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20 December 1740
My Lords
On the 13th Instant I received the several Letters wch your
Lordships did me the Honour to write to me of the 20th &
21st of May and the 19th of August
As to what your Lordships require in the first of them con-
cerning the Bills of Credit emitted in this Province, there
never were any 'till March 1732 at which time an Act of
Assembly past to emit 90000 £ Currency in Bills of Credit,
which at the time of Emission were calculated to be worth
67500£ Sterling, One third Part of the Sum to be sunk in
1748, and the rest in 1763: The Fund for sinking these Bills
of Credit is a Duty of 15d Sterl p hhd on all Tobacco to be
exported, which Duty is remitted to three noted Merchants in
London and placed in the Bank of England, and the Annual
Interest is to be carryed to the Capital Stock, by which means
'tis hoped the Fund may be sufficient to sink all the Bills of
Credit within the time limited, and is the most certain as well
as the easiest Method of doing it, and if it should be thought
proper to sink them sooner, an Additional Duty on Tobacco
would certainly do it.
This Duty is borne entirely by the Inhabitants, who ship a
great Part of their Tobacco on their own Account, and to those
who sell in the Country, the Duty is considered by the Pur-
chaser as part of the Cost of the Tobacco
As the Act for emitting these Bills of Credit expressly
restrains the Debts which are to be discharged by them to
Contracts to be made after the Publication of the Act within
the Province for Current Money only, so they can't possibly
affect the Trade of Great Britain, but on the Contrary enables
the Traders to purchase many things for the Bills of Credit
upon easier Terms, than any other Way and confines any
Disadvantage which may possibly attend them to the Inhabi-
tants here
Altho' the Fund to sink the Bills of Credit is so very good,
Yet the Artifices of some Traders and Others who have found
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p. 120
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