was extremely small, which would seem to indicate that the pieces of eight, the Peruvian pieces, and the crowns had been imported almost wholly from the West Indies. Even these coins did not remain very long in the Colony, if the testimony of the authors of the Present State of Virginia, 1697, can be accepted. Pennsylvania had adopted an order that pieces of eight of twelve pennyweight should pass current as equal to five shillings, and in the same proportion, pieces of eight of an increased weight. As the most valuable piece of eight was ascertained in Virginia at five shillings, and in Maryland at four shillings and six pence, there was created a tendency in this coin to flow from the two Colonies just mentioned to Pennsylvania, where it could be disposed of as an ordinary commodity at a profit, in one instance of a shilling and in another of a shilling and a half.[1]
The lack of coin in Virginia at this time was by some attributed to the action of the Governor, who found it to his interest, it was said, to encourage the use of tobacco as money because it enabled him to receive his salary in the form of bills of exchange which could be transmitted to England with more facility and safety than the metals. He objected quite naturally to the payment of what was due him in pieces of eight, at the wholly arbitrary valuation of five shillings. As soon as he forwarded them to England, these coins would have been credited to him at their true worth, to his very serious damage. The Governor was probably in large part paid in tobacco received for quit-rents, this being delivered to him at a more reasonable rate than he could have secured it in the open market. He was also a purchaser of the same commodity procured from the same source on terms equally to his
- ↑ Hartwell, Chilton, and Blair’s Present State of Virginia, 1697, p. 14. See, also, Palmer’s Calendar of Virginia State Papers, vol. I, p. 53.
