QUERY XXI.
THE WEIGHTS, MEASURES, AND THE CURRENCY OF THE HARD MONEY? SOME DETAILS RELATING TO THE EXCHANGE WITH EUROPE?
Our weights and measures are the same which are fixed by
acts of Parliament in England. How it has happened that in
this as well as the other American States the nominal value of
coin was made to differ from what it was in the country we
had left, and to differ among ourselves too, I am not able to
say with certainty. I find that, in 1631, our House of
Burgesses desired of the Privy Council in England a coin debased
to twenty-five per cent.; that, in 1645, they forbid dealing
by barter for tobacco, and established the Spanish piece of
eight at six shillings, as the standard of their currency; that,
in 1655, they changed it to five shillings sterling. In 1680
they sent an address to the King, in consequence of which,
by proclamation in 1683, he fixed the value of French crowns,
rix dollars, and pieces of eight at six shillings, and the coin of
New England at one shilling. That in 1710, 1714, 1727, and
1762, other regulations were made, which will be better
presented to the eye, stated in the form of a table, as follows:
