DAVIS. MASSACHUSETTS CURRENCY. 207 



legislation, but iii the long ruu these things took care of themselves. 

 The emissions in the table are procured from the Acts and Kesolves of 

 the General Court. The Tax Acts fui'uish the withdrawals or retire- 

 ments. The figures to be obtained from this table correspond in their 

 final result with ihose given by contemporary writers as to the amount 

 outstanding in 1749. There are some fragments of treasurer's state- 

 ments and some committee reports showing the amounts outstanding at 

 different dates. These reports require examination before they can be 

 ai^plied to test the accuracy of this table. The treasurer was apparently 

 accustomed to charge himself with all bills which were emitted against 

 future funds, but the bills intended for loans he charged to the commis- 

 sioners of the loans, and they made their reports direct to the Assembly. 

 The treasurer's reports, therefore, as to the amount of bills outstanding 

 at any given date re(pure correction by the addition of the loans then 

 outstanding to the net amount with which he stands charged after 

 having deducted from the emissions the credits to which he was entitled. 

 For instance a report, the bulk of which is given by Felt,* shows that 

 up to November 11th, 1724, the treasurer stood charged with bills 

 amounting to £397,006 Is. During the interval which his statement 

 covered, there had been paid in £194,017 2s. lO/L, which had been 

 burned by committees of the General Court, and there w;is in the 

 treasury at that date £10,558 12s. Id., leaving outstai-ding according to 

 this statement £191,530 Gs. Id. Now there were actually outstanding 

 at that time the entire amounts of the £100,000 loan and the £50,000 

 loan of 1721, and in addition thereto the taxes were to a great extent 

 pledged for several years ahead as funds for the retirement of bills 

 which must then have been in circulation. The estimate of the amount 

 outstanding to be found in my table, which is made up from the xVcts 

 and Resolves of the General Court, shows £326,000 in May. If we add 

 the £150,000 loans to the treasui'er's statement we get £341,000 in 

 November. 'I'his difference might easily be explained, but not all the 

 comparisons of the figures to be obtained from these reports with the 

 estimates given in the table will turn out so favorably as this. 



The diagram setting forth the disappearance of the silver circulation 

 of the Province and the line of growth of the currency shows also the cor- 

 responding movement which took place in the price of silver, all values 

 being stated in the old tenor currency of the Province. Had it been 

 possible to sustain the bills at par until the amount in circulation was 



* Historical Account of the Massachusetts Currency, p. 80. 



