Case for Discussion MAKESHIFT MONEY IN THE FRENCH COLONIAL PERIOD The following
ID: 1118629 • Letter: C
Question
Case for Discussion MAKESHIFT MONEY IN THE FRENCH COLONIAL PERIOD The following letter was written by Governor de Meulle of the French province of Quebec in September 1685. 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 pledging 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 Frankin, Research Source Works Series no. 235,1968) QUESTIONS 1. What indication do you find that the playing-card notes issued by the governor served as a means of payment? Why were they accepted as such? What indicates that the notes served as a store of value? What made them acceptable as such? 2. 3. Did the invention of playing-card money change the unit of account in the local economy?Explanation / Answer
1. The governor signed an ordinance which made them a legal tender. People will be able to transact using those notes as no one refused to use them as a currency. They were accepted because there was currency shortage and the general population needed something by which they conduct transactions.
2. The fact that he was able to pay the soldiers indicates that they’re a store of value. People were accepting the different denominations of those new currencies. The ordinance made them acceptable as a new currency form since it made them a legal tender. The governor himself said that he would redeem the said notes. It generated people’s belief in the notes.
3. Yes, since different denominations of playing cards were issued, it meant that goods could now be valued in terms of specific numbers. For e.g. The goods could be valued in exact units instead of approximate ones.