CONCLUSION.

$103. The Provincial Finances.

That the mass of the people-those of the poorer sort comprising the majority-had gained little or no practical wisdom from the financial history of the colonial period, is evident enough from the history of the financial legislation of the provincial period; for now that the influence of the governor and council, owing to the change in their political relation to the house of representatives and to the people, wrought by the provisions of the provincial charter, was no longer paramount in legislation, it is to the influence of the representatives themselves that the prevailing character of that legislation is to be attributed. To the causes that combined to deplete the revenue under the colonial system—the timidity displayed in the financial legislation, the laxity of the financial administration and the practice of permitting taxes to be paid in "specie❞—must now be added the long series of disagreements between these bodies, which, beginning almost as soon as the government was organized under the new charter, and continuing, with increasing bitterness, from time to time quite up to the revolutionary period, was the cause of very great embarrassment to the government and of prolonged suffering among the people.1

1 It was fairly precipitated by the attempt of the house to cripple the power of the council by inserting in the bill for a tax upon polls and estates in July, 1703, a clause restricting draughts upon the treasury for incidental charges to £30. The controversy usually took the form of a refusal by the house to pass the tax acts, even when the taxes had been mortgaged by previous issues of bills of credit, unless the council would yield the point in dispute, whatever it might be. Between June, 1706, and September, 1731, the treasury was often empty for periods varying from a few weeks to two years at a time, owing to the refusal of the rep. resentatives to pass tax laws.

$104. Criticism of the Policy.

An unprejudiced review of this controversy throughout the period of its extent, the whole tedious history of which may be found scattered through the journals of the council and the house, leads to the conviction that the action of the council was uniformly more honorable, more sound financially, and better adapted to secure the prosperity of the province than that of the representatives, who, apart from a natural impatience at meeting with steady opposition to every one of those features of their usual policy of which mention has been made as doing much to deplete the colonial revenues, appear in nearly every instance of disagreement to have been actuated more by jealousy of the governor and council as representing the royal authority, than by any real appreciation of the financial needs of the hour, or, it must be confessed, by any genuine regard for the best interests of the commonwealth. Only on the hypothesis that a higher social ideal is realized when individualism is carried to such an extreme that debtors, on the sole ground of the excess of their numbers, may repudiate with impunity contracts voluntarily entered into with their creditors, and that one generation may recklessly discount the resources of the next, can the general financial policy of the house of representatives of the province of Massachutetts Bay be defended.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

For the convenience of students, libraries where some of the rarer documents may be found are indicated.

A. ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS.

1.-"A Brief Account of the Rise, Progress, and Present State of the Paper Currency of New England," etc. Boston: 1749.-American Antiquarian Society.

2.-" A Brief Account of the State of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. By a Lover of his Country." Boston: 1717. 12mo., pp. 8.

3.-" A Copy of the Kings Majesties Charter for Incorporating the Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England in America. Granted. . . 1628.” Boston: 1689. 4to., pp. 26. Massachusetts Historical Society.

4." Act in addition to an Act entitled An Act to prevent Monopoly and Oppression.'" n. p., 1777. 8vo., pp. 8.

5.--“ Act providing for the more easy Payment of the Specie Taxes,” etc. n. p., 1786. 8vo., pp. 23.

6.

Acts and Resolves of the Province of Massachusetts Bay." Published by the State. Boston: 1869, 1874, 1878, 1881, 1886. 8vo.

For that period in the history of the commonwealth during which the greatest, if not the most rapid, progress was made toward a realization in legislation of the normal forms of her financial activity in its leading departments, the "Acts and Resolves" furnish the best possible source of information. The value to the historian of Massachusetts finances, of the edition of these laws published by the state, is greatly enhanced by the copious and erudite notes by the editor, Mr. Abner C. Goodell.

7.-" Act to Restrain the Trade and Commerce of Massachusetts and other Provinces in America." n. p., 1774. Folio.

8. A Discourse concerning the currencies of the British Plantations in America, Especially with regard to their Paper money, more particularly in relation to the Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England." Boston: 1740. 8vo., pp. 346.-American Antiquarian Society. Trumbull attributes this pamphlet to Dr. William Douglass.

9.- "A Letter from a Country Gentleman at Boston to his Friends in the Country." Boston: 1740.-American Antiquarian Society.

10." A Letter from a Gentleman in Boston, To his Friend in Connecticut." Boston: 1743. 4to., pp. 15.

A reply to "Heads proposed for an Act of Parliament, to regulate and finally suppress Paper Currencies in the N. E. Colories," in which Rhode Island, for her enormous emissions of paper money, and the projectors of the land bank in Massachusetts, are severely censured.

II." A Letter from an Eminent Clergy Man in the Massachusett's Bay, Containing some Just Remarks, and necessary Cautions, relating to Publick Affairs in that Province." Boston: 1720. 12m0., pp. (2) 13.

12.—“ A Letter from One in the Country to his Friend in Boston, containing some Remarks upon a late Pamphlet, entituled, The Distressed State of the Town of Boston,' etc. Boston: 1720. 12mo., pp. (2) 22.

13." A Letter Relating to a Medium of Trade in the Province of the Massachusetts Bay. Printed at the New Printing Office, opposite to the South East Corner of the Town House." Boston: 1740.- American Antiquarian Society.

14.—“ A Letter to a Member of the Honorable House of Representatives on the Present State of the Bills of Credit." Boston: 1736. 8vo., pp. (2) 9.—American Antiquarian Society.

15. "A Letter to

Merchant in London, concerning a late Combination in the Province of Mass.-Bay, in N. E.,-to impose or force a Private Currency called Land Bank Money. Printed for the Publick Good." 1741.-American Antiquarian Society.

16." A Letter to the Merchant in London to whom is directed a Printed Letter relating to the Manufactory Undertaking, dated New England Boston Feb'y 21 1741 Printed for the Publick Good."

17.—“ A Model for erecting a Bank of Credit," etc. London: 1688. 16mo., pp. (2) 30. Reprinted. Boston: 1714.

18. " A Mournful Lamentation For the sad and deplorable Death of Mr. Old Tenor, A Native of New-England, who, after a long Confinement, by a deep and mortal Wound which he received about Twelve Months before, expired on the 31st day of March, 1750.. To the mournful Tune of Chevy Chace." By

Joseph Green. Boston. n. d. Folio broadside.

19.—" An account of the Rise, Progress and Consequences of the Land Bank and Silver Schemes in the Province of Massachusetts Bay." Boston: 1744. 8vo., pp. 91.-Massachusetts Historical Society.

20." An Act for repealing Certain Parts of an Act postponing the Payment of Government Securities." Boston: 1781. 8vo., pp. 7.

21.-" An Act providing Remedy for Bankrupts and their Creditors, printed & referred to the People of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, April, 1757.” n. p. 1757.

4to.

22." An Act to prevent Monopoly and Oppression." n. p. 1744. 8vo.

23-"An Act to supply the Treasury with the Sum of Four Hundred Thousand Pounds Money." Boston: 1781. 8vo., pp. 8.

24." An Addition to the Present Melancholy Circumstances of the Province Considered... Exhibiting Considerations about Labour, Commerce, Money, Notes, or Bills of Credit." Boston: 1719. 16mo., pp. 28.—Library of Congress.

25.-"An Essay concerning Silver and Paper Currency more especially with regard to the British Colonies in New England." Boston: Between 1738 and 1740-American Antiquarian Society.

26.—“ An Inquiry into the Nature and Uses of Money; more especially of the Bills of Publick Credit, Old Tenor. With a Proposal of some proper Relief in the present Exigence. [And] A Reply to the Essay on Silver and Paper Currences [sic]." Boston: 1740. 8vo., p. (2) 78.-American Antiquarian Society.

27. —“ Another Letter, From One in the Country, to his Friend in Boston." Boston: 1714 [?] 4to., pp. 11.

28-"Answer to an Advertisement in the Boston Gazette, Feb. 20, 1721, dated, N. E. Castle William, February, 1720, 21." Boston: 1721.-Massachusetts Historical Society. Relative to paper money.

29.-" Appendix to Massachusetts in Agony. By Cornelius Agrippa, L. L.” Boston: 1751. 4to., pp. 20. -Massachusetts Historical Society.

30." A Project for the Emission of an Hundred Thousand Pounds of Province Bills, in such a manner as to keep their credit up Equal to Silver, and to bring an Hundred Thousand Pounds of Silver Money into the Country in a few years." Boston: 1720.-American Antiquarian Society.

31.-" A Projection, for regulating the value of Gold and Silver coins, published in the Boston Evening Post, Dec. 14th, 1761; reprinted, to be prefixed to Considerations on Lowering the Value of Gold Coins, within the Province of Massachusetts-Bay.'" By Thomas Hutchinson. Boston: 1762. 8vo., pp. 8.

32" A Vindication of the Bank of Credit." Boston: 1714.

Subscribed by Samuel Lynde, E[dward] Lyde, John Colman, Elisha Cooke, jr., J[ohn] Oulton, Timothy Thornton, Oliver Noyes, William Pain, and Nathaniel Oliver-" certainly a fair representation of the business men of Boston at that time."-Trumbull. In answer to Dudley's "Objections."

33.—“ A Vindication of the Remarks of One in the Country upon the distressed State of Boston, from some Exceptions made against 'Em in a Letter to Mr Colman." 1720.-American Antiquarian Society.

34-"A Word in Season to all True Lovers of their Liberty and their Country; both of which are now in the utmost Danger of being forever lost. By Mylo Freeman," etc. Boston: 1748. 16m0, pp. 16 (4).

In opposition to Hutchinson's plan of appropriating the reimbursement money for the Cape Breton expedition, to redeem old tenor bills. See Hutchinson, History, ii, 392-'5.