192 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



the language of the act. The heavy piece of eight not only passed 

 within the Colony at five shillings in early days, but, according to 

 Douglass,* it was remitted to Great Britain on that basis. This beinor 

 the case, it is easy to understand how the law makers came to rate a 

 piece actually worth only ninepence sterling at tenjaence, an effective 

 value accomplished through the remittance of pieces of eight at a rate 

 above their market value, and we need no explanation for its decline 

 from this nominal rating to its proper place in the scale of exchange, so 

 soon as tlie immediate causes which led tlie London tradesmen to accept 

 this discrimination against them should have passed away. 



The mint was established in the hope of retaining a metallic currency 

 in the Colony, through the agency of the lighter coinage, but it was 

 soon evident that it was not performing this work, and in August, 1654, 

 a law was passed against the exportation of coin.f Mere legislation, 

 however, was no more effective than the system of coinage, and in 

 May, 16G9, searchers were appointed with extraordinary powers whose 

 duty it was to examine outgoing vessels which had weighed anchor with 

 the intention of leaving our waters. $ They were to seize all money 

 which they should find, and were invested with power to break open 

 packages and examine personal effects. Notwithstanding these arbitrary 

 proceedings silver still left the country, and in October, 1G72, the 

 General Court prefaced an Act legalizing the currency of pieces of 

 eight with a preamble in which it was stated that these coins were of 

 more value to carry out of the country than they would yield at the 

 mint, and, what was of more consequence, that they were actually carried 

 out of the country instead of being taken to the mint. To prevent this, 

 it was ordered that pieces of eight, of full weight and good silver, Mexico, 

 Seville, and Pillar, should pass current at six shillings, after they had 

 been duly stamped at the mint with the letters N. E. to indicate that 

 they had been inspected. § Light weight pieces of eight were to be 

 stamped with their actual weight, and to pass for a proportionate 

 value. 



This is the first point at which we obtain a legal rating of the piece of 

 eight in New England currency, and it might be inferred that this value 

 was assigned in consequence of the depreciation of the coinage from the 

 rate at which it was originally minted. If this opinion should prevail, 



* A Discourse, etc., p. 8. 

 t Mass. Col. Ilec, Vol. III. pp. 353, 354. 

 t Mass. Col. llec. Vol. IV. p. 421. 

 § Mass. Col. Rec, Vol. IV. p. 533. 



