Page:History of Fiat Money and Currency Inflation in New England from 1620 to 1789.djvu/3

 policy by which she eventually got control of the world's commerce, taking it out of the hands of the Dutch. A principle of her policy which undoubtedly effected the course of hard money in New England was the parliamentary decree that no specie should be exported from the kingdom. Frequently the tradesmen at Boston sent remittances of specie abroad. This outflow necessarily impoverished the medium of trade at home. The matter of establishing a mint at Boston was agitated and brought to the attention of the legislature June 10, 1652, and power was given John Hull and Robert Saunderson: "for the melting, refyning and cojning of silver." This mint continued operating until 1685, coining specie at about 22.5 per cent less than the standard value of old England. When the Massachusetts coin reached the London market the value was fixed as early as 1653 at a rate one quarter lower than theirs. The twelve penny piece was the famous pine-tree shilling; it was the one-twelfth of a pound of $3.33⅓, or three-quarters of the estimated pound sterling. The Boston financiers of the seventeenth century intended to make a coin which should be good bullion, but which should be, as the English pound sterling was forced by law to be, a coin that would stay in the country.

The coins which came from this mint were "two pence in a shilling of less valew than the present English coyne, and the lesser peeces proportionably." Despite the efforts of the legislature to debase the currency, the precious coin found its way to foreign lands. The interests of trade and commerce, which had received an impetus for a time, very soon had to pay the cost of this novel experiment in finance. It was the beginning of a mischief which proved an almost constant source of annoyance to the government