194 PROCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



of the New England currency.* By this proclamation, the Seville piece 

 of eight, old plate, and the Mexican piece of eight, were each valued at 

 4*. 6c?. and the weight of each was given at 17 dwt. 12 grs. The Pillar 

 piece of eight was given a slightly higher value in this table. The rate 

 at which these coins were to circulate was fixed at 65. the same value as 

 that assigned by the provincial legislation " if of full seventeen penny- 

 weiglit." The rate of conversion was exactly 133, the 4s. Gd. sterling 

 being equal to 6s. New England money. The rate for silver in London 

 was then 5s. 2d. per ounce. At 17^ dwt. for the piece of eight, silver was 

 rated at 6s. lOfrf. per ounce, or at a fraction less than 5s. 2d. sterling. 



The Provincial Act of 1697 seems to have been the basis for the 

 rates fixed in the proclamation. In 1706, the Lords of Trade informed 

 Governor Dudley that this was the fact. " You are further to represent 

 to the Assembly," they said,t " that there lies a particular obligation on 

 them to enforce a due obedience to her Majesty's commands herein, for 

 that the regulation of the rates at which foreign coins are to pass was 

 calculated from a law of their own." The establishment of the value at 

 which foreign coins should pass in the Plantations, by the standard fixed 

 for the value of the New l^ngland shilling in an Act passed by the 

 General Court of Massachusetts, instead of reversing the process and 

 taking sterling money as the basis, at first glance seems peculiar. It 

 must be remembered, however, that at that date, apart from the fact that 

 the Province was dependent upon foreign silver for its currency. New 

 England money was to a great extent but a nominal measure of value, 

 the mint having been closed for over twenty years and the Province 

 having been compelled in tlie mean time to resort to legislation against 

 the export of silver, in order to keep within its borders the miscellaneous 

 coins then in circulation. Moreover, the circumstances connected with 

 the silver coinage in Great Britain at that time were such as may serve 

 to some extent to explain this readiness to accept a measure of value 

 set by the Province itself in terms of a foreign coin. The table of 

 values for foreign coins contained in the proclamation was prepared by 



* Felt, on page 110 of liis Historical Account of Massachusetts Currency, says, 

 " As debtors, who confided in tlie last emission of Government notes, had promised to 

 l)ay hiwfid money, meaning these bills. ..." This expression is susceptible of 

 the interpretation that Felt thought the public bills of the issue referred to were 

 lawful money, which may or may not have been his intent. The statute which 

 he was interpreting was passed for the purpose of relieving debtors who had 

 incautiously agreed to pay lawful money for debts incurred in public bills. 



"The Editor has been imable to find any definition or explanation of what is 

 meant by 'proclamation money.'" — New Hampshire Prov. Papers, Vol. V. p. G72. 



t Province Laws, Vol. I. p. 580. 



