A History of Banking in Canada (Classic Reprint)

French bushels). A nd, in like manner, about 1684, moose-skins were a legal tender in paying debts already incurred, at rates named by the authorities. CARD MONEY For a few years previous to 1685, the Government of France had supplied in advance the money and goods necessary for the support of their civil and military establishments in Canada, but for this year these failed to arrive. The I ntendant, Jacques de Meuilles, evidently more fertile in resource than his predecessors, after having spent all the money he had or could borrow, resorted to the following expedient: Instead of silver he paid soldiers by notes made ofplaying-cards cut in four pieces. The denominations of these were four francs, forty sols, and fifteen sols, with which three kinds he could pay a soldierâs monthly wages. He ordered the people to accept, and personally undertook to redeem them They are said to have borne simply the written amount of their value in monnoye du pays, the signatures of the Intendant and the Clerk of the Treasury, and the crowned fleur-de-lis impressed in wax. The new currency must have solved many ofthe difficulties of trade, and we are not surprised to learn that thereafter France made no effort to send supplies a year in advance, while resort to this monnoyc de carle became the recognized means ofcarrying the debts of the Colonial Government over the year, or until the ships arrived in the autumn from France. Subsequent issues appear to have been very carefully guarded. The Governor and the I ntendant, for their respective disbursements, might employ the aid of card money, and the notes, therefore, bore the signature of the Governor, the I ntendant, and the Clerk of the Treasury. After the necessary decree establishing the legal-tender quality of each issue, the Clerk of the Treasury receipted for them in the same manner as for actual remittances from France.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)