Note 101 — Period of Paper Money, 1710-1751.

127The expenditure for the year ending June, 1718, was £818-3s.-3-3/4d. The more important items were as follows:

Public buildings (court house and jail) £206-0-0

Salaries (including £20 for gunner) 180-0-0

Bounties on wolves 62-10-0

Cost of revenue (treasurers' fees) 54-8-4

Agent 66-19-4

Weybosset bridge 30-0-0

The items however vary very much from year to year. The payment for the wolf bounty is in this year unusually large. In several years the cost of printing and loaning the paper money is considerable. In the year 1715, the expenditure for that purpose was about £300. The growth of the colony necessitated the erection of colony court houses and jails. Before 1729, however, there were only two counties, the number being increased to three in that year, and the buildings required were of a very primitive kind costing as a rule considerably less than £1,000. The fort was a considerable item of expense; it was rebuilt so as to be able to mount sixty guns though not much more than half that number seem to have been supplied. Previous to 1739, £6,000 in bills were issued to meet the expenses of the fort, and, in the case of several of the banks, the fort is mentioned as one of the purposes to which the interest is to be devoted. In 1739, the assembly ordered the erection of a brick colony house at Newport, which from the treasurer's accounts appears to have cost over £20,000. The agent remained a considerable source of expense. Among the papers in the state house at Providence is preserved the itemized account between the colony and its agent for the period 1715-1746. The amount transmitted to the agent during that period was £4,562-15-10 sterling and there was a balance due of £438-15-5. The agent's salary was only £40 per annum. The principal expense was incurred in opposition to the "molasses act" which passed parliament in 1733, and in connection with the boundary dispute with Massachusetts. The agent also made some purchases of military stores for the colony. Some of the agent's charges throw an interesting light on the character of political methods in England at this time. "To money given Lord Presidents and other Noblemens Servts. when I waited on them Sundry times about the committees report x x 6-1-6." Another charge is for a fee given at the Board of Trade "on the Report for Stores, being in our favor 21-0-0". In 1720, also the colony sent a special agent to England at an expense of over £800 in paper money. As regards salaries, I have found no legislation in regard to that of the governor subsequent to what has been already mentioned. (Note 75). The treasury reports show that after 1711, it was customary to grant £100 a year. He also received gratuities from time to time, in some instances as large as his salary. In 1729, he received £200 in recompense for all services and in 1731, £300. The Colonial Records show that like grants were made in 1732, 1736, and 1744. Douglass (in his Summary) writing about 1750, says that the governor's salary was then £300, and that with perquisites it did not exceed £1,000. The only explanation of "perquisites" which I have found is by an act of October, 1732, (Digest 1744, p. 169) by which the governor is allowed 5s. for each commission signed, and for taxing Bills of cost 2s. 6d. He also seems to have enjoyed a share in prizes. About 1715, it became customary to grant the deputy governor £20 for his year's service. In 1722, his salary was fixed at £30. Like the governor he was frequently granted a gratuity, sometimes as large in amount as his salary. In 1736, and 1744, he is allowed £50 and Douglas states his salary as the same as that of the governor. A law of 1721, granted the assistants a salary of £10 and the deputies 6s. a day, the latter to be paid by the towns. By an act of 1746/7 this law was repealed and these officers remained without pay. By law of 1729, the treasurer was given a fixed salary of £100 which was doubled two years later. Gratuities were sometimes granted for the labor entailed by paper money. He was required to give bonds in £20,000. No other officers received a stated salary. The payments made to them out of the treasury were sometimes comparatively large, those made to the secretary in some instances being from £100 to £200.