In January, 1749 Massachusetts passed a controversial currency reform
act, designed to call in all their paper
money and redeem it with silver, at the rate of one dollar for every 45
shillings in paper money. The British government had reimbursed Massachusetts for expenses incurred
in the Cape Breton expedition, and Massachusetts used the reimbursement
to finance the currency reform. The law,
although passed in 1749, was not to take effect until April 1, 1750.
Many in the colony opposed the act, and hoped to reverse the policy
before it was carried out. This pamphlet was written in response. It
defends the wisdom of the currency reform, and in the process presents a
valuable account of New England's monetary history. Originally published
in Boston in 1749, this anonymous pamphlet has since been reprinted in
Andrew MacFarland Davis's Colonial Currency Reprints, Volume
IV, pp. 377-98.
