However, some distinction in point of policy should perhaps be made
between a colony in its infancy, and a nation already possessed of
wealth, and in an advanced state of agriculture and commerce, especially
while the former is united to, and under the protection of the latter. To
a growing colony, such as Carolina, paper-credit, under certain
limitations, was useful in several respects; especially as the gold and
silver always left the country, when it answered the purpose of the
merchant for remittance better than produce. This credit served to
procure the planter strength of hands to clear and cultivate his fields,
from which the real wealth of the province arose. But in an improved
country such as England, supported by labourers, manufacturers and trade,
large emissions of paper-money lessen the value of gold and silver, and
both cause them to leave the country, and its produce and manufactures to
come dearer to market. Adventurous planters in Carolina, eager to obtain
a number of negroes, always stretched their credit with the traders to
its utmost pitch; for as negroes on good lands cleared themselves in a
few years, they by this means made an annual addition to their capital
stock. After obtaining this credit, it then became their interest to
maintain their superiority in assembly, and discharge their debt to the
merchants in the easiest manner they could. The increase of paper-money
always proved to them a considerable assistance, as it advanced the price
of those commodities they brought to the market, by which they cancelled
their debts with the merchants; so that however much this currency might
depreciate, the loss occasioned by it from time to time fell not on the
adventurous planters, but on the merchants and money-lenders, who were
obliged to take it in payment of debts, or produce, which always arose in
price in proportion to its depreciation.

In excuse for increasing provincial paper-money the planters always pled