Louisiana and Aaron Burr 267 



All through the West there was much difficulty 

 in getting money. In Tennessee particularly money 

 was so scarce that the only way to get cash in hand 

 was by selling provisions to the few Federal garri- 

 sons. 31 Credits were long, and payment made 

 largely in kind; and the price at which an article 

 could be sold under such conditions was twice as 

 large as that which it would command for cash 

 down. In the accounts kept by the landowners 

 with the merchants who sold them goods, and the 

 artisans who worked for them, there usually appear 

 credit accounts in which the amounts due on ac- 

 count of produce of various kinds are deducted from 

 the debt, leaving a balance to be settled by cash and 

 by orders. Owing to the fluctuating currency, and 

 to the wide difference in charges when immediate 

 cash payments were received as compared with 

 charges when the payments were made on credit and 

 in kind, it is difficult to know exactly what the prices 

 represent. In Kentucky currency mutton and beef 

 were fourpence a pound, in the summer of 1796, 

 while four beef tongues cost three shillings, and 

 a quarter of lamb three and sixpence. In 1798, on 

 the same account, beef was down to threepence a 

 pound. 32 Linen cost two and fourpence, or three 



tence: "I have lately heard a piece of news, if true, must be 

 a valuable acquisition to the Western World, viz., a boat of 

 a considerable burden making four miles and a half an hour 

 against the strongest current in the Mississippi River, and 

 worked by horses." 



31 Do., Blount to Hart, Knoxville, March 13, 1799. 



35 Do., Account of James Morrison and Melchia Myer, Oc- 

 tober 12, 1798. 



