In 1751 came the ninth and last bank, of a nominal value of £25,000 equal to £237000 old tenor. The issue of this bank was the last victory of the paper money party. For many years a strong opposition had been developing. As early as 1731 a protest against the issue of the fourth bank, signed by prominent citizens, had been sent to the king. Protests were also entered against the seventh and eighth banks, and in 1750 another petition against paper money issues signed by seventy two persons, representing the merchants of Newport, the commercial centre of the colony, was presented to the king. In 1751 parliament passed an act which, supported by the growing sentiment in favor of better financial methods, may be said to mark the downfall of the paper money policy. The principle provisions of the act were that, after September 29, 1751, bills of credit could be issued only with the consent of the home-government, and that provision must be made for calling them in within two years in the case of issues to meet current expenses, and in five years in the case of emergencies such as war. The time of the bills already out was not to be extended, and no bills issued or to be issued were to be made a legal tender. It seems best to anticipate for a moment and trace to its end the history of the issues already made. First, as to the bills issued to supply the treasury. Of those which had been called in and burnt previous to 1749, £88725 had been sunk by means of grants made by parliament to reimburse the colonies for the expenses incurred in King George's War. In 1751 £24280 more wore sunk in like manner. Between this date and 1785 £17368 were sunk from the proceeds of taxes leaving outstanding £93688. This sum was called in by a tax for the exact amount levied in 1769. Provision for calling in the bank money by repayment of the loans had been made as we have seen in the acts of issue. The whole amount should have been repaid by 1767, but instead of this a report made to the general assembly in May 1770 shows that there was still outstanding £92615 old tenor value. The bills continued to depreciate rapidly. In 1763 the following table was adopted as a standard for the determination of old tenor debts.