Franklin's Autobiography: (Eclectic English Classics)Franklin, Benjamin
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Franklin's Autobiography: (Eclectic English Classics)
Franklin, Benjamin
Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790
Our debates possessed me so fully of the subject that I wrote and
printed an anonymous pamphlet on it, entitled, "The Nature and
Necessity of a Paper Currency." It was well received by the common
people in general; but the rich men disliked it, for it increased and
strengthened the clamor for more money, and they, happening to have no
writers among them that were able to answer it, their opposition
slackened, and the point was carried by a majority in the House. My
friends there, who conceived I had been of some service, thought fit
to reward me by employing me in printing the money,--a very profitable
job and a great help to me. This was another advantage gained by my
being able to write.
The utility of this currency became by time and experience so evident
as never afterward to be much disputed; so that it grew soon to
fifty-five thousand pounds, and in 1739 to eighty thousand pounds,
since which it rose during war to upward of three hundred and fifty
thousand pounds, trade, building, and inhabitants all the while
increasing, though I now think there are limits, beyond which the
quantity may be hurtful.[101]
I soon after obtained, through my friend Hamilton, the printing of the
Newcastle paper money, another profitable job, as I then thought it,
small things appearing great to those in small circumstances; and
these, to me, were really great advantages, as they were great
encouragements. He procured for me, also, the printing of the laws and
votes of that government,[102] which continued in my hands as long as
I followed the business.
I now opened a little stationer's shop. I had in it blanks of all
sorts, the correctest that ever appeared among us, being assisted in
that by my friend Breintnal. I had also paper, parchment, chapmen's
books, etc. One Whitemash, a compositor I had known in London, an
excellent workman, now came to me, and worked with me constantly and
diligently; and I took an apprentice, the son of Aquila Rose.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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