2092. DEBTS DUE BRITISH, Jefferson's Personal.—[continued].
I am desirous of arranging
with you such just and practicable conditions
as will ascertain to you the terms at
which you will receive my part of your debt,
and give me the satisfaction of knowing that
you are contented. * * * The first question
which arises is as to the article of interest. For
all the time preceding the war, and all subsequent
to it, I think it reasonable that interest
should be paid; but equally unreasonable during
the war. Interest is a compensation for the
use of money. Your money in my hands is in
the form of lands and negroes. From these,
during the war, no use, no profits could be derived.
Tobacco is the article they produce.
That can only be turned into money at a foreign
market. But the moment it went out of our
ports for that purpose, it was captured either
by the King's ships, or by those of individuals.
The consequence was that tobacco, worth from
twenty to thirty shillings the hundred, sold generally
in Virginia during the war for five shillings.
This price, it is known, will not maintain
the laborer and pay taxes. There was no surplus
of profit then to pay an interest. In the
meanwhile we stood insurers of the lives of the
laborers, and of the ultimate issue of the war.
He who attempted during the war to remit
either his principal or interest, must have expected
to remit three times to make one payment;
because it is supposed that two out of
three parts of the shipments were taken. It
was not possible, then, for the debtor to derive
any profit from the money which might enable
him to pay an interest, nor yet to get rid of the
principal by remitting it to his creditor.—
To William Jones.
Ford ed., iv, 352.
(P.
1787)
