The Currency of Empire by Jonathan Barth

Author:Jonathan Barth [Barth, Jonathan & Barth, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781501755774
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Published: 2021-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

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Buccaneers considered a host of factors when determining which North American seaport to visit. Was it a private colony or a royal colony? What was the reputation of the governor? What of the merchants? And how many shillings could a piece of eight earn there?

Colonial governments raised the value of Spanish money to new heights in the early to mid-1680s. Coin devaluation, indeed, became the most popular means in colonial America to attract foreign silver, whether from pirates or ordinary tradesmen. The timing conveniently, though not accidentally, aligned with the pirate ascendancy in eastern North America; pirates were more likely to bring their coin into a port for 6s apiece—or better yet, 6s9d apiece—than, say, 5s apiece. Colonial leaders knew this fact well, and their governments, by consequence, actively competed over which province could offer pirates, merchants, tradesmen, and anyone else with coin the most bang for their buck.

In 1682, on the eve of this new devaluation wave, the rates for a Spanish dollar (piece of eight) were as follows: 4s6d in Maryland (the same standard as in England); 5s in Virginia, Carolina, Jamaica, and Barbados; 6s in New York, Massachusetts, and the Leeward Islands; 7s8d in New Jersey.34 Rates changed rapidly thereafter. In 1683 alone, four colonies—Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Carolina—raised the piece of eight from 5s to 6s.35 The following year, 1684, the New York assembly—meeting for the first time in the colony’s history—advanced the dollar from 6s to 6s9d. The new rate was 12.5 percent higher than in Massachusetts. James, Duke of York, elected not to repeal the new statute, but less than two years later, as king, he warned Governor Dongan that “you shall not, upon any pretence whatsoever, permit any [further] alteration to bee made in the value of the current coyn.”36

To somewhat complicate matters, however, devaluation could also be secured more discreetly. By ordering clipped coin to pass at face value, some governments permitted colonists to accept Spanish money at rates higher than the law, at first glance, suggested. An unclipped piece of eight, if minted in Mexico or Spain (though not in Peru), contained 17.5 pennyweight (dwt) of silver. Clipped coin was often as light as 12 dwt—one-third lighter than a full-weight dollar. Yet during this period, a number of colonial governments declared clipped money legal tender at the same rate as full-weight coin, allowing clipped money to pass at face value. This method of valuation was called currency by tale, as opposed to currency by weight. Virtually all pirate money was clipped to some degree—often by the same pirates—and so governments that allowed clipped money to pass at the ordinary rate—currency by tale—significantly enticed buccaneers with clipped money. The opposite approach—currency by weight—deployed a sliding scale of valuation, deducting a certain number of pence for each missing pennyweight from the coin. Pennsylvania, West Jersey, Barbados, and the Leeward Islands enacted currency by tale; New England, New York, East Jersey, and Carolina, currency by weight. The decision on which way

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