Dear Neil --

I did not think that you were challenging me or my sources, and I apologize
if I gave the impression that I was taking umbrage. I wanted to get an
answer to you right away and in my haste I may have taken an abrupt tone but
it was not intended. It does seem that TJ and GW routinely dealt in cash for
small transactions -- how they got the cash, I don't know; but it is clear
that they often ran out of cash. For large transactions they used credit
agreements with merchants. Just before he became president GW said that he
had no cash to pay his taxes, and said he had never been worse off. They all
lived on credit, and TJ was juggling creditors all the time, constantly
"refinancing." He was fortunate because his creditors did not want to
"press" the Author of the Declaration. When you lend to a god, you may not
see your money again, but your reward will be great in the history books. 

If you look at GW's accounts you'll see that he often had to calculate
conversions of VA currency into MD currency or into pounds. It was a mess. 

I was fascinated to learn years ago that, except for a couple of brief
periods, there was no national US currency until after the War Between the
States. 

Henry