Springfield 1636-1886, History of Town and City, by Mason A. Green ...

296 SPRINGFIELD, 16S6-1886.
of n strnggle for liberty eoukl dissipate. This cloud was the great
confusion about property and finance. The community of land and
the community of interest in market values, religious prerogatives,
and so on, had fostered rather than hindered petty monopolies, tliat
sprang up like poisonous dogwood in the shadow of the Puritan struct-
ure. The land theory of the Henry (ieorges of the nineteenth century,
which was the practice of the seventeenth century in Massachusetts,
was the consternation of the eighteenth century, and we can find
here in Springfield how it ended. The common ownership in land,
whether by the unconscious native or the followers of a speculative
theory, is a step through which natives may advance ; but after a
certain point this land communism is reactionary and mediaeval.
We have seen how the parent plantation, with communistic motives,
soon by local gravitations divided up the land into common fields,
the proprietors of which becoming regular incorporators empowered
to hold meetings, transact business, sue, and be sued. These "common
fields " ripened into parishes and precincts, while these in turn
became " districts" and independent towns.
The province first issued indented bills of credit in KIDO. They
passed at a discount of about thirty per cent., but as they were re-
deemed in part they rose to their par value. They were accepted
for " country rates," though for many years, as we have seen, the
river towns paid their taxes in produce. A want of a circulating
medium had forced Massachusetts in 1702 to emit " province bills,"
which were continually redeemed and reissued or burned until 1749.
The duties of impost and excise added to the public rates did not
equal the amount of the " province bills" set in circulation. Prop-
erty, lal)or, and produce advanced in value ; or, to state it more
accurately, paper money depreciated. In \lnC) the bills issued were
to be equal to coined silver at fi.s. ^d. per ounce. This was called
" new tenor," and £1 new tenor was equal to £o in " old tenor."
The new tenor bills were called "middle tenor" after 1741, when
another emission (£1 equal to £4 of old tenor) was ordered. These