Page:A colonial autocracy, New South Wales under Governor Macquarie, 1810-1821.djvu/193

 profits or to leave their money in the New South Wales Bank, from which they could draw it at a moment's notice. The principal superintendent of convicts also acted in his private capacity as banker and money-lender, a calling not very consonant with his official station.

With a sounder currency, a more hopeful agricultural outlook, a prospect of encouragement to the wool-trade and lighter duties on South Sea products, the future looked brighter in 1821 than it had done for many years. But the social conditions of the Colony were very troubled. The increasing number of free settlers, both those from England and those born in the Colony, even the children of the convicts, began to gather together against them. These, as they grew richer and freer, became more disliked, and after 1821 began to lose ground. Under Macquarie's rule they reached their highest point socially and economically, and with his departure their day declined.