LAND, LABOUR AND COMMERCE. 165 



profits or to leave their money in the New South Wales Bank, 

 from which they could draw it at a moment's notice. The 

 principal superintendent of convicts also acted in his private 

 capacity as banker and money-lender, a calling not very con- 

 sonant with his official station. 



With a sounder currency, a more hopeful agricultural 

 outlook, a prospect of encouragement to the wool-trade and 

 lighter duties on South Sea products, the future looked brighter 

 in 1821 than it had done for many years. But the social con- 

 ditions of the Colony were very troubled. The increasing 

 number of free settlers, both those from England and those 

 born in the Colony, even the children of the convicts, began to 

 gather together against them. These, as they grew richer and 

 freer, became more disliked, and after 1821 began to lose ground. 

 Under Macquarie's rule they reached their highest point socially 

 and economically, and with his departure their day declined. 



