If anyone really wants to delve deeply into this topic, one of the standard works is John J. McCusker's *Money and Exchange in Europe and America, 1600-1775* (Chapel Hill, NC: Published for the Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, VA, by the University of North Carolina Press, 1978.) I know of no better or more thorough explanation of how money worked in the colonial era, and it's still available in paperback. Karen Stuart On Thu, Oct 13, 2011 at 2:22 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > Marie's comments are on target. Specie was trusted over paper. Spanish gold > was a world standard and came to Spain originally from the Spanish empire > in Central and South America. The manifold problems of currency valuation > resulted in widespread use of land transactions to settle debts. Land was > wealth, and interesting games were played with it too. These problems gave > advantage to the educated and the sophisticated, then as now. One of my > favorite scams is how Virginia was able to pay off some of it's war debts > to Rev > War Vets with land grants in territory that became Ohio. This was > recognized as legitimate by the U. S. Congress. > > Don Fehlings >