Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/381

Rh the step were "the spurious and impure metals" that were being mixed with the gold "brought to and bartered in" the territory as well as the "great irregularities in the scales and weights used in dealing" with it from which great impositions were practiced upon the farmers, merchants and community generally. The director of this Oregon mint, appointed under this act, had little time for getting it into operation, as the Territorial Governor, General Joseph Lane, appointed in pursuance of the act of Congress of August 12, 1848, arrived on the scene March 3, and notified him that he would have to arrest its operations. The director petitioned the first Legislature under the territorial organization for an appropriation of $250 to pay the debt contracted on behalf of the Provisional Government for materials, and other expenses incurred, before being ordered to desist by a representative Of the National Government.

The monetary situation was relieved through the organization of a partnership known as the Oregon Exchange Company, that made five-dollar and ten-dollar pieces. Some $30,000 of the former and $28,500 of the latter were put in circulation. They were later bought up by the United States mint at San Francisco at a premium, as they contained more gold than the national coins of the same denominations.

A more satisfactory view of the financial affairs of the Oregon community under its Provisional Government will be had after having in mind a general idea of the distribution of the settlements and their political characteristics and organization. The economic condition of these stockraisers and grain-growers has probably been adequately brought out in the discussion of their currency. On this score they had little that worried them, situated as they