"Managing Silver Money on the Periphery of the English Empire: Massachusetts Bay, 1640-1720"

Massachusetts Bay Colony is well known as the first colonial government in British North America to issue paper bills of credit in 1690. The literature’s emphasis on Massachusetts as an early issuer of “paper money” has obscured the colonial government’s history and experience as a manager of silver money. Even after their mint no longer operated, even when they were issuing bills of credit, the Massachusetts Assembly, in partnership with leading merchants, consistently pursued policies designed to keep silver coin in use as currency. Rapidly rising silver prices in New England made it impossible to keep silver coin in circulation, at which point silver coin was used as an inflation hedge and precious metal input at the silversmith.