The history of paper money in Rhode Island has already been treated with considerable fullness.[99] It does not strictly fall within the scope of this monograph and will be treated only so far as to give a clear idea of the financial policy of the colony, an idea necessary to an understanding of the part played by taxation. According to the report on the state of the treasury in 1709; the year of the attempted expedition against Canada, notwithstanding the heavy taxation, the colony found itself in debt to the amount of £3830-15s.-4d. To cover this deficit and meet the expenses of succeeding expeditions £13000 in bills of credit were issued during the years 1710 and 1711. These bills passed equal to silver at eight shillings per ounce.[100] By this means the colony succeeded in transferring the balance to the right side of the account. During the years of peace which followed the peace of Utrecht annual expenses greatly diminished. Ordinary expenditure was considerably under one thousand pounds, extraordinary expenditure sometimes added as much again or even more to the account.[101] With the growth of population, political and economic development,[102] and the depreciation of the currency, these sums gradually increased so that in 1731 a report made to the Board of Trade estimates the ordinary expenditure at two thousand pounds and the extraordinary at two thousand five hundred pounds. By 1739, when the Spanish war began the total of these two sums had increased to about six thousand pounds. Notwithstanding the diminution of expenditure the colonists at the close of the war in 1713 were loth to take up again the burden or taxation and for the next forty years the government supported itself almost entirely by means of bills of credit. The usual method of procedure was this. Bills of credit were issued and loaned at interest, for a term of years, to landholders on mortgage security to double the amount of the bills. These loans were termed "Banks." The following table shows the Banks issued before the Revolution, the number of years for which they were loaned, the rate of interest received and the value of the bills at the time of issue. _No. _Date._ _Amount._ _Years _Rate of _Value of silver in of loaned._ Interest._ bills._ Bank._ I 1715 £40,000 13 5 12s. per ounce. II 1721 40,000 13 5 16s. per ounce. III 1728 40,000 13 5 18s. per ounce. IV 1731 60,000 10 5 22s. per ounce. V 1733 100,000 10 5 25s. per ounce. VI 1738 100,000 10 5 27s. per ounce. VII 1740[103] 20,000 10 4 6s. 9d. per ounce. VIII 1743[104] 40,000 10 4 6s. 9d. per ounce. IX 1750 25,000 10 5 6s. 9d. per ounce.