DAVIS. — MASSACHUSETTS CURRENCY. 



199 



sufficiently pronounced for them to recognize the causes, was as a rule 

 on the side of conservatism. They had no remedy to propose, but the 

 Governors in their speeches repeatedly pointed out the evils which would 

 arise from failure on the part of the Assembly to call in the notes at the 

 ai^pointed time, and the Council many times refused to concur in bills 

 which by their terms postponed the withdrawals. The effect of the 

 decline was felt most by individuals living upon salai'ies, or having fixed 

 incomes payable in current funds, but it also reached certain branches of 

 the government. The post othce, for instance, was dependent for its 

 support upon a schedule of fixed charges, and no compensation was pos- 

 sible for the loss occasioned by the decline of the currency. In 1713, 

 the department lodged a complaint with the Board of Trade, for this 

 reason.* The Governors not infrequently pointed out that the allowances 

 made them for their services ought to be increased proportionately to the 

 diminution in the purchasing power of the bills, and the members of the 

 Board and of the House took care that their per diem jiay was at least 

 approximately adjusted. "I own, some part of this communit}' can 

 fence against this evil," said Governor Sluite, in 1716, "and ward it off 

 from themselves by advancing their commodities, but the other part must 

 unavoidably suffer. All rents must fall of consequence, and what will 

 your ministers do, who are highly worthy of their salaries? how heavily 

 it will fall upon them and their families, when what they are paid in 

 grows low in value, and their necessaries of life are daily advancing." 

 Douglass saw that through the changes made in the allowances to the 

 Governors and in the per diem pay which the members of the General 

 Court voted to themselves, a sort of scale could be constructed with 

 which to measure the diminution of the purchasing power of the bills, 

 and he therefore put together the following table. f 



* Board of Trade Journal, quoted by Palfrey, Vol. IV. p. 332. 

 t Douglass's Summary, etc., Vol. I. p. 508. 



