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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Letter from James Abercromby to secretary of the Board of Trade of Great Britain
Abercromby, James, 1707-1775
April 13, 1758
Volume 05, Pages 928-929

[B. P. R. O. North Carolina. B. T. Vol. 13. D. 11.]

Craven Street. April 13th 1758.

Sir [Secretary of Board of Trade]

In consequence of a letter from Governor Dobbs copy whereof is herewith sent it becomes necessary for me to acquaint you that I am no longer Agent for the Province of North Carolina be pleased then to communicate the same to their Lordships, and as I take my leave of these affairs I cannot help recommending to their Lordships consideration a measure which by my letters to Governor Dobbs and to the committee of correspondence I have heretofore earnestly urged (vizt) That the Province should avail themselves of the Money granted last Session of Parliament in order to sink their paper currency which is become greatly

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depreciated and dayly becomming more and more so and for that purpose pass an Act of Assembly calling in so much of their paper money as may be paid off by the money so granted by Parliament which money still remains in the Treasury and there to remain till such time as the Commander in Chief of the Forces in America has ascertained the respective provincial Proportions thereof and reported the same to the Lords of the Treasury.

Great attention is to be had to the manner of remitting and applying this money otherwise the person or persons into whose hands such money shall come may pocket one half of the whole by purchasing the paper money at its depreciated value and so reissue the same as a Tender in Law in discharge of the public Creditors according to its nominal value by Law to the manifest prejudice of Public and private credit.

To prevent which and to put all creditors of all sorts on a Par with regard to the paper money I humbly apprehend the most eligible method (if approved of by their Lordships) is to instruct the Governour to recommend it to the Assembly to pass an Act to call in so much of the paper money to be paid off by the money granted by Parliament and till this shall be done the money to remain in the Treasury this I humbly submit to their Lordships consideration and I am on all occasions

Sir, your most, &c.,
JAS: ABERCROMBY.