Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/760

 742 MONEY can be imagined. It had no executive head and no finance minister. It was expected to and did prosecute a war against one of the most powerful nations then existing, while it had no means whatsoever of levying taxes through any officials of its own. It might only recommend to the several colonies or states to levy and collect certain taxes for its use, but it had no means for enforcing the payment of them. It however fully exercised the power to issue and borrow money, and on May 10, 1775, resolved to issue $300,000 of bills of credit, for the redemption of which the faith of the colonies was pledged ; a quota was apportioned to each colony, which was liable for the discharge of its proportion. .The uni- ted colonies were however liable for any part not discharged by any colony. Legal-tender acts of the most stringent character were adopted by congress and the colonies, and subsequently by the states. No taxes were even recommended by congress to be levied until Jan. 14, 1777; but the resolution then passed was so indefinite, no quotas being named in it, that it had little or no result. By reso- lution of Nov. 22, 1777, the states were recom- mended to raise $5,000,000, with quotas an- nexed; but this had very little effect, small sums only being raised and paid by some of them within the year 1778, and by others sub- sequently. In an address to the people, May 8, 1778, congress said: "What are the reasons of your money being depreciated? Because no taxes have been imposed to carry on the war." In 1779 immense sums were called for, for that year and for 1780 $186,000,000 for the latter year alone ; but small was the actual amount received. Before any depreciation of bills took place $9,000,000 had been issued; but in March, 1778, $1 in coin was worth $1 75 in paper; in March, 1779, $10; and in February, 1780, $40. At this latter date $200.- 000,000 had been issued, and was estimated to be worth but $5,000,000 in coin. By the end of this year the final redemption of the bills came to be doubted, and the depreciation had reached 100 for one; by May, 1781, it was from 200 to 500 for one, and at or about this latter date they ceased to circulate as money at all. On June 2, 1781, the assembly of Penn- sylvania, on the recommendation of congress, repealed all tender acts; and the same was done about the same date by all the states. The total amount of continental money issued was officially stated on Jan. 30, 1828, by Joseph Nourse, register of the treasury, at $241,552,- 780, and by Thomas Jefferson it has been esti- mated at $200,000,000. Early in 1780 it was stated that specie " was never more plenty or more easily collected than at that time," the plentiful supply being occasioned by the large sums coming from the expenditures of the British army in New York and of the French army and navy, and from imports from Havana. In December, 1780, Peletiah Webster, a very careful writer on finance in Philadelphia, esti- mated the total amount of specie in the thirteen states at from $10,000,000 to $12,000,000. Large as this was then considered to be, it was not more than about the then annual expendi- tures of the government estimated in coin. This will at once and readily give an idea of the stupendous work which was undertaken by this feeble government of a poor and scattered people, and go far toward explaining the total collapse of its finances, conducted without any power of taxation, and until 1781 without sys- tem or a head. During the war the several colonies and states also issued paper money of their own, to an estimated aggregate amount between 1775 and 1783 of $209,524,776. By resolution of Feb. 2, 1781, congress created the office of superintendent of the finances, to which on the 20th of the same month Robert Morris was appointed. On May 1 7 he submitted a plan for a bank, and on the 26th congress passed a resolution approving the plan, and pledging itself for its promotion, under the name of " The President, Directors, and Com- pany of the Bank of North America," and on Dec. 31 it passed "an ordinance to incorporate the subscribers to the bank of North America." The capital was $400,000, of which $254,000 was subscribed by the government. This in- stitution proved to be of very material assistance to the national finances. The first congress under the constitution in 1789 passed an act imposing duties on imports, by which the pound sterling was valued at $4 44. There was at the time no United States coin of the denomi- nation of the dollar, but this was merely the money of account based upon the Spanish dol- lar, which had long been in use in the country. Coins from all parts of the world were taken at the custom house at a statutory value. On April 2, 1792, congress passed a law organizing the mint, but permitting the circulation of foreign coins for three years, by which time it was be- lieved the new coinage would be ready in suffi- cient amount. (For the provisions of this, and of prior and subsequent congressional acts re- lating to coinage, see COINS.) In 1791, on the recommendation of Alexander Hamilton, then secretary of the treasury, the first bank of the United States was established, and remained in existence until the expiration of its charter, March 4, 1811. During the war of 1812-'15 with Great Britain the government experienced great embarrassment in its finances, and by August, 1814, found it impossible to negotiate any further loans. In 1812 treasury notes having one year to run and bearing 5f per cent, interest, were issued to the amount of $3,000,000; in 1813, $6,000,000; and in 1814, $8,000,000. These were not a legal tender, but were receivable in payment of duties on imports and other taxes due to the general government. In October, 1814, when Alex- ander J. Dallas became secretary of the trea- sury, these notes were in such ill repute that, in the words of a historian of that period, " none but necessitous creditors or contractors