William Shirley - Compensation and Currency

Compensation and Currency

Another issue of contention was compensation to the American colonies by Britain for the costs of the expedition against Louisbourg and the long occupation by American troops until the British Army finally took over. The British government was slow in responding to American requests for compensation While waiting for a response, the question of how to use any compensation was debated in newspapers and pamphlets. Some, such as Samuel Adams, advocated placing the money in London banks to serve as backing for the paper currency issued by the colonies. Others, including William Douglass and Thomas Hutchinson, speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, favoured using the compensation to redeem the paper currency and give Massachusetts a hard currency. In 1748 the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle returned the Fortress of Louibourg to France. Britain continued to withhold compensation from the colonies to obtain their acquiescence in the loss of what had cost them so dearly to capture.

In the meantime, Governor Shirley had been trying to finance a campaign to capture Fort St. Frédéric (at present-day Crown Point, New York), for which he issued more paper money. The campaign was abandoned when the other colones failed to support it, but the resulting inflation helped turn supporters of Shirley, including the prominent merchant Samuel Waldo, against the governor. The loss of Louisbourg increase public dissatisfaction with Shirley, who seen as complicit in British scheming against the American colonies. Even William Pepperrell joined the large number of citizens calling for Shirley's removal. Feeling a need to defend himself in person against the complaints being sent to the British government, Shirley sailed for Britain in September 1749, just before the long promised compensation reached Boston.