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Currency Act
The Currency Act is the name of several Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain that regulated paper money issued by the colonies of British America. The Acts sought to protect British merchants and creditors from being paid in depreciated colonial currency. The policy created tension between the colonies and Great Britain, and was cited as a grievance by colonists early in the American Revolution.
==Economic climate of the colonies==
From their origin, the colonies struggled with the development of an effective medium of exchange for goods and services. After depleting the vast majority of their monetary resources through imports, the first settlers strained to keep money in circulation. They could not find a suitable medium of exchange in which the value did not depreciate. The colonists generally employed three main types of currency. The first was commodity money, using the staple of a given region as a means of exchange. The second was specie, or gold or silver money. Lastly, paper money (or fiat money), issued in the form of a bill of exchange or a bank note, mortgaged on the value of the land that an individual owned.〔Finkelstein, 39.〕
Each year, the supply of specie in the colonies decreased due to international factors. The dearth of specie rendered it ineffective as a means of exchange for day-to-day purchases. Colonists frequently adopted a barter system to acquire the goods and services they required. Essentially, this method proved to be ineffective and a commodity system was adopted in its place. Tobacco was used as a monetary substitute in Virginia as early as 1619.〔 A major shortcoming of this system was that the quality of the substitutes was inconsistent. The poorer qualities ended up in circulation while the finer qualities were inevitably exported. This commodity system became increasingly ineffective as colonial debts increased.
In 1690, Massachusetts became the first colony to issue paper currency. This currency was employed as a means to finance its share of the debt from King William’s War. Other colonies quickly followed suit, and by 1715 ten of the thirteen had resorted to the issuance of paper currency. Economist Stanley Finkelstein highlights the advantage of paper currency, “that unless it is backed by specie it is cost free currency.” Unfortunately, the paper currency depreciated quickly due to the fact that the colonies printed more than what was taxed out of circulation. By 1740, Rhode Island bills of exchange were only four percent of face value and those of Massachusetts were eleven percent.〔Finkelstein, 39-40.〕 The money supply was growing at a much faster rate than that of the overall colonial economy, which led to hyperinflation and the corresponding reduction in purchasing power per unit of money. British merchants were forced to accept this depreciated currency as a repayment of debts. This led to the Currency Act of 1751.〔Ward, 462.〕
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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