Introduction. xcix

tuxent recites that experience shows that large quantities of young fish unfit
for use have for many years been destroyed by weirs, dams, pots, and other
devices erected in the Susquehanna and Patuxent rivers, whereby the great
quantities of fish formerly found in these rivers and other rivers in the Prov-
ince have been much diminished to the great damage of the public. The act
prohibits the erection of any of the devices above mentioned by which fish are
obstructed from going up, or coming down, these two rivers, or the destruction
of fish by any device; violators to be subject for each offense to a fine of £20
current money. Seining between February 20 and May 20 in the Patuxent
between Mount Calvert and the head of the Patuxent, except on Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, of each week, was also forbidden. Weirs
were however, permitted in the tidal portion of the Susquehanna and in the
Patuxent below Mount Calvert (pp. 425-426). The second act, that to prevent
the obstruction of the Potomac River, recites that water carriage is greatly
obstructed by fish dams between the Great Falls of the Potomac (at George-
town) and the Monocacy River. The erection of fish dams, and other devices
for catching fish, is prohibited between the Great Falls [Georgetown] and Wills
Creek [Cumberland] on the Potomac, and on the Monocacy between the junc-
tion of two Pipe Creeks; violators to be subject to a fine of £15 current money
(pp. 427-428). These laws were subsequently reenacted several times.

THE LOAN OFFICE AND THE OLD ISSUE OF BILLS OF CREDIT

It will be recalled that at the November—December, 1765, session, the As-
sembly had abolished the Office for Emitting Bills of Credit, or Paper Currency
office, or, as it was more familiarly known, the Loan Office. This Office had
been established under the act of 1733, to issue £90,000 Bills of Credit or paper
money to run until 1764, to be used for certain designated expenses of govern-
ment, and to be secured by various specified taxes and duties, the money from
those taxes to be invested in Bank of England stock, held as a sinking fund
in the hands of Trustees in London. Other smaller issues of Bills of Credit,
principally for military purposes, had been issued in 1748, 1754, and 1756,
secured by additional taxes, these bills also to run until 1764 and to be likewise
secured by a sinking fund invested in Bank of England stock. When the Loan
Office was closed and went out of legal existence in April, 1766, it was found
that after all the Bills of Credit had been taken up and cancelled, there still
remained in the hands of the London Trustees to the credit of the Province, a
surplus of more than £25,000 par value Bank of England stock and having a
considerably higher market value, in addition to smaller sums secured by mort-
gages on land still due to the Commissioners of the Loan Office. These funds
were, of course, available for use for such purposes as the Assembly should
direct. The local Loan Office and its affairs are discussed in considerable detail
in a preceding volume of the Archives (LIX, lx-lxii).

At the November-December, 1766, session, a joint committee of the two
houses, with Benedict Calvert as chairman, was appointed to "inspect" the
affairs of the recently abolished Office for Emitting Bills of Credit, or Loan
Office as it was called, as well as the account rendered by the London Trustees.