Please answer the two question separately, do not combine the answers. Thank You
ID: 1117362 • Letter: P
Question
Please answer the two question separately, do not combine the answers. Thank You.
My Lord- I have found myself this year in great straits with regard to the subsistence of the soldiers. You did not provide for funds, My Lord, until January last. I have, notwithstanding, kept them in provisions until September, which makes eight full months. I have drawn from my own funds and from those of my friends, all I have been able to get, but at last finding them without means to render me further assistance, and not knowing to what saint to pay my vows, money being extremely scarce, having distributed considerable sums on every side for the pay of the soldiers, it occurred to me to issue, instead of money, notes on [playing] cards, which I have had cut in quarters. I send you My Lord, the three kinds, one is for four francs, another for forty sols, and the third for fifteen sols, because with these three kinds, I was able to make their exact pay for one month. I have issued an ordinance by which I have obliged all the inhabitants to receive this money in payments, and to give it circulation, at the same time piedging myself, in my own name, to redeem the said notes. No person has refused them, and so good has been the effect that by this means the troops have lived as usual. There were some merchants who, privately, had offered me money at the local rate on condition that I would repay them in money at the local rate in France, to which I could not consent as the King would have lost a third; that is, for 10,000 he would have paid 40,000 livres; thus personally, by my credit and by my management I have saved His Majesty 13,000 livres Signed] de Meulle Quebec, 24th September, 1685 SOURCE: From Canadian Currency, Exchange and Finance During the French Period, vol. 1, ed. Adam Shortt (New York: Burt Franklin, Research Source Works Series no. 235, 1968)
QUESTIONS
1. What indication do you find that the playing-card notes issued by the govemor served as a means of payment? Why were they accepted as such?
2. What indicates that the notes served as a store of value? What made them acceptable as such?
Explanation / Answer
1. For money to be served as means of payment should have store of value, medium of exchange and unit of account.
By making the play cards signatured in hsi own name and passing the ordinace to make it lawful for medium of exchange and also classifying the notes for its value such as one is for four francs, another for forty sols, and the third for fifteen sols, the playing cards were made served as money. Hence they were accepted primarliy because of surity of governor and the ordinance that he passed.
2. Store of value refers to value of something retained even if it is not in use rather it has been stored. Playing cards of were not in use in transactions but could have been saved for a time, since they are holding value and that value has been stored unil they are used for transaction. Thus playing cards being card that can be stored has made it served store of value too.