As there are frequently Things published in the neighbouring
Provinces, which to see would be agreeable to my Readers,
but being of too great a Length, I have been obliged either
to retail ’em Piecemeal, which disjoints or breaks the
Connection of Thoughts, or wholly to omit them; I am
therefore lately advised to abstract and give the Substance
of them, which I shall do for the future, as often as I imagine
it may be any way useful or entertaining. The South
Carolina Gazette, of March 24. contains the Beginning of a
Discourse upon Paper Currency, which is
continued thro’ several other Papers. The Author observes, that the
principal Objection against that Currency, is its being so liable
to Mutation in its Value: That ’tis now about 30 Years since it
first got Footing in the American Plantations; and that altho’ it
has been design’d only as a present Expedient in Cases of Exigency,
yet no Place where it was once establish’d has found itself
afterwards in a Condition to do without it. And since (he says)
there arises no Benefit to the Publick from cancelling every seven
or ten Years Bills issued on Loan or otherwise because the
Circumstances of a Country continuing the same, there is still the
same Reason for making more, as at first, and much Clamour and some
Expence always attends the Periods: He proposes, a Standing
Paper Currency, to continue till the Country finds the Nature
of its Trade will afford Silver and Gold, and to prevent its
sinking in Value, he would have the Interest be paid in Silver
and Gold, and the Bills taken only in Discharge of the
Principal.
The Subjects of Trade and Money have always
occasioned much Speculation, being in themselves, and especially
when considered together, extreamly intricate and hard to be
understood. And the Paper Currency being a Thing of great
Importance to these Plantations, whatever is wrote to give us
farther Light about it, whatever new Methods are proposed, should
be received and examined with Candour.
With regard to this new Scheme, which proposes
to fix the Value of the Bills by obliging the Borrowers to pay
their Interest in Gold and Silver, the following Difficulties seem
to arise, which perhaps if the Author himself were here, he might
easily obviate.
1. Interest being now at 10 per Cent. in
Carolina, if 50,000 proclamation Money (the Sum he mentions) is
issued out upon Loan, £5000 Silver and Gold is yearly necessary to
discharge the Interest; and only the Surplus of that Sum can be
exported by the Merchant. Now allowing that the yearly Demand of so
much Plate in the Country, must prevent its Exportation, Yet must
not the Planter outbid the Merchant in order to have it? and if he
gives 2 or 4 per Cent. in Paper for it, is not that a Raising their
Interest to 12 or 14 per Cent. and does it not lessen the Value of
their Bills, compar’d with Silver and Gold?
2. If the Merchant wants Silver and Gold, to
make Returns, will he not raise the Price of his Goods till he can
afford to purchase it? and the Planter being still oblig’d to have
it, will not he be still forced to give more Paper for it?
3. If the Interest be all due at one Time of
the Year, will not Silver be at that Time higher and Paper lower
than at other Times, and so their Currency continually varying in
Value, and very uncertain to Strangers?
These Queries, for ought I know may have little
in ’em. If they serve to make a Paper Currency any thing more
consider’d, and therefore better understood, it is enough.