The Assembly made another step towards its present form by electing a clerk outside the house. The pay of this first clerk was six shillings a day. The military stores which had been collected during the war were divided into two classes. Those of a perishable nature were sold. The rest were carefully stored away to be ready for the chances of another war. "The cannon were tarred and laid on logs on the governor's wharf." The garrison of Fort Anne was dismissed. The labors of peace began. Increased attention was given to public highways. The old road which ran through the Colony from Pawtucket to Pawcatuck was repaired, and a new one opened to Plainfield through Warwick and West Greenwich. But in this the enterprise of the Colony outran its wants, and the new road was soon abandoned. As we follow the sessions of the Assembly we find acts for the repression of litigation renewed three times in five years. The provision of the charter by which commissioned militia officers were to be elected by the Assembly had been neglected for more than a generation, and the elections made by the towns. While the population was small and most of the inhabitants freemen this mode of election proved good. But with the increase of population disputes and difficulties arose, and in 1713 a new law was passed in accordance with the provisions of the charter. But after a short trial and in spite of the protest of the governor and four assistants, the old law was revised. One of the difficult questions of legislation came before the Assembly of 1713. Merchants had exported grain too freely and the home market began to feel the drain. The Assembly interfered, and not only forbade further exportation but set a tariff of prices for the markets of the Colony. An account of the stock of provisions in Newport was taken. The price of wheat was ten shillings and sixpence a bushel, of rye five shillings, of corn and barley four shillings, and of flour and biscuit thirty shillings a hundred.