“This Popular & Malcontent Temper”: Pennsylvania Currency and Transaltantic Commerce, 1720–1723

ABSTRACT This project analyzes Pennsylvania’s political controversies over currency and trade from 1720 through 1723. An economic depression and currency shortage during this period led the provincial General Assembly to consider instituting protectionist trade regulations, raising coin values, restricting interest rates, and issuing paper money. Primary source correspondence and legislative records reveal that both Pennsylvanians involved in the colony’s domestic economy and those involved in the transatlantic trade network were under financial pressure as reliance on credit became risky and mercantilist regulations drained the colony of money. Because policies that would increase the circulation of money in Pennsylvania made currency less valuable within the Atlantic system of commerce, Pennsylvanians’ relationships to transatlantic trade shaped their stances on currency and trade regulations during the 1720s economic crisis.