The Virginia Gazette

PHILADELPHIA, MAY 27.

At a General Meeting of the citizens of PHILADELPHIA, and parts adjacent, at the State House yard, in this city, General ROBERDEAU was unanimously requested to take the chair, who introduced the business with the following address:

GENTLEMEN,

ALTHOUGH I feel pain from the situation in which you have been pleased to place me, it is with pleasure I meet you, my fellow citizens, to consider and determine upon measures for our mutual and publick happiness. A beneficent God has hitherto blessed us with success, and carried us through a four years war with as few misfortunes as could possibly be expected. We have much to be thankful for; and though many worthy individuals have greatly suffered, yet, as a nation, we have but little to complain of.

The dangers we are now exposed to, arise from evils created among ourselves. I scorn, and I hope every citizen here scorns the thought of getting rich by sucking the blood of his country. Yet, alas! This unnatural, this cruel, this destructive practice, is the greatest cause of our present calamities. The way to make our money good is to reduce the price of goods and provisions. It is not the quantity of money which any man gets, but how far his money will go when he comes to lay it out again, that makes him poor or rich.

The tax that has been laid upon us by monopolizers and forestallers within these six months past, for it may justly be called a tax, amounts to more money than would carry the war on twelve months to come.

There is at present no law for regulating the prices in the shops and markets, neither is there any law to prevent such regulations being made, and therefore, the whole rests upon the virtue and common consent of the community. I have no doubt but combinations have been formed for raising the prices of goods and provisions, and therefore the community, in their own defence, have a natural right to counteract such combinations, and to set limits to evils which affect themselves.

It is impossible, Gentlemen, to cure the disease all at once, but it must be begun upon; and as this city appears to be the place in which the disease was first bred, this likewise is the place where the remedy ought to be first applied. Do you, Gentlemen, set the example, and I think there is little doubt but others will follow it.

Within these five or six months goods and provisions have risen week by week. Surely, Gentlemen, we can do as much as the monopolizers have done, and bring the prices down again week by week. By this means there will be money to spare to pay taxes with; for at the rate things now are, it takes all the country people's money to go to the shops with, and all the town people's money to go to market with, and the whole community is growing poor under a notion of getting rich.

Some worthy citizens who have the success of our glorious cause at heart, have undertaken to form a plan for regularly reducing the prices of goods and provisions, and keeping up the value of the money, and this plan, as I understand, is to be laid before you at some future meeting.

For my own part, Gentlemen, I shall joyfully assist in any judicious measures for the publick happiness, and have no doubt but you will do the same.

It is a surprising thing that the more goods we have had brought into this city, the dearer they have been; and this is one of the evils which it is absolutely necessary to enquire into. But the great point is to begin.

The paper I have in my hand contains some resolutions which have been drawn up and agreed on by a committee of citizens, which, with your approbation, I will read. I propose first to read the whole through, and then read it a second time by paragraphs, in order to take your sense thereon.

The paper being read, after some amendments was agreed to as follows:

WHEREAS the prices of goods and provisions have, within the space of five or six months, risen to an enormous height, far beyond what they ought to be in proportion to the quantity of the money. The prices of dry goods have arisen when they ought to have decreased, and every new cargo, instead of lessening the prices, have raised them.

Resolved, That the publick have a right to enquire into the causes of such extraordinary abuses, and prevent them.

And whereas, since the late importation of a cargo of goods, said to have been since purchased or consigned to the management of Mr. Robert Morris, merchant, or others, the prices of all kinds of dry goods have been greatly advanced to the injury of the publick, and the great detriment of trade.

Resolved, That this meeting, justifying their conduct on the necessity of the measure, and being deeply affected and injured by those increasing evils, will appoint a committee to enquire of Mr. Robert Morris, or others, what part he or they have acted respecting the said cargo, and to require from him or them their answers in writing to such questions as the committee may find it necessary to put, and to report the same at the next general town meeting.

greatly arisen within this week past, without any real or apparent cause;

And whereas the prices of rum, sugar, flour, coffee and tea, have and as it is our determination not to be eaten up by monopolizers and forestallers : Therefore,

Resolved, That we do unconditionally insist and demand, that the advanced, or monopolized, price of the present month be instantly taken off, and that the prices of those articles be immediately reduced to what they were the first day of May instant.

Resolved, That a committee be appointed to ascertain the retail prices of rum, sugar, flour, coffee and tea, as they stood on the first day of May instant, and to publish the same for the government of buyer and seller, and to receive in writing any complaints against such dealers as may refuse to comply with, or shall obstruct the execution of this necessary regulation, and to report the same at the next general town meeting.

Resolved, That the said committee, when chosen, do ascertain what the prices of the above, or any other articles, were on the first day of January last, and likewise on the first day of every month from that time to the present instant.

Resolved, That a committee be appointed to prepare a plan for regularly proceeding in this business, and for carrying it into execution throughout the United States, and to report the same at a general town meeting to be held for that purpose.

Resolved, That we will support the committees in the execution of their duty, encourage fair and honest commerce, and suppress to the utmost of our power, and at the hazard of our lives, engrossing, monopolizing, and forestalling, and depreciation.

Resolved, That as it is the interest both of town and country to concur in measures for the mutual relief of both, that the proceedings of this meeting be printed and sent to the several counties for their consideration assistance therein.

And whereas complaints of a very extraordinary nature have, at different times, appeared against persons entrusted, or who have been entrusted by Congress with the disposal of publick money, and the execution of publick commissions, to which complaints, in some instances, no answers have been given, or any denial made :

And whereas the publick by delegating their powers, have a right to call on their representatives to whom that delegation is made, to know in what manner the trust so reposed in them, is executed. Therefore,

Resolved, That a committee be appointed to collect together the charges or complaints which have been made against persons entrusted by Congress, with the expenditure of publick money, or the execution of publick commissions, and to require of the Delegates of this state, what proceedings Congress have made therein, towards ascertaining the truth of such charges or complaints, or punishing the persons if guilty, and to transmit the same to the several counties, in order that they may be enabled to give instruction to their representatives, in Assembly at their next meeting, or for such other purposes as may be necessary in the interim.

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this meeting that no person, who by sufficient testimony can be proved inimical to the interest and independence of the United States, be suffered to remain among us and that the committees be directed to take measures for carrying this resolution into execution.

The following Gentlemen were appointed on the committees, to enquire, respecting the cargo lately arrived, and said to be purchased by, or consigned to the management of Mr. Robert Morris, or others.

Timothy Matlack, David Rittenhouse, Captain Blewer, Thomas Paine, Charles W. Peale. Colonel J. B. Smith.

And the following Gentlemen, together with the former, were appointed a committee for carrying the other resolves into execution.

Col. Henry, Col. Bradford, George Schlosser, Col. Will, Col. John Eyre, Capt. Heysham, Major Boyd, Philip Boehm, Jedidiah Snowden, Nathaniel Donnell, Capt. Robert Smith, Capt. Lang, Dr. Hutchinson, William Brown, Paul Cox, Edward Pole, Mathias Cadwalader, Capt. George Ord, James Skinner, John Kling, William Thorn, William Coats, Tanner, Joseph Dean, Capt. John Young, Cadwallader Dickinson, Capt. Thomas Moore.

Signed by order of the meeting,

DANIEL ROBERDEAU, Chairman.

The thanks of the meeting were unanimously returned to the chairman for his noble and disinterested manner of conducting the business.

COMMITTEE ROOM, May 26, 1779.

AGREEABLE to a resolution of the general town meeting held in the state house yard the 29th instant.

The committee for ascertaining the prices of rum, sugar, flour, coffee and tea, as they stood on the first day of the present month, do hereby publish the following.

To our fellow citizens in town and country:

Convinced as we all are of the absolute necessity of lowering the prices in order to raise the value of the currency, and seriously anxious of carrying the resolutions of the meeting into effectual execution, we do earnestly recommend in the first instance, a cheerful compliance with the above resolves, and likewise, that as few purchases as possible be made for the

West India rum,	per gallon,	£.6	15	☐
Country rum,	per do.	5	☐
Tea by the chest,	per lb.	4	10	☐
Brandy by the keg,	per gallon,	7	☐
Molasses by the hhd.	per do.	4	12	☐
Coffee,	per lb.	0	17	☐
Loaf sugar, wholesale,	per lb.	2	12	☐
Muscovado, from £.105 to £.130	per hundred,
Turk's Island salt,	per bushel,
Common French salt,	per do.
Merchantable flour,	per hundred,	£.20	☐
Middling do.	per bushel,	15	☐
Ship stuff,	per do.	13	☐
Shorts,	per bushel,	4	10	☐
Bran,	per do.	3	15	☐

Present, either of dry goods, or any other kind of imported goods, otherwise it will embarrass the object hoped to be obtained.

It is only by degrees that evils of this kind can be remedied, and no plan appears more rational than to lower the prices in the same proportions they have been advanced. As soon as the business for the next General Town Meeting can be prepared, notice will be given of it in the papers.

By order of the committee,

WILLIAM HENRY, Chairman.

N. B. The committee have the pleasure of informing the public that molasses and salt are cheaper this day than they were on the first of May. The prices, as printed above, have been taken from the merchants and traders books.