account has been reduced to order, energy and decision infused into every department of finance; and the fiscal concerns of the state recovered from disorder, are now in a flourishing and healthy condi

tion.

One reform facilitated another. The state constitution of 1790 adopted no rule for apportioning the representation of the people in the legislature. Afraid of interrupting public harmony the convention by common consent made an arbitrary apportionment without regard to property, numbers, or any avowed principle whatever. A general conviction prevailed, that as government was instituted for the preservation of property as well as liberty, both should be respected. The principle was just, but the carrying it into effect impracticable, anterior to the establishment of the office of a comptroller genéral. As many wealthy citizens owned property in various and distant parts of the state, and had the privilege of making their returns of taxable property and paying their taxes where they lived, the exact comparative taxable property of any one district could not be ascertained till the returns from all parts of the state were brought under the view of one person; who, by dissecting and distributing them, could determine the precise amount and value of taxable property in each electoral district. This was done by comptroller Lee. The legislature adopted a principle, introduced and ably supported by Abraham Blanding, that one half of the present representatives should be assigned to numbers and the other half to property. The population being ascertained by a census taken for the purpose, and

the value of the taxable property of each electoral district being stated by the comptroller, the apportionment of the representation conformably to the principle just adopted becomes a plain arithmetical calculation. Thus a real difficulty which threatened the peace of the state was compromised to general satisfaction, and the reform in the fiscal department essentially contributed to a reform of the constitution, and the stability of the government.

Since the first settlement of Carolina, there has been a progressive rise in the price of property. Well chosen spots of land which 60 years ago cost little more than the fees of office, will now command from ten to fifteen dollars per acre. Squares might have been purchased in Charlestown many years after it began to be built, for less money than single lots sell for at present. The appreciation of landed. property is on a general average three for one, and in many cases ten or twenty for one. The rents of houses the price of slaves-the wages of laborers

A tract of high land, the property of Dr. Harris three miles distant from Charlestown, containing 140 acres, with 150 or 200 ácres of salt marsh annexed thereto, sold in the year 1713 for 305-pound; in 1726 for 1750 pound; in 1728 for 2000 pound; in 1768 for 2792 pound. Land opposite to this tract lately sold for 1001. sterling per acre. In the year 1756 the South-Carolina society declined to purchase 14 acres of highland with 30 acres of adjoining marsh all in Ansonborough. The highland was inclosed with a brick wall, and had on it a good dwelling house and all necessary outhouses: The whole was then offered to the society for 600 pound currency, or less than $5700; though it would now readily sell for $100,000.

-the expenses of living, and of educating children, have all advanced three if not four for one*.

fiscal history of CaroliFor the first 50 years

A few observations on the rate of interest and usury as connected with the na shall close this chapter. 'after the settlement there is no evidence of any law fixing the rate of interest, nor of any against usury. Two laws were passed, one in 1720 and the other in 1721, against usury; the last of which indirectly brings into view the rate of interest. This prohibits the taking more interest for money lent than ten per cent. per annum under the penalty of a forfeiture of treble the amount. When Carolina was settled, interest in England was six per cent. When this law passed it was five. How it came to be ten per cent. in Carolina without an express law, does not appear. Perhaps common consent and usage had fixed that rate; for no evidence exists that there ever was any written law authorising it. As a reason for proscribing usury, it is stated in the law of 1721 that "divers persons have of late taken advantage of the great necessities of the people, and exacted twenty-five pounds interest for the loan of

* In the year 1740 when the detail of an expedition against St. Augustine was before the assembly, a joint committee of both houses rated corn at one fourth of a dollar per bushel, and rice at 5 shillings sterling per hundred. In Well's South-Carolina gazette of September 17th 1760, the price current of the following articles reduced to dollars and cents is as follows: rice per hundred $1 53. Carolina flour per hundred 82 80.

By the pound, tallow, 10cts. By the barrel, pork, 87. By the bushel, salt, 25cts. By the pipe, Madeira wine $118. best $155. Vidonia do. $96.

Do.

one hundred pounds for one year; and very often more." Twenty seven years after, 1748, a law passed for reducing interest from ten to eight per cent. ; and 29 years after, 1777, it was reduced from eight to seven per cent. These reductions were both preceded by plentiful emissions of paper-money. With the last laws for reducing interest, severe penalties against usury were incorporated. Since the institution of banks there has been no new law against usury, though the practice and legal prosecutions for it have been more common than they ever were before. The intention of the laws against usury is humane, being designed to save men from the effects of their own folly and indiscretion; but the policy of such laws is questionable. The rate of interest when left to itself will, like all other things, find its own level. When it is hedged round with penal laws the lender will not part with his money till he is secured not only against the insolvency of the borrower, but the possibility of his being subjected to the consequences of violating the laws. This raises the premium and increases the distresses of the distressed. The practice will exist with or without laws; for none have been found able to restrain it. It is far from being improbable that the repeal of all laws on the subject, would be more for the interests of both borrowers and lenders than the present system of enormous penalties inflicted on those who ask and take more than seven per cent. for the use of their money.

AGRICULTURAL HISTORY

OF

SOUTH CAROLINA,

From 1670-1808.

CHAP. V.

To facilitate the improvement of new countries the settlers should have a general knowledge of the climate, soil, and productions of such as are similar and have been previously cultivated. Information on these subjects, especially when corrected by philosophy and experience, leads to useful practical results. In these particulars the proprietors as well as the first settlers were deficient. The countries subject to Great-Britain both in Europe and the american continent, were much colder than SouthCarolina; and her possessions in the West-Indies much more steadily warm. The productions of neither were suited to this climate, which was a medium between the two. From inattention to these circumstances the first attempts at agriculture in the province were injudicious. They were directed to the cultivation of those highland grains with which the settlers were best acquainted, but these were unsuitable to the low sandy soil common on