The above is a general outline of the financial operations of the period. The indebtedness of the colony at any particular date is difficult to determine. A committee in 1762 estimated that there were outstanding bills to the amount of about £53231 sterling. According to a report of a like committee in 1762 the amount was about £43000. In addition, however, the colony was considerably in debt for money hired. Whatever debt there was, however, seems to have been, for the most part, extinguished in the early years of the Revolution. Financial History of the Revolution. With the opening of the Revolution a new debt began to roll up. £60,000 in bills of credit (lawful money) were emitted in 1775 and £80,000 in the following year. A meeting of commissioners from the New England states, in Providence, December 1776, recommended that Rhode Island issue no more bills of credit, except of fractional denominations, but depend upon loans and taxes. The State complied with the suggestion and the only other issue of bills, before 1780, was in May 1777, when £4,500 in fractional currency was emitted. These bills of credit, as well as the continental bills, were declared a legal tender. They seem to have kept their value fairly well until the beginning of the year 1777, when a rapid depreciation set in. In accordance with the recommendation of Congress they were called in by Act of May 1778, and their circulation forbidden after July first of that year. After this date continental money, probably, formed the main circulating medium, until depreciation had gone so far that in 1780 the tender laws were repealed and a return made to a gold and silver basis. Up to June, 1779, the colony seems to have borrowed £162,756. In addition there were, all through the war, issues of certificates in payment of various obligations. It is impossible even to approximate to their amount. They were in many cases made receivable for taxes and were redeemed in this way. Taxation was resumed in March 1777, and vigorously applied, but so heavy were the burdens which fell upon the State in its weakened condition that in the summer of 1780 the treasury was empty.