Historians who are also mathematicians:
I have been studying the Public Service Claims of Loudoun County, VA and
found the following:
“Jacob Yandes for 28 day hire of a wagon & team under command of the
Marquiss de La Fayette £16-6; for 1 waggon & team of 4 horses into the
Contl. service for £30,000 as pr. cert Major Langborn DQM which by the table
of depreciation is £200 also for expenses of his wagon returning from
Richmond £220-12.” Virginia Publick Claims: Loudoun County. Janice L.
Abercrombie. Iberian Pub. Co., Athens, GA n.d.
I have looked at these Public Claims lists for several counties and have
never seen the equivalency spelled out as was done in this instance. Have
any of you? What was the equivalency?
Along the same lines, in-as-much as it relates to depreciated currency, I
found a petition to the new state of Kentucky by Henry Banks in which he
pleaded, “. . . it became absolutely necessary for him either to appropriate
a large capital in the purchase of Land Warrants, otherwise a large sum
would perish in his hands, being paper money.” [underlining mine]. Upon
further investigation, I found Henry Banks was a merchant in Richmond, VA.
Maybe he had something to do with the banking industry, too?
I know Henry Banks had invested in over 150,000 acres of land in SW Virginia
and obviously he had also speculated--or was planning to--in KY land. I
either read, or assumed, that he had received this paper money by purchasers
of his merchandise and perhaps a large portion of it came from soldier’s
pay? Maybe some of the people who had their property impressed had been
reimbursed with paper money and were also using it to buy from his shelves?
I THINK it was the law that people had to accept paper money as pay, but
many were reluctant to do so because it was depreciating so fast. It occurs
to me that quite a lot of Kentucky land may have been taken up with this
sort of “funny” money.
I would like to know more about the depreciation of the money during this
period, and it’s effects. Does anyone know of a thesis or book that has been
written about this?
Netti Schreiner-Yantis
______________________________________
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at
http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
|
