[Illustrations:  Continental money]

%214.  Paper Money.%—­The first resort was the issue, during 1775 and 1776, of six batches of Continental “bills of credit,” amounting in all to $36,000,000.  These “bills” were rudely engraved bits of paper, stating on their face that “This bill entitles the bearer to receive ——­ Spanish milled dollars, or the value thereof in gold or silver.”  They were issued in sums of various denominations, from one sixth of a dollar up, and were to be redeemed by the states.  The amount assigned each state for redemption was in proportion to the supposed number of its inhabitants.

%215.  Loan-office Certificates.%—­In 1776 Congress tried another means.  It opened a loan office in each state and called on patriotic people to come forward and loan it money, receiving in return pieces of paper called “loan-office certificates.”  Interest was to be paid on these; but after a while Congress, having no money with which to pay interest, was forced to resort to another form of paper, called “interest indents.”

%216.  The Congress Lottery.%—­The loan office having failed to bring in as much money as was needed, Congress, toward the close of 1776, was driven to seek some other way, and resorted to a lottery.  A certain number of tickets were sold, after which a drawing took place, and all who drew prizes were given certificates payable at the end of five years.

%217.  More Bills of Credit.%—­But the sale of tickets went off so slowly that Congress had to go back to the issue of bills of credit.  In 1777, therefore, the printing press was again put to work, and issues were made in rapid succession, till more than $200,000,000 in Continental paper were in circulation.

%218.  The “New Tenor".%—­Then the Continental bills ceased to circulate, and in March, 1780, Congress called in the old money and offered to exchange it for a new issue, giving one dollar of the new paper money, or “new tenor,” for forty dollars of the old.  But the attempt to restore credit by such means was a failure, and by the end of the year 1781 all paper money ceased to circulate.

%219.  Certificates.%—­Long before this time officials had been forced to pay debts contracted in the name of Congress with other kinds of paper, called certificates, and known as treasury, commissary, quartermaster, marine, and hospital certificates, according to the department issuing them.  To these must be added the “final settlements,” or certificates given to the soldiers at the end of the war in payment of their services.

%220.  Foreign Debt.%—­Besides the debt thus contracted at home, Congress had borrowed a great sum in Europe.

%221.  The National Debt in 1790.%—­Thus the debt contracted by the Continental Congress consisted of two parts. 1.  The foreign debt, due to France, Holland, and Spain, and amounting, Hamilton found, to $11,700,000. 2.  The domestic or home debt, of $42,000,000.  But the states had also fallen into debt because of their exertions in the war.  Just how great the state debts were could not be determined, but they were estimated to be $21,500,000.