Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/98

88 ſide of the new emiſſion; convinced that the firſt ſmall ſum, fabricated in 1723, had done much good in the province, by favouring commerce, induſtry and population, ſince all the houſes were now inhabited, and many others building; whereas I remembered to have ſeen, when I firſt paraded the ſtreets of Philadelphia eating my roll, the majority of thoſe in Walnut-ſtreet, Second-ſtreet, Fourth-ſtreet, as well as a great number in Cheſnut and other ſtreets, with papers on them ſignifying that they were to be let; which made me think at the time that the inhabitants of the town were deſerting it one after another.

Our debates made me ſo fully maſter of the ſubject, that I wrote and publiſhed an anonymous pamphlet, entitled An Enquiry into the Nature and Neceſſity of a Paper Currency. It was very well received by the lower and midling claſs of people; but it diſpleaſed the opulent, as it increaſed the clamour in favour of the new emiſſion. Having, however, no writer among them capable of anſwering it, their oppoſition became leſs violent; and there being in the houſe of aſſembly a majority for the meaſure, it palled. The friends I had acquired in the houſe, perſuaded that I had done the country eſſential ſervice on this occaſion, rewarded me by giving me the printing of the bills. It was a lucrative employment, and proved a very ſeaſonable help to me; another advantage which I derived from having habituated myſelf to write. Time and experience ſo fully demonſtrated the utility of paper, currency, that it never after experienced any conſiderable oppoſition; ſo that it ſoon amounted to 55,000l. and in the year 1739 to 80,000l. It has ſince riſen, during the laſt war, to 350,000l. trade, buildings and population having in the interval continually increaſed: