A Mischief in the Snow - By Margaret Miles Page 0,66
your attention, I hope, in Boston?”
“Once,” the captain told her. “I've not yet learned enough to tell Hutchinson; as you know, he sees himself as quite an expert on the currency question. But several found their way into a bagful about to be melted down by one of the town silversmiths. Seeing that the weight was not right for the number of coins on his scale, he looked more carefully, and then let us know what he suspected. Some coins were heavier than they should have been, no doubt because your coiner's pewter had a great deal of lead in it. I understand much is re-melted in the colonies, and eventually becomes so. Not surprising, since there are no guilds here to assure the quality of metals.”
“Many of us do exchange spoon molds,” Charlotte admitted. “I, too, have been taught to re-cast damaged items…”
“I'm willing to wager,” said Longfellow, off again on his own path, “that each man who is a part of this scheme has agreed to spend no more than one or two at a time. Given that, who knows how long it may have gone undetected?”
“What puzzles me,” said the captain, “is why they've chosen shillings to copy. The profit must be next to nothing. Far more sensible to forge large notes, or to work with gold, as most moneymakers do.”
“Yes, but gold is relatively rare here, especially in ordinary households. Silver is more common—yet we see less and less of it. And now that your Currency Act has forbidden the further issuance of paper money in the colonies—”
“Because of the criminal inflation you've caused! We hear complaints daily, though you're not the only ones to suffer. On the frontier even wampum has been cheapened, for now a New Jersey enterprise has found it can bore stringing holes with steel drills. Silver, Richard, is a far better system than shells, or paper. One day you may find yourselves pleased that we've insisted you stick to it.”
“But how can we, when most that comes from England is hoarded, or goes back to pay for goods your merchants are so happy to send us? Yet you insist we find it somewhere, to pay our taxes!”
Charlotte sighed, for she had heard all of this before. It was part of a larger argument beloved by the village, one concerned with the new stamps, colonial representation in Parliament (or the lack of it, actually), the increasing power of King George, and the strained tempers of lesser men a great deal closer than he. She wondered how often Diana had been plagued by much the same thing in Boston, though perhaps from the opposite side.
“The scheme we've uncovered here, Edmund,” his brother-in-law countered, “could be one of a hundred operating quietly. Don't forget that among desperate men, a little extra may count for much.”
“Desperate?” the captain responded with a bitter laugh. “I don't doubt most involved in this scheme are chuckling up their sleeves like intolerable children! But Richard, have your own finances been greatly affected by this latest downturn?” he asked with new concern.
“I won't throw myself on your charity just yet. My sister should be left something, in the event….”
“In what have you placed your faith?”
“I wondered, Edmund, when you would finally ask. I am well invested in the London funds, a Dutch cloth firm in the lowlands, some small weaving concerns in Scotland, and the Dutch West India Company. All far better, I think, than my father's trust in the Triangle Trade, which still leaves much misery behind.”
“Then you, too, have the interests of London's merchants at heart.”
“In mind, let us say. At heart, my sympathies are with those who would tweak Parliamentary probosces—as well as the noses of certain provincial officials. In this, I'm hardly alone.”
“A good many in these colonies might pay for such a privilege, if it were offered.”
“A new source of revenue, Edmund, in place of the stamps? But this spoon.” Longfellow turned suddenly back to Charlotte. “You say you found it on the island. Was it dropped by Alex Godwin? If he was involved in this affair as well—and I've heard he meant to bring me some sort of information on the day of his death—do you imagine his plan was to expose this moneymaking ring?
“That, I can't say.”
“Lem said nothing more to you of what their argument was about?”
“I haven't had a chance to speak to him since Alex Godwin was found.”