The Virginia Gazette

To Mess. Purdie & Dixon.

GENTLEMEN,

This colony being at present much distressed, from a want of circulating money, the following scheme, for remedying that evil, is submitted to consideration. Let the Assembly, in the first place, fix on a place in Great Britain where they can safely lend their money on interest, and have liberty to draw for any part, or even the whole (if necessary) at any time; the broker's commission for receiving such money would be trifling. Let them, in the next place, set an agent down at Williamsburg, with one, two, or three hundred thousand pounds, in paper bills of this colony, with orders to buy up bills of exchange with this money at 5 per cent. No bad consequence, it is presumed, could attend the credit of this currency; for when they directed their agent to give those bills for bills of exchange on Britain, they must at the same time direct them to give bills of exchange whenever any of his paper money was presented, or gold and silver, if wanted, and he had it, at the same exchange. By this means every person who had such bills of exchange as the legislature thought good would be able to pay their debts in the country, and every person having the colony's bills would be able to pay their debts in Great Britain. There would be then no exchange brokers, the business of the General Courts would be quickly and easily transacted, and every person in trade would know what he was doing; there would be no risk of exchange rising or falling; we should have as much money as we ought, and no more; and the colony would be getting interest for all the circulating money in it, as well as for that which might, and would, go into other parts of the continent. There would be laws wanting to point out what bills should be deemed good, and for the recovery of such as might come back under protest; and the greatest care must be taken that no abuses be committed by the agent.

As the value of the exports of this colony increases every year, there would never be occasion for the agent to give any other bills than...