FOOTNOTES:

[55] The best account I can give of the occasion of the Report, to which this paper is a reply, is as follows. During the war there had been a considerable and unusual trade to America, in consequence of the great fleets and armies on foot there, and the clandestine dealings with the enemy, who were cut off from their own supplies. This made great debts. The briskness of the trade ceasing with the war, the merchants were anxious for payment, which occasioned some confusion in the colonies, and stirred up a clamour here against paper-money. The board of trade, of which lord Hilsborough was the chief, joined in this opposition to paper-money, as appears by the report. Dr. Franklin being asked to draw up an answer to their report, wrote the paper given above. B. V.

[56] I understand that Dr. Franklin is the friend who assisted governor Pownall in drawing up a plan for a general paper-currency for America, to be established by the British government. See Governor Pownall's Administration of the Colonies, 5th Edition, p. 199, and 208. B. V.