As early as 1729 Logan wrote, “I dare not speak one word against it. The popular phrenzy will never stop till their credit will be as bad as they are in New England, where an ounce of silver is worth twenty shillings of this paper. They already talk of making more, and no man dares appear to stem the fury of popular rage.” Logan at that early date thought the king should arrest the delusion by proclamation. The peltries, grain, flour, ships, cooper-stuff, and lumber of Philadelphia were always good for hard money with a good mercantile system. But the people were not satisfied. It is quite likely that wages and small debts were paid almost entirely in the way of barter instead of money, and this, by the losses it occasioned produced discontent. The capitalists opposed a change in the currency, the farmers, laborers, and small trades people favored it. In the language of petitions sent to the Assembly at this time, the friends of paper money contended that they were sensibly “aggrieved in their estates and dealings, to the great loss and growing ruin of themselves, and the evident decay of the province in general, for want of a medium to buy and sell with,” and they therefore prayed a paper currency. The people of Chester County, on the other hand, asked to have the value of the current money of the Province raised, the exportation of money prohibited, and produce made a legal tender, so as to obviate the necessity for paper money. They did not want a regular State issue, but nevertheless, like men of more modern greenback times, they wanted an inconvertible paper money, a non-exportable currency, as if that were a blessing. On March 2, 1722–23 an act was passed to issue £15,000. Governor Keith, in consenting to and promoting this experimental load, had been encouraged by the popularity of a similar measure matured by Governor Burnett of New Jersey. Pennsylvania was the very last of the middle colonies to embark in the paper money manufacture; but once embarked, she plunged in rapidly and deeply. This first small loan of £15,000 was to be redeemed within eight years. In 1723 £30,000 was issued; in 1740 the issue reached a total of £80,000. Benjamin Franklin, who had urged and used his personal influence for this currency became alarmed and wrote, “I now think there are limits beyond which the quantity may be hurtful.” He was right. In 1755 Pennsylvania had £160,000 currency out; and in 1783 the State’s irredeemable currency had been increased by various issues until it reached $4,325,000, a sum simply ruinous to all values. The general plan of these loans was good. No bills were loaned but on good security. The friends of the system were many.