Errors Excepted
October the 30th, 1741
Per P. Vezian Capt. Qr. Mr.
133 Mild ps. 8/8
5 Piller ps. 8/8[5]
1 french Crown[6]
£3. 4s. 0d. English Mony.
Sent by Robert Griffin to New York
| 133 Mild ps. of Eight | £53. 4. 0 |
| 54 Moydores in Gold at 44s.[7] | 118.16. 0 |
| ————— | |
| New York Mony | £172. 0. 0 |
[1] Massachusetts Historical Society. It is hard to interpret this account. It will be seen that £1776 16s. 9d. New England currency is reckoned as equal to 1972-1/8 pieces of eight or Mexican dollars. That would be reckoning 18s. of New England paper money to the dollar, or about 20s. 6d. to the ounce of silver. But in 1741 the rate of depreciation was certainly much higher. In January of that year Governor Ward of Rhode Island reports to the Board of Trade, "that for these six years last past, bills have continued to be equal to silver at twenty-seven shillings per ounce". Col. Recs. R.I., V. 13. And the Massachusetts rate was twenty-nine or more.
[2] The moidore and the johannes were Portuguese coins, the pistole Spanish. The moidore was worth six pieces of eight, the pistole four, the johannes eight. Here they are reckoned at 7½, 4½, and 20, respectively; but perhaps the last were "double joes".
[3] "Advance 13", i.e., add four times the amount (or multiply by five) to bring the sum from sterling to New England currency, at the rate here assumed; £3. 5s. sterling was really worth only about 15 pieces of eight.
[4] Milled.
[5] Spanish dollars on which appeared pillars symbolizing the Pillars of Hercules.
[6] An écu of six livres, = $1.08.