrine which is 
 generally received in the Province there is not I am afraid any great 
 probabihty of the questions being speedily determined here in a 
 manner advantageous to either His Lordship or yourself, but you 
 may depend on my adhering to that matter" (Archives, vol. xiv, 
 pp. 125, 126). 
 
 120 Archives, vol. xxxii, pp. 143-147. 
 
 121 The Chesapeake canoe is a boat dug out of one or more logs. 
 Often as many as five or six logs are fitted together, making a boat 
 from twenty to fifty feet long and from five to ten feet wide. 
 
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION I 53 
 
 East Branch of the Potomac, considered itself on navigable 
 waters.^^^ 
 
 On the most frequented courses of travel sailing ferries 
 and regular establishments for hiring boats were maintained. 
 As early as 1729 John Carnan kept at Bohemia Landing, 
 where travelers from Philadelphia first reached Chesapeake 
 waters, not only carts and horses to bring goods across 
 the portage, but also a sloop and hands to transport goods and 
 passengers to any part of Maryland or Virginia.^^^ In 1746 
 two ferries were in operation between Annapolis and Kent 
 Island, one of which advertised as rates ten shilHngs for a 
 passenger and horse or two passengers and seven shillings six 
 pence for a single passenger.^^* In 1761 there was advertised 
 a scheme for running a decked boat weekly between An- 
 napolis and Oxford. All persons subscribing thirty shillings 
 a year toward the enterprise were to have free passage, but 
 must find their own food.^^^ Sailing ferries were also 
 maintained over the Potomac, and in addition to these 
 public water conveyances, there were thousands of privately 
 owned canoes, sloops, and bateaux, in which the people 
 moved up and dawn the watercourses just as freely as in- 
 land people moved along the roads. 
 
 Henry Callister's papers show a comparatively large vol- 
 ume of bay and river trade in wheat, flour, bran, and other 
 goods.^^" It is probable, however, that there was more local 
 trade in his community (Chester River) than in any other 
 part of the province. In collecting the cargoes of the larger 
 sea-going vessels the small boats of the colony had a more 
 active business than in purely local trade. In loading to- 
 bacco, especially, large ships anchored in the open road- 
 steads, and sloops, flats, and other small craft brought the 
 
 122 Prince George's County, Court Records, August, 1738, Liber 
 X, p. 109. 
 
 123 Maryland Gazette, June 10, 1729. 
 12* Ibid., June 24, December 9, 1746. 
 125 Ibid., April 2, 1761. 
 
 i^eCallister MSS., May 4, 1746; November 10, December 12, 1761. 
 See also Baltimore County, Court Records, March, 1720/1, Liber JS 
 No. C, p. 475. 
 
I 54 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 hogsheads from various landings for miles around.^^^ In 
 the southern part of the colony tobacco was at times sent 
 across the bay in sloops to be transferred to some larger 
 vessel, and in the north, ships regularly lay in the mouths 
 of Back, Middle, and Bush Rivers and received tobacco 
 from both sides of the bay. 
 
 In dispersing the cargo of an incoming vessel, the small 
 boat was equally indispensable. Merchants with more than 
 one store usually despatched their ships to their most im- 
 portant agency, and sent on the cargoes for their outlying 
 stores by sloops.^^^ In many cases shipmasters left small 
 parcels of goods at the most convenient places to be sent 
 for by the consignee.^^' Thus, Molleson wrote to Charles 
 Ridgely in 1766 that certain goods that were too late for the 
 Patapsco ships would be sent by some Eastern Shore ship 
 that touched at Annapolis.^'" It was expected that Ridgely 
 would have a small boat go down to Annapolis for them. 
 
 If the water was a bond of union between the inhabitants 
 of the colony, it was no less a door of ready access for 
 England. " Every river and creek are harbours, and most 
 people have landing-places at their plantations," wrote Gov- 
 ernor Nicholson.^^^ He intended to imply that these har- 
 bors and landing-places were used by sea-going vessels. In 
 fact, trade with England was directly from the plantation 
 landing to the London dock. Ships from abroad came not 
 only to a distant port, but right to a planter's landing, and 
 spent four or five months each year anchored probably in 
 sight of his house. 
 
 Communication by water, though very direct and con- 
 venient, was attended by many perils. The dangers of the 
 sea were much greater at that lime than in this day of im- 
 
 1-' Jones, p. SS; Dulany Papers, box i, No. 83; Callister MSS., 
 November 12, 174S; July 9, 1751. 
 
 128 Ridgely Papers, July 10, 13, 1761 ; June 4, 23, 1764; Callister 
 MSS., August, 1748. 
 
 129 Callister MSS., May 13, I7S9; July 2, 1761; Maryland Gazette, 
 July 26^ 174s; April 8, 1746; February 8, 1759. 
 
 13° Ridgely Papers, 1766. 
 
 121 Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, America and West 
 Indies, 1696-1697, p. 421. 
 
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION I 55 
 
 proved shipbuilding, and aids to navigation were entirely- 
 wanting. No sea-going captain can be expected to know 
 all the harbors that he touches, and local pilots are often 
 necessary. In 1734 Henry Ward, then agent, was instructed 
 to license pilots for Maryland,^^^ and a few such permits 
 were issued. The proprietor, however, refused to prosecute 
 persons piloting without licenses, and the whole system failed. 
 In 1754 the plan was revived, but its hopelessness was shown 
 by Governor Sharpe's suggestion that the merchants be 
 persuaded to order their captains to employ none but licensed 
 men. In 1754, as in 1734 and 1735, no success was had with 
 the licensing plan, and the idea seems to have been entirely 
 abandoned.^^'' That individuals followed the business is 
 seen by the advertisement of Richard Bryan, wherein he 
 offers to pilot from Annapolis to the Patapsco for £3, to the 
 Susquehanna for £5, and to Cape Henry for seven pistoles."* 
 Another protection to navigation that was lacking in 
 colonial Maryland was a system of buoys and lighthouses. 
 The province never took any steps whatever toward the mark- 
 ing of channels. In 1721 Virginia suggested that the two col- 
 onies erect a lighthouse at Cape Henry, and asked the Mary- 
 land assembly to contribute £150 sterling toward the building 
 and £80 sterling per year for its maintenance. The Lower 
 House refused to agree to the plan, partly because it was 
 uncertain about the proportion of the cost that Maryland 
 would be paying, and partly because it was doubtful of the 
 real value of such a light to the shipping.^^^ The sugges- 
 tion was renewed by Virginia in 1728^^" and again in 1756,^^^ 
 but no action was taken. In 1752 Virginia proceeded to act 
 alone, and levied a tonnage duty on all ships entering and 
 leaving the Chesapeake. The act was disallowed by the 
 Privy Council on the grounds that it was indefinite as to 
 
 132 Calvert Papers, MS., No. 295^, p. 65. 
 
 133 Archives, vol. vi, pp. 92, 408 ; Calvert Papers, No. 2, p. 180. 
 
 134 Maryland Gazette, April 17, 1755. 
 
 135 Upper House Journal, July 19, 1721. 
 
 136 Ibid., October 4, 1728 ; Board of Trade Journal, vol. xxxviii 
 (Public Record Office, C. O. 391: 37), p. 270. 
 
 137 Archives, vol. vi, p. 509. 
 
156 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 the cost of the light, that it was a burden on British ship- 
 ping, and that it was an unjust tax on Maryland ships."' 
 It was not until after the close of the period under discussion 
 that vessels entering the capes were given this needed pro- 
 tection. 
 
 Maryland's waterways required a certain amount of care 
 and safeguarding, which the assembly in a small way was 
 willing to grant. Many vessels entered in ballast, and the 
 captains were accustomed to throw their ballast overboard 
 after anchoring in a safe harbor. This dumping of large 
 quantities of stone into the best harbors of the colony tended 
 to fill them up and ruin them for the larger ships. An act 
 of 1704 made it illegal to throw ballast into the rivers or 
 bays below high-water mark."^ This required that stone 
 should be carried ashore, — a burdensome task, — and as there 
 was no penalty provided for masters the rule was seldom 
 obeyed. A new act passed in 1735 provided that no ballast 
 should be thrown overboard at night and none should be 
 thrown into the bay above Cedar Point or into any river 
 below low-water mark. A penalty of £50 currency was to 
 be paid by any shipmaster who infringed the law. This act 
 seems to have met the conditions, for it was several times 
 renewed, and finally made perpetual.'^*" 
 
 Another difficulty in the maintenance of the waterways 
 was caused by the natural filling up of many of the smaller 
 streams. This process is well pictured in a petition of the 
 inhabitants around Beall Town on the Eastern Branch of the 
 Potomac, which " Sheweth that the Feshes [Freshets] have 
 Brought Down Trees & Trash which is Lodged in & 
 Choak'd up the Channell in the Said Branch so that Boats 
 & other Craft Cannot be Brought up to Lade or Relade goods 
 at the usuall Landing place."^*^ This and possibly many 
 
 138 Acts of Privy Council, Col., vol. iv, p. 401. 
 
 139 Bacon, 1704, ch. 90; Parks, p. 45. 
 
 "" Bacon, 173S, ch. 16. In 1753 an act was passed to prevent the 
 iron works along the Patapsco from throwing dirt into the river so 
 that it could wash down into the channel (ibid., 1753, ch. 27). 
 
 1*1 Prince George's County, Court Records, August, 1738, Liber 
 X, p. 109. 
 
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION 15/ 
 
 Other similar cases were attended to by the counties. The 
 assembly, on the other hand, was called upon to keep clear 
 the upper Potomac, the Monocacy, and the Conococheague/*^ 
 Late in the colonial period there was a movement on foot to 
 open up the Potomac to navigation around the Great Falls 
 and other obstructions.^** This movement was taken up by 
 the famous Ohio Company, but no solution of the problem 
 was reached until the construction of the Chesapeake and 
 Ohio Canal. During the period under consideration the 
 opening of the upper Patuxent was of greater interest to 
 the assembly than that of the upper Potomac. The people 
 of Anne Arundel and Prince George's Counties began the 
 movement to open the river for about twenty miles above 
 Queen Anne Town, and petitioned the assembly to give 
 them sufficient power and protection in the enterprise. By 
 an act of 1733 it was made lawful for the residents to raise 
 a subscription for the purpose, and it was made unlawful 
 to obstruct the river by weirs or by the felling of trees into 
 it. The petitioners were required to begin work within six 
 months.^** The river was probably opened by this body of 
 people, for in 1736 the Patuxent Iron Company was granted 
 permission to clear a tow-path on the banks of the river.'-'*^ 
 The western branch of the Patuxent leading to Upper Marl- 
 boro showed the same tendency to fill up, and in 1759 a 
 lottery was drawn to raise funds to clear the river and build 
 a wharf at Upper Marlboro.^*^ All these waters are now 
 mere babbling streams dignified by the name river only out 
 of courtesy to the breadth of their lower reaches. 
 
 One might conclude that with such a wealth of means of 
 travel and communication Maryland would be the most 
 closely integrated colony in America, but it must be remem- 
 bered that the same stream that forms the finest of high- 
 ways for the canoe is prohibitive to the horse, and the 
 
 1^2 Lower House Journal, March 25, 1765. 
 
 1*3 Eddis, p. S; B. Sellers, "Jonathan Hagar,'' in German His- 
 torical Society, Report 2, p. 20. 
 1** Bacon, 1733, ch. 9. 
 1*5 Ibid., 1736, ch. IS. 
 1*8 Maryland Gazette, May 31, 1759. 
 
158 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 smoothest of roads is of no use to the man in a bateau. In 
 other words, as long as a traveler could make use of a single 
 mode of travel he would fare well enough in Maryland, but 
 there were great difficulties in changing from one mode to 
 another. Thus, the people all along the shores of a river 
 would meet with each other by boat and the people living 
 on a single body of land would meet through land travel, but 
 an inhabitant living a little back from the water on one penin- 
 sula, or neck of land, rarely ever saw an inhabitant of an- 
 other neck. Maryland is so cut up by the estuaries of the 
 Chesapeake that the various necks are small, and it follows 
 that the communities in which there was close intercourse 
 were necessarily not large. Local travel, in other words, 
 was much hindered by the alternation of land and water. 
 
 Intercolonial travel was not affected by this condition. 
 Along the three great highways that have been pointed out 
 a few people were constantly moving. The greatest stream 
 of travelers came across from Philadelphia, around the head 
 of the bay, down to Annapolis, and across to Virginia.^*^ A 
 much smaller stream came down the eastern side of the bay, 
 some travelers going on across into the Eastern Shore of 
 Virginia. A goodly number, mostly Germans and many of 
 them settlers, passed from Pennsylvania into Virginia 
 through the Monocacy and Antietam Valleys and Harper's 
 Ferry. Almost all the travelers who have left us accounts 
 of their visits passed along one or the other of these high- 
 ways. It would be interesting to know how many persons 
 traveled any one of these routes, but even a guess is im- 
 possible. In Cecil County two of the routes met, and in 
 the records of that region travelers are often spoken of. 
 Many of them, however, were probably not going further 
 than Philadelphia. Hamilton in this part of his journey 
 found three road-companions.^*^ An intercolonial journey 
 could not have been a very serious matter, for in pursuit 
 of a runaway thief Callister sent a messenger two or three 
 
 1*^ The Vade Mecum for America gives a table of places and dis- 
 tances on this route (p. 203). 
 1*8 p. 13. 
 
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION I 59 
 
 hundred miles toward Charleston, South Carolina/*^ and 
 trips to distant colonies, such as that by Hamilton, were 
 sometimes undertaken for very slight reasons. Traveling 
 preachers wandered far and wide over the continent, and 
 business men would cross several colonies to arrange a deal 
 or collect a bill.^^° 
 
 Considerable interest attaches to the time required for 
 these journeys. Hamilton, in good weather, traveled from 
 Annapolis to Philadelphia in eight days, but certainly two 
 and possibly three of these days were unnecessary. He 
 spent three on the road to New York, and five more in going 
 to Albany. This would make Philadelphia five or six days 
 from Annapolis, and New York eight or nine. On the re- 
 turn trip he traveled ten days altogether between New York 
 and Annapolis. This must be considered fast travel, for 
 in Rhode Island he met a commercial traveler who had 
 spent sixteen days on the road from Joppa, Maryland, a full 
 day north of Annapolis.^'^ This man's time from Annapolis 
 to New York would be about eleven or twelve days. Wil- 
 ,liam Gregory in 1765 took four days to cross Maryland 
 from the Potomac ferry to Castine Bridge, near New Castle, 
 Delaware. On his return he crossed from Delaware to 
 Alexandria by way of the Rock Hall-Annapolis ferry in three 
 days. It was a full day of hard travel from Annapolis to 
 Alexandria.^^^ In 1760 there was a race on horseback be- 
 tween Frederick and Annapolis, the distance of seventy-five 
 or eighty miles being covered in exactly eleven hours. This, 
 of course, was the fastest possible time.^°* 
 
 Travel between Maryland and England was in various 
 ways more comfortable than that between the colonies. In 
 many instances the traveler could embark at his own planta- 
 tion, and with more or less comfort sail directly for the 
 mother-country. There were always in the colony many per- 
 sons who had just arrived from abroad. Almost everybody 
 
 i-to Callister MSS., July 17, 1762. 
 
 15" Hamilton's Itinerarium, p. 193 ; Clark Letter-book. 
 
 151 P. 193. 
 
 152 " 'William Gregory's Journal," pp. 226-229. 
 ii!3 Maryland Gazette, August 14, 1760. 
 
l60 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 numbered among his personal friends some sailor, ship- 
 master, or merchant who was constantly making the trip, and 
 a great many Marylanders went "home" themselves. The 
 cost of passage across was only from i2 to £6^^ the pas- 
 sengers providing their own food/^^ With the steady in- 
 flow of new immigrants, the constant moving back and forth 
 of the professional sailors and merchants, and not a few 
 planters crossing the ocean, intercourse between Maryland 
 and England was nearly continuous. 
 
 Where there is much travel, means of communication are 
 naturally abundant. Between Maryland and England, there- 
 fore, connections were direct, though not always swift. 
 The tobacco ships sailed in the summer and fall, and one 
 might have much trouble in sending a letter in the winter 
 or early spring. At these times mail matter had to go by 
 way of Philadelphia or New York.^^° At all other times 
 communication with the mother-country both by letter and 
 by word of mouth was free and sure. The planter saw 
 his London merchant, or his responsible representative from 
 home, every year. The time of passage was only about 
 six or eight weeks,^^^ and at least once a year, usually 
 oftener, the Maryland planter had London news more direct 
 than did some of the country gentlemen of England itself, 
 and almost as fresh. Even the news-letter, so familiar 
 in England at this time, was not unknown in Maryland.^^^ 
 It is a well-known fact that communication with England 
 was much closer than with some of the other colonies, news 
 
 154 Somerset County, Court Records, June, 1733, Liber GY, p. 21 ; 
 Provincial Court Record, October, 1734, Liber EI No. i. Binding 
 No. 26, p. 185 ; Kent County, Court Records, March, 1743, Liber JS 
 No. 30, p. 317. The total cost of a passage with board charged 
 against one Frances Allen in 1738 was £6 sterling (Baltimore 
 County, Court Records, August, 1738, Liber HWS No. J A 2, p. 269) . 
 
 155 An article in the Maryland Gazette (August 11, 1747) gives an 
 account of expenditures for cabin stores of eight passengers from 
 London to Maryland. They amounted to £8. 8s. apiece. 
 
 156 Callister MSS., March 14, 1760. 
 
 15^ Maryland Gazette, May 10, September 27, 1745. 
 
 158 Alexander Hamilton, while visiting a friend in Joppa, was 
 shown an English letter " written in a gazette style, which seemed 
 to be an abridgment of the political history of the times and a dis- 
 section of the machinations of the French, in their late designs 
 upon Great Britain" (Hamilton's Itinerarium, p. 3). 
 
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION l6l 
 
 often reaching England before it did one of the neighboring 
 provinces. ^^° The directness of the intercourse with Eng- 
 land enabled many colonists not only to buy from " home " 
 in a wholesale way, but also to do much of their petty shop- 
 ping in the London stores. ^°° Almost every departing captain 
 went away loaded down with personal commissions to make 
 little purchases for friends in Maryland, and returned with 
 numerous small parcels to be delivered to various individuals 
 on this side.'^^ Maryland ladies even had London shop- 
 keepers file away their stay, dress, and shoe patterns, that 
 they might be sure of a fit.^°^ Henry Callister while at Ox- 
 ford was able to send small mementoes to his friends in 
 England by captains returning from the colony. ^^^ 
 
 Communication within the colony was not always so 
 easy. Before 1713 official despatches were often brought to 
 their destination in the colony only by the officers' impress- 
 ing the horses of the inhabitants. In that year an act was 
 passed making it a part of the sheriff's duty to forward 
 all official letters through his county, for which he was paid 
 in the county levy.^^* This act remained in force until the 
 close of the colonial period, and the arrangement constituted 
 a sort of official postal service. 
 
 i°» Callister MSS., February 16, 1746/7. 
 
 1^0 Henry Callister ordered in 1749 some London ale, one barrel 
 of potatoes, one tierce of beef, coral and bells, Jeffries' four-sheet 
 map of North America, Pope's Works, and so on (Callister MSS., 
 November 12, 1749). Many accounts between planter and merchant 
 show the same. Callister and his neighbors also imported books 
 every year (ibid., September 20, 1762). 
 
 1^1 See advertisements of such parcels for persons whom the 
 captain could not find, in Maryland Gazette, July 26, 174S ; February 
 
 8, I7S9- 
 
 102 " Mrs. Ridgelys Shoes are made by the pattern Shoe I brought 
 home with me, which hangs up in my Closet on purpose always to 
 fit her" (Ridgely Papers, November 8, 1766). Callister ordered 
 Anthony Bacon to send Mrs. Callister " a handsome rich silk made 
 up for her (you know her size) full dress suit, girdle & buckle" 
 (Callister MSS., October IS, i7So). 
 
 if3 Callister MSS., August, 1748. 
 
 18* Bacon, 1713, ch. 2. Officials themselves seem to have continued 
 to practice impressing. In 1720 there was a complaint against two 
 men who impressed ferrymen to put them across the bay and then 
 received an allowance for traveling expenses (Lower House Journal, 
 April 13, 1720). 
 
1 62 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 Private persons were not favored with postal facilities 
 until many years later. In the meantime the public de- 
 pended for the delivery of letters largely upon the friendly 
 offices of any well-disposed individual. One's friends and 
 acquaintances who happened to be making a journey were 
 in the earlier times the chief dependence as disseminators 
 of news and carriers of letters. Hamilton speaks of receiv- 
 ing commissions to deliver to his friends,"^ and Callister 
 not only sent letters by friends, but also requested that his 
 correspondents should forward letters still farther."" Even 
 a stranger might be asked to do such favors. Callister wrote 
 in one letter, " I know not by whom this will be handed you ; 
 it waits for the first traveller of a good aspect.""'' Business 
 was transacted through messages carried by friends,^^* and 
 even money payments would sometimes be left in the hands 
 of third parties to be delivered to the owner."^ 
 
 More dependable ways were of course found for impor- 
 tant communications or for those that could not await a 
 chance opportunity. Private messengers might always be 
 sent, and were made much use of .^'^ The demand for mes- 
 sengers was sufficient for one man to advertise in the Mary- 
 land Gazette in 1746 that he stood ready to serve " as rea- 
 sonably as any one " those who had " occasion to send a 
 Messenger to any Distant Part of this, or to any of the 
 Neighboring Governments."^'^ In 1745 an advertisement 
 stated that a team would go every week from Charlotte 
 Town to Patapsco, and that a letter might be sent for four 
 pence and a package under two pounds in weight for six 
 pence. It was further proposed that in the spring of 1746 
 a caravan should be established between these places and 
 
 185 Pp. 236, 238. 
 
 18^ Callister MSS., March 14, 1760; September 20, 1761. 
 
 18' Ibid., November 3, 1761. 
 
 188 Ibid., July 2, 1761. 
 
 189 Ridgely Papers, August IS, 1765. 
 
 "" " Moravian Diaries of Travels Through Virginia : Extracts 
 from the Diary of Leonhard Schnell and John Brandmueller," in 
 Virginia Magazine of History, vol. xi, p. 118; Ridgely Papers, June 
 23, 1764- 
 
 I'l February 4, 1746. 
 
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION 1 63 
 
 York, Lancaster, and Philadelphia, " for the conveniency of 
 Passengers, Goods, Letters, etc."^'^ This was a common 
 carrier of a very advanced type. An extension of the 
 special messenger plan was the regular rider, who was 
 usually supported by subscriptions. Various persons would 
 contribute a certain amount each year to maintain a rider, 
 who would 'make the trip between given points at stated 
 intervals. The subscribers had the right to send letters 
 without further cost. A scheme was launched in 1756 for 
 establishing riders on the Western Shore " from one Court- 
 House to another, once a Week, by which Means a Weekly 
 Correspondence may be carried on between Annapolis and 
 those Places. "^'^ The plan was probably successful, for in 
 1759 notice was given to the supporters of the rider from 
 Annapolis to St. Mary's court-house that the time of their 
 subscriptions had expired, but that the rider would be con- 
 tinued in the belief that the subscription list would be made 
 up.^'* Such riders were maintained not only within Mary- 
 land, but also between that and other colonies.^^^ 
 
 Side by side with these private posts was maintained the 
 government post. In 1710 the British government first 
 organized a postal system, but it seems not to have embraced 
 Maryland until 1728. On May 9 of that year the Weekly 
 Mercury of Philadelphia announced the setting out of the 
 Maryland post to perform his stage once a fortnight. The 
 offices for receiving and delivering letters were to be at 
 Andrew Bradford's in Philadelphia, James Sykes's in New 
 Castle, and William Parks's in Annapolis. With the exten- 
 sion of this system southward a thread of communication 
 was established straight across the colony, following the 
 main road from New Castle to Susquehanna, Joppa, Balti- 
 
 172 Maryland Gazette, October 18, 1745. 
 
 i'3 Ibid., February 12, 1756. 
 
 17* Ibid., December 20, 1759. A similar plan for running a decked 
 boat weekly between Annapolis and Oxford has already been noticed 
 (above, page 153). 
 
 175 Callister to Morris, of Philadelphia: "It will reach your hands 
 without any charge, as I am a subscriber to this Rider : but I appre- 
 hend the rest of the journey [to New York] will be attended with 
 some Cost" (Callister MSS., September 20, 1761). 
 
164 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 more, Annapolis, Alexandria, and the South. No lateral 
 extensions of this system were made during the period 
 under discussion, though in 1764 Governor Sharpe was of 
 the opinion that it would pay to establish an office in each of 
 the fourteen counties.^'^ Communication was improved at 
 the other end by the establishment in 1756 of a system of 
 packets between Falmouth and the colonies. Mail left An- 
 napolis for the New York packet on the second Saturday of 
 every month. The rates for letters were one shilling per 
 sheet or four shillings per ounce.^^^ 
 
 The arrival and departure of the carriers seem to have 
 been fairly regular. In 1744, to be sure, Henry Callister 
 wrote, " Our Posts are not regular, & other opportunities 
 [for sending letters] are less frequent," but Callister was 
 then living far from the postal route, and the irregularity 
 may have been between Annapolis and Oxford.^^^ By 1761 
 a weekly service had been established in the summer time, 
 the carriers meeting at Annapolis to exchange mail for the 
 North and the South. The time of meeting was at first on 
 Wednesday, later on Sunday afternoon.^'^ Such a defi- 
 nitely appointed meeting time would not have been probable 
 without considerable actual regularity. Late in November 
 each year the winter schedule of fortnightly trips was begun, 
 and news became scarce in the province.^*" In the depth 
 
 176 " The only Offices which are at present established in this 
 Province for the Reception of Letters are on the main Road which 
 leads thro this place between Philadelphia & Virginia, but I am in- 
 clined to think that if a Post Office was to be opened at some Central 
 Place in each of the fourteen Counties into which this Province is 
 divided & proper measures taken for the Conveyance of Letters 
 hither from such Offices & hence thither every week the Revenue of 
 the Post Office would after some time be thereby increased & Letters 
 would be conveyed in a very few Days from one End of the Prov- 
 ince to the other" (Archives, vol. xiv, pp. 180, 181). 
 
 1'^ Maryland Gazette, February 12, 1756 ; Plantations General, vol. 
 XV (Public Record Office, C. O. 323: 13), O 130. 
 
 "* Callister MSS., November 25, 1744. It is possible that by 
 " Posts " he meant private carriers ; but this is not probable, as 
 theSe were usually called "riders.", 
 
 "^ Maryland Gazette, July 2, 1761. 
 
 18° The Maryland Gazette complained of the dearth of news, and 
 invited contributions at this time (November 26, 1761). Callister 
 advertised in the Pennsylvania Gazette in alternate weeks, " as the 
 papers come in by pairs" (Callister MSS., 1763). 
 
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION l6$ 
 
 of winter conditions became worse, for communication was 
 then frequently stopped by ice and snow. On December 
 31, 1761, the Gazette said that there liad been no com- 
 munication with the Eastern Shore for six days, that mail 
 from the North was a day overdue, and that there had been 
 no mail from the South for four weeks. In Maryland this 
 was early in the winter for delays to occur. Such irregu- 
 larities as this, however, were negligible, and except for its 
 narrow geographical limitation the colonial postal system 
 seems to have been fairly effiicient.^^^ 
 
 Letters sent through the public post-office as well as 
 private communications seem to have been forwarded to 
 persons not directly on the route by any chance means that 
 might oiifer. The taverns in particular were used as de- 
 positories for mail. From early times it was customary to 
 leave letters and packages for persons at the nearest con- 
 venient tavern on the chance that the owner might happen 
 to stop in or that some kindly disposed person would carry 
 the packet on another stage of its journey. The act of 1713 
 referring to letters containing protested bills of exchange 
 states that " for want of due Care of such Letters, in which 
 the same are enclosed, no settled Post-Houses being ap- 
 pointed for the Reception of them, many times sundry evil- 
 minded Persons find Occasion clandestinely to take such 
 Letters out of the Public Houses, where they are generally 
 left, and break open and conceal the same, to the great Detri- 
 ment of sundry of the Inhabitants, Merchants, and Traders." 
 Jonas Green complained that he had lost two hundred sub- 
 scribers to the Maryland Gazette by the robbing of packets 
 directed to him containing subscription money.^^^ This 
 probably refers to packets sent by private conveyance, but 
 the public post forwarded letters in the same way and was 
 
 181 The postmasters appear to have undertaken other afifairs for 
 patrons than the delivering of mail. Callister, in writing of a thief 
 whom he had pursued toward Charleston, South Carolina, says, " I 
 have now given the affair in charge to the Post Master" (Callister 
 MSS., July 17, 1762). 
 
 182 Maryland Gazette, May 3, 1753- 
 
1 66 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 doubtless subject to the same danger. Henry Callister wrote 
 in 1760: "I have been mortified these two days by notice 
 given me of a letter being seen at Geo^° Town (about 9 Miles 
 off) directed to me with the postage marked on it. I sent to 
 enquire ab* it yesterday, and find it was deliver'd to some- 
 body to be left at a certain place for me ; I sent thither : but 
 no letter to be found. So that it is not likely I shall hear 
 from you till you write again."^'* 
 
 Though such a state of affairs in the post-office may seem 
 crude to one accustomed to the system of today, it was a vast 
 improvement on the conditions of 1720. At that time there 
 were few subscription riders and no post-office. By 1765 
 there were weekly posts between the colonies and subscrip- 
 tion riders to every county. This marks a progress in forty- 
 five years almost as great as was seen in the course of the 
 next century. 
 
 With this rapidly growing system of travel and communi- 
 cation, the question arises as to the ways in which news was 
 disseminated. A very important means of spreading news 
 was the public meeting. Assemblies of various sorts were 
 common. The weekly church services gathered together the 
 people of each community, and were of such importance 
 that, as is well known, the church door was made use of as 
 an advertising medium. The large annual gatherings of the 
 Quakers brought together people from a far wider area. 
 These meetings partook of the nature of a fair. The fol- 
 lowing is a description of such a gathering in 1727: "The 
 Yearly Meeting now came on, which held for four days, viz. : 
 three for worship, and one for business. Many people re- 
 sort to it, and transact a deal of trade one with another, 
 so that it is a kind of market or change where the captains 
 of ships and the planters meet and settle their affairs; and 
 this draws abundance of people of the best rank to it."^** 
 
 183 Callister MSS., August 11, 1760. 
 
 18* S. Bownas, Travels, quoted in J. S. Norris, " The Early Friends 
 (or Quakers) in Maryland," p. 13, in Maryland Historical Society, 
 Miscellaneous Publications, vol. ii. The Quakers complained to 
 the assembly that they were disturbed in their worship at West 
 River and Choptank by the setting up of booths and the sale of 
 drink (Lower House Journal, October 12, 1725). 
 
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION 167 
 
 Different in form but equally effective was the horse-race. 
 This sport was always popular in Maryland, and the com- 
 bination of a race and a fair so familiar today was common 
 in colonial times.^'^ Gregory, in traveling across Kent 
 County in 1765, " came to a place where there was a fair and 
 2 horse races. Stayed there an hour ; drank Punch and saw 
 the diversion."^^" 
 
 The most important meetings from a commercial point of 
 view were the county courts, which met four times a year 
 in each county. Many people had to attend on legal busi- 
 ness, and the entire county always made the court session a 
 time of great social and business activity. That large num- 
 bers of people attended the courts is attested by the presence 
 of petty dram and cake sellers, who not only diverted trade 
 from the licensed ordinaries, but were also " the occasion of 
 Tumults in retardacion of the Proceedings of the . . . 
 Court."^*' Tobacco buyers and other dealers attended the 
 county seats during court time, and moved from court to 
 court in regular circuits.^*^ At all of these meetings com- 
 mercial and political matters were discussed, and the dispers- 
 ing crowds carried news of all sorts to every part of the 
 country-side. 
 
 During most of the period under discussion by far the 
 most important means of disseminating news was the 
 provincial newspaper, the Maryland Gazette. The first copy 
 of this paper was published in Annapolis by William Parks 
 
 ^^^ " On Monday last was held on the North Side of Severn, for 
 the first Time in the Memory of Man, A Fair, where were Run 
 several Horse Races, for sundry good Prizes ; and a fine Smock was 
 Run for, by certain Persons, who were not all of the Female Sex, 
 which was won by a well legged Girl. The Day was concluded by 
 two sumptuous Balls, at two several Places" (Maryland Gazette, 
 June 14, 1753). See also many advertisements in ibid. 
 
 186 " William Gregory's Journal," pp. 226-229. 
 
 ^^^ Charles County, Court Records, June, 1721, Liber K No. 2, 
 binding no. 30, p. 133 ; Baltimore County, Court Records, August, 
 1719, Liber JS No. C, p. 229; see also advertisement "to atend at 
 his Shop ... at the time of all publick Courts and Assemblies " 
 (Maryland Gazette, June 17, 1729). 
 
 188 A. charge in a ledger reads " p*. my Expenses to St. Marys, 
 Charles, Calvert, & Prince George's County Courts " (Library of 
 Congress, Firm Accounts, Maryland and Virginia, Journal, 1762). 
 
1 68 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 in Sq)tember, 1727. It was a small four-page sheet carry- 
 ing chiefly foreign news and advertisements, and its first 
 period ran only until December, 1731. It was revived in 
 December, 1732, and ran until December, 1734. In 1745 it 
 was again revived by Jonas Green, the first copy appear- 
 ing in April, and thereafter the paper continued without a 
 break until 1810.^^" Both Parks and Green received aid 
 from the assembly. In 1722 and 1723 the Lower House 
 passed resolutions to aid a printer should one be found 
 willing to settle at Annapolis, and in 1725 Thomas Bordley 
 persuaded Parks to accept the offer.^°° By a resolution of 
 the assembly Parks was allowed two thousand pounds of 
 tobacco by each county for printing the laws and speeches 
 of each session of the assembly. This resolution was later 
 put in the form of an act,^°^ which was continued until 
 1740.^^^ In 1744 a similar law was passed allowing Jonas 
 Green £15 currency from each county,^^^ and in 1749 this 
 allowance was raised to £20.^^* Further patronage of the 
 same nature was extended in 1756 and 1762.^''^ It was by 
 means of these favors that Parks and Green were enabled 
 to continue their work in Annapolis and to publish not only 
 the laws, but also a number of small books and the Gazette. 
 The Maryland Gazette was a real force in the colony. 
 Advertisements were plentiful, and though naturally An- 
 napolis furnished most of them, all parts of the colony were 
 represented, especially the west. The importance of the 
 paper was shown by the part it played in public agitations 
 for paper money and tobacco regulation.^^^ Unfortunately 
 
 189 C. Evans, American Bibliography. 
 
 i»" Upper House Journal, November 6, 172S; March 17, 23, 1725/6. 
 
 I'l Laws of Maryland, 1727, p. 13. 
 
 i»2 Bacon, 1727, ch. 8. 
 
 193 Acts of Assembly passed in May, 1744, p. 5. 
 
 1'* Acts of Assembly passed in May, 1749, p. 11. 
 
 is>5Acts of 1756; Bacon, 1762, ch. 24. 
 
 1^^ On May 15, 1750, the Lower House entered the following reso- 
 lution : " Ordered, That Mr. Green do print the Law for preventing 
 the exporting of Trash or bad Tobacco, in his next News-Papers, 
 and dispense them with the utmost Dispatch; that there may be an 
 immediate Notification to all Persons, of that Law, in order for the 
 due Observation of it." 
 
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION 1 69 
 
 for US, local news was neglected in the interests of foreign 
 despatches. Provincial affairs received most attention dur- 
 ing the wars, when military movements were fully detailed. 
 During the winter news was usually scarce and correspond- 
 ence was invited. ^°^ This brought forth many letters and 
 poems from local talent, and now and then a discussion of 
 a public question. There is no information as to the amount 
 of circulation enjoyed by the Gazette, but if we may accept 
 literally Green's statement that robbing of the mails cost 
 him two hundred subscribers, the total list must have been 
 rather extensive to support such a loss. 
 
 The Philadelphia papers were of importance comparable 
 with that of the Maryland Gazette as disseminators of news 
 in Maryland. The American Weekly Mercury and the Penn- 
 sylvania Gazette both carried advertisements from Mary- 
 land, even after the establishment of the paper at Annapolis. 
 In some instances these advertisements appear only in alter- 
 nate issues, for the papers reached some parts of Maryland 
 in pairs every second week.^'^ These papers carried about 
 the same kinds of matter as the Maryland Gazette, but gave 
 somewhat fuller accounts of trade, prices, arrivals and de- 
 partures, and such things. The importance of these 
 journals to a business man in Maryland is attested by a letter 
 written by Henry Callister in which he maintained that his 
 subscriptions for the years immediately following 1745 
 should be paid by his employers, Cunliffe and Company, 
 as the papers were necessary for his business at Wye.^^' 
 
 A summary of the changes which had taken place between 
 1720 and 1765 shows a remarkable advance in methods of 
 transportation, travel, and communication. In that time the 
 highway system had extended so that the road enumerations 
 by the county courts in 1765 occupy more than twice as 
 much space as those in 1720. All the roads back to the 
 mountain valleys were constructed. Many new bridges and 
 causeways were built. Hand in hand with these increasing 
 
 IS'' Maryland Gazette, November 26, 1761. 
 198 Callister MSS., 1763. 
 198 Ibid., May 17, 1763. 
 
170 MONEY AND TRANSPORTATION IN MARYLAND 
 
 facilities for travel had gone a much wider use of wheeled 
 vehicles, the development of a system of subscription riders, 
 the establishment of a regular post-office, and, finally, the 
 circulation of several newspapers. These were striking ad- 
 vances. In the years to come improvements were made in 
 the systems already established in 1765, but no important 
 changes came in methods of transportation and communica- 
 tion until the mechanical inventions of the next century 
 brought in the steamboat, the railroad, and the telegraph. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Accounts, in tobacco, 21 n. 
 
 Adams, paper-money trustee, 93. 
 
 American Weekly Mercury, 169- 
 170. 
 
 Annapolis, headquarters of loan- 
 office, 116; Rock Hall Ferry 
 to, 136. 
 
 Arabian " chequin," 25. 
 
 Attorney-general, to administer 
 road laws, 133. 
 
 Auditing committees, reports of, 
 87 n. 
 
 Ayer, J. B., 117 n. 
 
 Ballast, dumping of, 156. 
 
 Baltimore, Lord, establishes 
 mint, 12; instructs against cut 
 coin,27; appoints paper-money 
 trustees, 93; claims right to 
 regulate money, 108; grants 
 tavern licenses to Cecilius 
 Calvert, 151. 
 
 Baltimore City, 126. 
 
 Bank of England, stock for 
 paper money, 84; decline in 
 stock of, 104. 
 
 Banking through English mer- 
 chants, 39-40. 
 
 Banks, lack of, 17, 39, ii3- 
 
 Barter, advertisements qf, 74.; 
 prevalence of, 74-75; in pri- 
 vate accounts, 75 ; used in 
 complicated transactions, 75- 
 76; recognized by legislature, 
 
 76. . 
 
 Bavarian Caroline, 24. 
 
 Bill brokers, 42. 
 
 Bills of exchange, definition of, 
 38; protests of, 38; advantages 
 of, 38-39; use in foreign trans- 
 actions, 39; use in transac- 
 tions with England, 39; use- 
 fulness between colonies, 40- 
 41 ; drift northward of, 41 ; 
 as circulating medium of col- 
 
 ony, 42; fluctuation of, 42-44, 
 47; effect of war upon, 4S-46, 
 47; misunderstood by colo- 
 nists, 46; stolen from letters, 
 i6s. 
 
 Bit. See Real. 
 
 Blackiston, Governor, 29 n. 
 
 Board of Trade, discusses paper 
 money, 108. 
 
 Book credits, 119. 
 
 Bookkeeping, confusion in, 100; 
 " Italian method," 100. 
 
 Braddock Expedition, wagons 
 for, 146. 
 
 Bridges, built by contract, 135; 
 kept up by overseers, 136. 
 
 British coin, 21. 
 
 Bullion, great supply of, 14 n. ; 
 from Philadelphia, 16 n. See 
 also Coin. 
 
 Buoys, 155-156- 
 
 Butter, peddling of, 145 n. 
 
 Calvert, Benedict Leonard, on 
 need of paper currency, 79. 
 
 Calvert, Cecilius, fears common 
 currency, 34 n. ; incensed at 
 money speculators, 107; grants 
 tavern licenses, 151. 
 
 Canadian Expedition, paper 
 money lent for, 95. 
 
 Cape Henry, lighthouse on, 155- 
 156. 
 
 Capital, sources of, 115-116; 
 from loan-office, 1 16-1 17 ; from 
 merchants, 117; from wealthy 
 individuals, 117; commission 
 system, 119. 
 
 Carroll family, lend much 
 money, 117. 
 
 Causeways, description of, 134. 
 
 Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, 157. 
 
 Chesapeake canoe, 152 n. 
 
 Churches, as distributors of 
 news, 166. 
 
 171 
 
1/2 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Coachmen, 147 n. 
 
 Coin, methods of bringing to 
 Maryland, 11-12; from neigh- 
 boring colonies, 13; inter- 
 change with Virginia, 15; ex- 
 portation of, 15-16; shipment 
 to England, 16; scarcity of, 
 16-18, 36; hoarding of, 17-18; 
 importation of, encouraged, 
 19; increase of, 20-21; variety 
 of, 21 ; sterling, 21 ; Spanish, 
 22 ; fractional, 23 ; German, 
 24; French, 24; Portuguese, 
 24; condition of, 25; cutting 
 and clipping of, 25-27, 37; ex- 
 change of, by weight, 27; val- 
 ues of, 30; standards of value, 
 28-32; valuations of, by act 
 of 1753, 33 n. ; substitutes for, 
 48; used for small transac- 
 tions, 50. 
 
 Colonial coinage for America, 
 12 n. 
 
 Commission system, 119. 
 
 " Common " currency, 33. 
 
 Communication, by water, 154; 
 perils of, 154-ISS; with Eng- 
 land, 160-161 ; with colonies, 
 i6i. See also Letters and 
 Post-office. 
 
 Conococheague River, kept open 
 by assembly, 157. 
 
 Contracts, time of payment of, 
 55 n. 
 
 Counterfeiting, act for preven- 
 tion of, 26. 
 
 County courts, control roads, 
 123; control ferries, 140-142; 
 news spread by, 167. 
 
 Credit, to modern tobacco pro- 
 ducers, 117 n. ; to planters, 
 effect of, 119 n. ; on books, 
 119. 
 
 Cross dollar, 22. 
 
 Crown, French, 24. 
 
 Cruickshank, paper-money trus- 
 tee, 84. 
 
 Crusado, 24. 
 
 Cuban Expedition, paper money 
 lent for, 95. 
 
 Cutting of coins, 25-27, 37. 
 
 Debts, time of payment, 55 ; sus- 
 pension of, in bad years, 55- 
 56. 
 
 Divisibility of tobacco money, 
 
 62. 
 Dog dollar, 23, 30 n. 
 Dollar, kinds of, 22-23 j as money 
 
 denomination, iii n. 
 Doubloon, 23. 
 Ducatoon of Flanders, 24. 
 Dulany, Daniel, on necessity of 
 
 paper money, 23 n., 51, 108, 
 
 III; claims right to license 
 
 ferries, 140. 
 Dulany family, lend much 
 
 money, 117. 
 Durability of tobacco money, 56. 
 Dutch coin, 24. 
 Duties, levied to repay loans, 
 
 I0I-IQ2. 
 
 Eastern Shore, decline of to- 
 bacco currency on, 71. 
 
 ficu, 24. 
 
 England, source of supplies, 11 ; 
 shipment of money to, 16. 
 
 English money, 49. 
 
 Exchange, of sterling for other 
 standards, 36 n. ; on bills, 42- 
 46, 47; loose use of term, 42 
 n., 45 n., 46 n. 
 
 Executions, limited in time, 55. 
 
 Fairs, advertisement of, 167. 
 
 Ferries, across large rivers, 136; 
 description of, 136-137; dan- 
 gers of, 137; delays of, 137- 
 138; classes of, 138; private, 
 138; public, 139; control of, 
 140-142; licenses for, 140-142; 
 sailboats on, 153. 
 
 Ferrymen, complaints against, 
 138. 
 
 Fiat money, 78. 
 
 Flanders, coin of, 24. 
 
 Flax, as monetary substance, 70. 
 
 Fords, 135. 
 
 Forests, prevalence of, 131-132. 
 
 Fractional currency, scarcity of, 
 23- 
 
 Frederick Road, 127. 
 
 French coins, 24. 
 
 French war, and tobacco prices, 
 63; effect on currency, loi. 
 
 Fur, substitute for coin, 48. 
 
 Gates in roads, 131-132. 
 German coin, 24. 
 
INDEX 
 
 173 
 
 Government loans, 101-103. 
 
 Green, Jonas, public printer, 103 ; 
 edits Maryland Gazette, 168. 
 
 Greenwich Hospital, sixpenny- 
 assessment for, 49 n. 
 
 Guilder, three-guilder piece, 24. 
 
 Guinea, French, 24. 
 
 Hanbury, John, paper-money 
 
 trustee, 93. 
 Harbors, protection of, 156. See 
 
 also Waterways. 
 Hemp, as monetary substance, 
 
 70. 
 Holland, coin of, 24. 
 Homogeneity of tobacco money, 
 
 59-62, 68. 
 Horse-races, 167. 
 Hunt, paper-money trustee, 84; 
 
 death of, 93. 
 Hyde, paper-money trustee, 84; 
 
 death of, 93. 
 
 Impressment of transportation, 
 
 161 n. 
 Indian war, effect on currency, 
 
 102. 
 Indigo, substitute for coin, 48. 
 Innkeepers, demand higher 
 
 prices, 88 n. 
 Inns. See Ordinaries. 
 Inspection act, of 1747, 62, 69; 
 
 of I7S3, coins in, 33 n., 106. 
 Inspection, by merchants, 61 n. 
 Interest rate, 113-114. 
 Irish servants, tax on, 94. 
 Iron workers, excused from 
 
 road work, 122 n. 
 Iron works, blocking Patapsco, 
 
 156 n. 
 
 Johannas, 24. 
 
 Justices of the peace, fail to re- 
 turn paper money, 85 n. 
 
 Legal tender, of hemp and flax, 
 70; of other commodities, 76; 
 laws governing, 114. 
 
 Lending, 117. 
 
 Letters, official, 161 ; delivered 
 by friends, 162 ; loss of, 165. 
 See also Post-Office. 
 
 Levies, from those not produc- 
 ing tobacco, 106 n. 
 
 Licenses, for ordinaries, 94-95; 
 for ferries, 140-142; for pi- 
 lots, 154-155- 
 
 Lighthouses, 155-156. 
 
 Lion dollar, 30 n. 
 
 Liquors, tax on, 94. 
 
 Loan-office, amount lent, 86; 
 government indebtedness to, 
 loo-ioi; success of, 109-110; 
 as source of capital, 116-117. 
 
 Loans, taxes to repay, 101-102. 
 
 Louis, silver, 24. 
 
 Mail. See Post-Office. 
 
 Maryland Gazette, advertises 
 paper-money controversy, 80; 
 description of, 167-168; im- 
 portance of, 168-170. 
 
 Merchants, as bankers, 39-40; 
 inspection of tobacco by, 61 
 n. ; as source of capital, 117. 
 
 Messengers, 162. 
 
 Mexican dollar, 22; value of, 30. 
 
 Mills, 14 n. 
 
 Mint, proposed estabhshment of, 
 12; absence of, 21, 25. 
 
 Moidore, 24. 
 
 Money, kinds of, 9; supplanting 
 tobacco, 72; complication of 
 standards of, 112-113. 
 
 Money scales, 27. 
 
 Monocacy River, kept open by 
 assembly, 157. 
 
 Monocacy road system, 125. 
 
 Morris, Robert, ledger of, 88 n. 
 
 Navigation, pilot licenses, 154- 
 iSS; lack of buoys and light- 
 houses, 155-156. 
 
 Negroes, tax on, 94. 
 
 News, spread by church gather- 
 ings, 166; by horse-races and 
 fairs, 167; by county courts, 
 167; by Maryland Gazette, 
 167. 
 
 News-letters, 160 n. 
 
 Newspapers, Maryland Gazette, 
 167-169; American Weekly 
 Mercury, 169-170 ; Philadel- 
 phia Gazette, 169-170. 
 
 Newton, Sir Isaac, assay by, 
 22 n. 
 
 Notes, private, 23 n. ; tobacco, 
 58, 68 ; in barter, 75-76. 
 
174 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Officers' fees, controversy over, 
 83, 88-90; made payable in 
 paper, 91-92; payable in money, 
 los. 
 
 Ogle, Governor, 107. 
 
 Ohio Company, 157. 
 
 Ordinaries, licenses for, 94, 150- 
 152; number of, 147 n., 148; 
 profits of, 148-149; regulation 
 of, 149-150; credit to common 
 people in, 150 n. ; schedule of 
 prices, 150 n. ; regulated by 
 assembly, 152 ; depositories for 
 mail, 165. 
 
 Ordinary licenses, 94, 150-152; 
 Sharpe's opinion of, 152 n. 
 
 Overseers of roads, 122-123. 
 
 Paper money, issued by private 
 individuals, 23 n. ; issue of 
 1733, effect on coin, 31 ; effect 
 on bills of exchange, 44, 47; 
 reason for issue, 52, 79; ex- 
 periments in other colonies, 
 78; agitation for, 80-82; as 
 payment of fees, 83, 88-90; 
 surplus held by justices, 85 n.; 
 periods of redemption, 85-86, 
 97; first circulation of, 86; 
 depreciation of, 87-90; lack of 
 confidence in, 89; excessive is- 
 sue of, 89; effect of tobacco act 
 on, 91-92; made tender for 
 officers' fees, 91-92; specula- 
 tion in, 92; loans to govern- 
 ment, 94-96; loan for Cuban 
 and Canadian expeditions, 95; 
 first redemption of, 96-97; in- 
 creased demand for, 97; fluc- 
 tuations of, in second period, 
 97-99; rise in value, 98; change 
 of prices due to, 99-100; con- 
 fusion in bookkeeping of, 100; 
 poor management of, 100; re- 
 issue of unredeemed, 102 n. ; 
 as aid in public finances, 103; 
 final redemption of, 104-105; 
 issue of 1756, 106; speculation 
 in, 106-108; parliamentary in- 
 terference with, 108-109; later 
 issues, 108-109, III; abolishes 
 need of tobacco, no; stimu- 
 lus to trade, iio-iii. 
 
 Paper-money act, 48; inade- 
 quacy of, 52-53 ; prohibits sec- 
 
 onds, 60; passage of, 82-83; 
 preamble, 83 n. ; provisions of, 
 84-85. 
 
 Paper-money trustees, new ap- 
 pointments, 93. 
 
 Parks, William, establishes 
 Maryland Gazette, 167-168. 
 
 Parliament, forbids legal-tender 
 paper, 108. 
 
 Patuxent River, opening of, 157. 
 
 Peddling, of butter, 145 n. 
 
 Pennsylvania, source of bullion, 
 
 13- 
 Pesetas, 23. 
 
 Petitions. See Road petitions. 
 Philadelphia, bullion from, 16 
 
 n. ; wagon road from, 126; 
 
 newspapers of, 169-170. 
 Philadelphia Gazette, 169-170. 
 Pillar dollar, 22. 
 Pilots, IS4-ISS- 
 Pistareen, 23. 
 Pistole, Spanish, 23; value of, 
 
 30. 
 Portability of tobacco money, 
 
 56, 68. 
 Portages, part of general road 
 
 system, 128. 
 Portuguese coin, 24. 
 Postmasters, undertake other 
 
 duties, 165 n. 
 Post-oifice, sheriffs' duty in for- 
 warding official letters, 161 ; 
 
 establishment of, 163-164; de- 
 velopment of, 166. 
 Potomac River, opening of, 157. 
 Potomac River Road, 126. 
 Powder and shot, substitute for 
 
 coin, 48. 
 Prices, vary with paper money, 
 
 99-100. 
 Proclamation money, 32. 
 Protests, of bills of exchange, 
 
 38. 
 
 Quakers, meetings of, 166. 
 Queen Anne, proclamation of, 
 24, 29-32, 34, 37. 
 
 Races, 167. 
 
 Reals, 23. 
 
 Redemption of paper money, 96- 
 
 97, 104-105. 
 Rice, as substitute for coin, 48. 
 Riders, subscription, 163. 
 
INDEX 
 
 175 
 
 Rivers. See Waterways. 
 
 Rix dollar, 23. 
 
 Road laws, attorney-general to 
 administer, 133. 
 
 Road overseers, delinquency of, 
 123 n. ; increase of, 130; in- 
 efficiency of, 132; care of 
 bridges by, 13S-136. 
 
 Road petitions, examples of, 
 129 n. 
 
 Roads, act of 1704, 122; system 
 of administration, 122-123 ; 
 overseers, 122-123 1 changes in, 
 123; private, 123-124; laying 
 out of, 124; between Philadel- 
 phia and Virginia, 125 ; west- 
 ern system, 125 ; Philadelphia 
 wagon road, 126; Annapolis 
 to Frederick, 126-127; three 
 systems of, 128-129; extension 
 of, 130; character of, 130- 
 131; through forests, 131-132; 
 gates in, 131-132; marking of, 
 132-133 ; description of, 133 "■ ; 
 condition of, 133-134. 
 
 Rock Hall, ferry to Annapolis, 
 136. 
 
 Rolling of tobacco, 142-143. 
 
 " Running '' money, 33. 
 
 Sailing ferries, 153. 
 
 Sailors, must roll tobacco, 143- 
 144- 
 
 " Seconds," prohibited by paper- 
 money act, 60. 
 
 Sharpe, Governor Horatio, rep- 
 rimands assembly, 100; de- 
 sires means of lending to 
 manor tenants, 116; opinion of 
 ordinary licenses, 152 n. 
 
 Sheriffs, duty to carry messages, 
 161. 
 
 Sotweed Redivivus, on clipping, 
 27 n. ; on paper money, 80 n. 
 
 Spanish coin, 22, 49. 
 
 Speculation in paper money, 92, 
 10S-108. 
 
 Spread-eagle dollar, 23. 
 
 Stability of value of tobacco, 
 62-63. 
 
 Stamp Act, 17. 
 
 Standards of value, changes in, 
 28-29; debasement complained 
 of, 29 n. ; proclamation, 32; 
 "common" or "running" 
 
 money, 33; confusion of, 34- 
 35, 37, 121 ; failure of tobacco 
 as, 63-64; "sterhng goods," 
 64-65; complication of, 112- 
 113- 
 
 Staves, used as money, 75. 
 
 Sterling, methods of paying in, 
 36 n. ; loose use of term, 42 n., 
 45 n. ; " sterling goods " stand- 
 ard, 64-65. 
 
 Sugar, substitute for coin, 48. 
 
 Taverns. See Ordinaries. 
 
 Taxables, definition of, 60 n. 
 
 Tenders, regulation of, 61. 
 
 Tobacco, substitute for coin, 19; 
 accounts in, 21 n. ; official 
 money of province, 48; money 
 of business world, 49; used 
 for large bills, so; did not cir- 
 culate. So; lack of fitness as 
 money, 51 ; supply of, equal 
 to monetary needs, 51 ; varia- 
 tions in supplies of individuals, 
 Si-52; abandoned for grain, 
 51-52; complaints of, as 
 money, 52-53; variations be- 
 tween seasons, 54-55; varia- 
 tions between years, 55-56; 
 portability of, 56-57, 68; dura- 
 bility of, 56, 68; not moved 
 much, 57; regulation of qual- 
 ity, 59; homogeneity of, 59- 
 62, 68; inspection of, 60-61, 
 68; tenders of, 61; divisibility 
 
 _of, 62; unprofitable in small 
 amounts, 62; stability in value 
 of, 62-63, 68, 78; poor stand- 
 ard of value, 63-64, 68; varia- 
 tions of price caused by legis- 
 lation, 65-66; defective as 
 monetary substance, 67-68; 
 staple product as well as 
 money, 68; abandonment of, 
 ter, 75; complaints of, 79-80; 
 as money, 71-73, 120; as bar- 
 supplanted as money by paper, 
 no; interest on, 113-114; 
 transportation of, 142-143. 
 
 Tobacco act, of 1747, 53-54, 62, 
 69; of 1753, coins in, 33 n., 
 106. 
 
 Tobacco legislation, 69. 
 
 Tobacco notes, 58, 68. 
 
1/6 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Tolls, collected from non-resi- 
 dents, 139 n. 
 
 Trade, stimulated by paper 
 money, lio-lii. 
 
 Transportation, relation to 
 money, 122; of tobacco, 142- 
 143; use of small boats in, 
 153-154- 
 
 Travel, by land, 146-147; by 
 water, 152-155; hindered by 
 alternation of land and water, 
 157-158; intercolonial, 158- 
 159; time required for, 159; 
 between Maryland and Eng- 
 land, 1 59-161. 
 
 Virginia, interchange of bullion 
 with, IS; borrowing from 
 Maryland, 15 n. 
 
 Wagons, supply of, 144-146; for 
 Braddock Expedition, 146. 
 
 Wampum, substitute for coin, 
 19, 48. 
 
 Warehouses, establishment of m 
 
 1747, 58-59- 
 Waterways, protection of, 156; 
 
 filling up of, IS&-IS7- 
 West Indian expedition, 149- 
 
 150- 
 West Indies, source of bullion, 
 
 13- 
 
 William and Mary College, reve- 
 nue for, 49 n. 
 
 Wood Patent, 12 n. 
 
 Yearly meetings of Quakers, 
 
 116. 
 Young, Colonel Samuel, 35. 
 
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