Beschreibung:

Bound volume of partly-printed Pennsylvania General Loan Office mortgage forms issued for the paper money act of 1729.
Philadelphia: Benjamin Franklin and Hugh Meredith, August to September 1729]. 139 leaves, printed recto and verso, folio (462 x 292 mm). Continuously paginated 1-264 in manuscript at a contemporary date (final seven leaves unpaginated). 264 forms accomplished in manuscript, terminal 14 forms remaining unaccomplished. Printed in Franklin pica no. 1 type on imported sheets of watermarked "Strasbourg bend" paper. Contemporary panelled calf attributed to William Davies (Miller's stamp a, roll 2, double fillet A and triple fillet A). Condition : scattered foxing, minor toning overall, minor offsetting, repaired tears to the front free endpaper; binding rebacked and recased retaining the original backstrip, covers and endpapers. Provenance : Lord Berket [i.e. Birkett?]; Jane McClair; William Dempster (inscription by Dempster on the front free endpaper dated December 1891 detailing the provenance). Exhibited : Benjamin Franklin in Search of a Better World. newly-discovered franklin imprint from the beginning of his philadelphia printing, his first government contract and an important primary source regarding the issuance of paper currency in colonial pennsylvania. In 1723, with the colonial economy still reeling from the effects of the bursting of the South Sea Bubble, coupled with an extreme scarcity of coin, the Pennsylvania legislature authorized the issuance of £15,000 of paper money, the first paper currency issued in the colony. "Scarcity of money was one of the common complaints in the North American colonies. Gold and silver were not mined or minted in the English colonies, and one English government after another prohibited the export of gold and silver to the colonies" (Lester, "Currency Issues to Overcome Depressions in Pennsylvania, 1723 and 1729" in The Journal of Political Economy, vol. 46, no. 3. p. 326). Indeed, the scarcity of coin precipitated a dramatic drop in the value of imports brought into the colony by the city's merchants that year. The paper currency, however, was not intended to alleviate the financial problems felt by the Quaker merchant upper class, but to relieve the hardships felt by the "poor, industrious sort of people," i.e. the legislation's description of the city's artisans who were purchasing the imported goods. Under the legislation, these modest land-owners would mortgage their property, generally at 5% interest, in exchange for a maximum of £100 of paper currency. That currency would go into circulation until the loan was repaid, at which point the notes would be retired. Although much reviled by Norris, Logan and the other Quaker leaders, largely it seems from a suspicion that such loans would not hold their value (an interesting position considering the current credit crunch), the effects were positive and, following an additional issuance that year, there was a marked increase in imports. In the above atmosphere, in the fall of 1723, a young Benjamin Franklin arrived in Philadelphia. His famed Autobiography recalls that day and his strange appearance (in working clothes with his pockets stuffed with his belongings, dirty and tired from his journey, and wandering aimlessly through the city streets in search of food and lodging) and mocks his own "unlikely beginnings." After seeking a position with Andrew Bradford, the primary and for many years the only printer in the city, he found work with Samuel Keimer who had just established his own press in competition to Bradford. By the summer of 1728, Franklin joined with Hugh Meredith to establish their own printing shop. The improved economy following the 1723 issuance of paper currency was only a temporary phenomenon. By 1729, with coin still scarce and much of the paper currency sunk, economic conditions again began to worsen. "Money here seems very scarce," a notice in a February 1728 Pennsylvania Gazette declared. "Trade has been long in a deep Consumption, her Nerves relax'd, her Spirits languid, her Joints have grown so feeble, that she