time and its rise again to 40 and rising Seems to be so Sudden to be Owing to the increase of the Exports as our Council Say, or the Contrary; and is said to be chargeable to Another Account Viz! the want of Specie and of a sufficient quantity of currency to Supply the Ordinary necessities of Jersie and Pensilvania at that time; for much provision being to be Shipp'd for the Troops and Else where in the West Indies, bills of Exchange would not purchase this, unless chang'd into Specie, or bills of Credit; both of which being Scarce, there was a necessity of Lowring bills in Order to procure it, and when that End was Answer'd they soon rose again, So that the fall of Exchange was not Owing to a general Increase of the Exports, that being (if I Judge rightly) little (if any thing) more this year than usual; but to the time of doing of it, and peculiar Circumstances attending that Occasion which may not in a course of Years happen again.

As to the best way of sinking the Bills, (or whether it be best to sink them at all) is difficult to determine. Those of the Council that gave me their Opinion on that head Agree that its best to let them Expire by your Own limitation: but, when thats done, or if sunk sooner, unless there be a Supply of Specie or something that is tantamount, the reasons & necessity for making Others of some kind or other to serve as A medium of trade in lieu of Specie will be as Cogent and pressing as they were for the making those now in use; and if those reasons were good it Seems not Amiss to continue the practice while those reasons Subsist.

It has been said that while Jamaica and some of the other Islands carryed on a Clandestine trade with the Spaniards & the West Indies the northern Plantations had Specie Enough for their own Currencie and to make such remittances as was Sufficient to Supply their wants; but that trade failing and with it the

Supply of Silver & Gold and their numbers and demands Increasing, they were under a necessity of having recourse to the Issuing bills of Credit to Supply the Defect of Specie, to serve as that did for a medium of Commerce; but remittances being necessary and not to be made in those Bills, those who had bills of Exchange or Silver made their Advantage of those who wanted & being to be paid in those bills of credit would not part with their bills of Exchange or Silver but on their own terms and this Depreciated the nominall Value of the Bills of Credit in most of the Colonies, in some more than in others in Proportlon to the natural Credit upon which those bills were founded but fluctuating and Subject to change in all of them

The Province of New Jersie sends but few Vessels abroad; what they raise is chiefly sent from the Eastern division of it to New-York and from the Western to Philadelphia from which places they are for the most part supply'd with what European Commodities they want; they importing but little of that kind themselves; so that they are Very much out of the case with respect to the Value of Silver or Gold; what little they have (if any) comes from York or Pensilvania but chiefly from the Last to purchase Wheat for their own Exportation and then passes at the Value it goes in Pensilvania with those who take it which are not many; the generality preferring the bills of credit current Amongst them whose Value they know to Silver or Gold which they do not; and few of them having need of remittances are not concern'd whether bills of Exchange be cheap or deare which may be one reason that the bills or what they call the Paper Money of this Province have not only retain'd but Encreas'd their Credit being now 123 P Cent better than those of the neighbouring Province of New York.

Silver and Gold being the medium of commerce in every country where a Sufficient quantity of it for that Purpose is to be had, it seems necessary that in coun

tries where it is not to be had that Something Elce should be Substituted in its stead to Answer as far as may be that purpose; this the northern Plantations have done by bills of Credit which in some of them I have prov'd a great conveniency to the Inhabitants Especially to those in this Province; and to destroy these altogether in places where they have retain'd their Credit without placing Something in their Stead that would Answer the Same Ends Seems to be very inconvenient for the Inhabitants and perhaps not beneficial to the trade of their mother country.

In things of this Kind there will not be wanting Various Projections and when duly considred Perhaps few (if any) of them practicable with less inconvenience than the methods now in use. Some have conceiv'd that the calling in all the Bills that are now in use and issuing others in their Stead upon the Same Security and lent in the same manner with this only difference of making the King the Lender instead of the Governments here; to which end they Suggest that if His Majestie would be graciously Pleas'd to Asscertain what Salaries he thought proper to allow to his Several Governours, to the Councellors, during their Attendance in Council, to the Secretaries, Clerks of the Council, Judges, Receivers General and other necessary Officers of the Governments, and Incidental charges at a Sterling Value; and that so many bills of Credit be printed in or for each of the Provinces that when put at a moderate Interest of 4. 4 or at most 5 P Cent the Interest arising from them may defray the charges of Each Government And that attending the printing and letting these bills Each of these Province bills to be distinguished, to be regularly paid in and let out as now, and when worn or Obliterated new made to change them as at Present.

This it is said will Asscertain or prety nearly Asscertain the quantity of what they call paper Money in the

plantations, prevent the making any more for the future than what his Majestie will please to direct, render the Several Governours, Councellors and Officers of the Government independant on Assemblies for their Support, and consequently prevent those mean Condescentions that are too often made to Obtain a Scanty Subsistance, prevent the Governours from bartering the Kings Prerogatives or Lands for bread, give the Councils a greater weight and Influence than they at Present have and be a means of Keeping Assemblies within their Just and proper limmits.

Some of these things are very desireable; but to Obtain them seem to require the Aid Either of the Several Legislatures in the Plantations (which it is not to be Expected any of the Assemblies will give into, if they can Avoid the doing of it) or that of a Brittish Parliament and how far they will Judge it fit bills of any kind should be current in the Plantations is what I cannot say.

The People who are the borrowers, and who truly only Support this Government would be Very indifferent whether such Bills were made by the Authority of a British Parliament or Jersie Assembly, or whether lent by the Government here or the King, so as they could have them at a Moderate Interest.

Where Gold and Silver is wanting that it is necessary there should be Something to pass current as A medium of trade in Lieu of it Seems to me Evident.

Inclosed is a Proclamation Issued in Obedience to the commands of the Lords Justices, we are not in much Danger in this Province of their Acting contrary to the Act of Parliament, and I will do my utmost Endeavours that such as do shall be prosecuted. I am

My Lords Your Lordships most Obedient
Humble Servant
LEWIS MORRIS.

Lords Commissioners of Trade & Plantations.

Memorial of the Committees of the Proprietors of East and West Jersey to Governor Morris-relating to the line between New York and New Jersey.

[From Papers of James Alexander, Surveyor General, in Rutherfurd Collection, and Papers of F. J. Paris in the New Jersey Historical Society Library, Vol. IV, p. 125.]

NEW JERSEY S

TO HIS EXCELLENCY LEWIS MORRIS ESQ" Captain General and Governour in Chief in and over his Majesty Province of New Jersey and Territories thereon depending in America and Vice Admiral in the Same &c THE HUMBLE REPRESENTATION of the two Committees appointed by the Eastern & Western Division of the Council of Proprietors for making an Order to promote the settling of the Division line Between the Provinces of New York & New Jersey And also the line between the Eastern & Western division of this Province

May it Pleasure Your Excellency

We being appointed by the Councils of Proprietors of the Eastern & Western Division of the Province to Conferr about the settling & Adjusting the Division lines above mentioned, Have been applyed to by some of the Inbabitants of this Province Who dwell contiguous to the Supposed line between this Province and the Province of New York, in Order to redress many Grievances and Injurys said to be offered them from that Neighbouring Government: And having made a strict Inquiry into the Affair Do find upon the best information We were able to procure, that the