Lot 51D email save

FRANKLIN, Benjamin and Hugh MEREDITH (printers). B

Sign In to see what this sold for

[Philadelphia: Benjamin Franklin and Hugh Meredith, August to September 1729]. 139 leaves, printed recto and verso, folio (462 x 292 mm). Continuously paginated 1-264 in manuscript at a contemporary date (final seven leaves unpaginated). 264 forms accomplished in manuscript, terminal 14 forms remaining unaccomplished. Printed in Franklin pica no. 1 type on imported sheets of watermarked "Strasbourg bend" paper. Contemporary panelled calf attributed to William Davies (Miller's stamp a, roll 2, double fillet A and triple fillet A). Condition: scattered foxing, minor toning overall, minor offsetting, repaired tears to the front free endpaper; binding rebacked and recased retaining the original backstrip, covers and endpapers. Provenance: Lord Berket [i.e. Birkett?]; Jane McClair; William Dempster (inscription by Dempster on the front free endpaper dated December 1891 detailing the provenance). Exhibited: Benjamin Franklin: in Search of a Better World. newly-discovered franklin imprint from the beginning of his philadelphia printing, his first government contract and an important primary source regarding the issuance of paper currency in colonial pennsylvania. In 1723, with the colonial economy still reeling from the effects of the bursting of the South Sea Bubble, coupled with an extreme scarcity of coin, the Pennsylvania legislature authorized the issuance of £15,000 of paper money, the first paper currency issued in the colony. "Scarcity of money was one of the common complaints in the North American colonies. Gold and silver were not mined or minted in the English colonies, and one English government after another prohibited the export of gold and silver to the colonies" (Lester, "Currency Issues to Overcome Depressions in Pennsylvania, 1723 and 1729" in The Journal of Political Economy, vol. 46, no. 3. p. 326). Indeed, the scarcity of coin precipitated a dramatic drop in the value of imports brought into the colony by the city's merchants that year. The paper currency, however, was not intended to alleviate the financial problems felt by the Quaker merchant upper class, but to relieve the hardships felt by the "poor, industrious sort of people," i.e. the legislation's description of the city's artisans who were purchasing the imported goods. Under the legislation, these modest land-owners would mortgage their property, generally at 5% interest, in exchange for a maximum of £100 of paper currency. That currency would go into circulation until the loan was repaid, at which point the notes would be retired. Although much reviled by Norris, Logan and the other Quaker leaders, largely it seems from a suspicion that such loans would not hold their value (an interesting position considering the current credit crunch), the effects were positive and, following an additional issuance that year, there was a marked increase in imports. In the above atmosphere, in the fall of 1723, a young Benjamin Franklin arrived in Philadelphia. His famed Autobiography recalls that day and his strange appearance (in working clothes with his pockets stuffed with his belongings, dirty and tired from his journey, and wandering aimlessly through the city streets in search of food and lodging) and mocks his own "unlikely beginnings." After seeking a position with Andrew Bradford, the primary and for many years the only printer in the city, he found work with Samuel Keimer who had just established his own press in competition to Bradford. By the summer of 1728, Franklin joined with Hugh Meredith to establish their own printing shop. The improved economy following the 1723 issuance of paper currency was only a temporary phenomenon. By 1729, with coin still scarce and much of the paper currency sunk, economic conditions again began to worsen. "Money here seems very scarce," a notice in a February 1728 Pennsylvania Gazette declared. "Trade has been long in a deep Consumption, her Nerves relax'd, her Spirits languid, her Joints have grown so feeble, that she had of late so terrible a Fall that she now lies bleeding in a very deplorable condition" (quoted in Lester, p. 360). Having completed the first work from his newly-established press, forty sheets of Sewell's History of the Quakers that Keimer had failed to complete, Franklin made his first entry into Pennsylvania politics with the authorship and publication of a pamphlet advocating an additional issuance of paper currency. He recalled in his Autobiography: "I wrote and printed an anonymous Pamphlet on it, entituled, The Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency. It was well receiv'd by the common People in general; but the Rich Men dislik'd it; for it increas'd and strengthen'd the Clamour for more Money . My Friends there [i.e. in the Assembly] who conceiv'd I had been of some Service, thought fit to reward me, by employing me in printing the Money, a very profitable Jobb, and a great Help to me." For many years, historians have assumed that Franklin's recollections were in error, the paper currency of 1729 having been printed by Bradford. The discovery of the present volume of partly-printed certificates used by the Pennsylvania Loan Office to record the mortgages granted in exchange for a new issuance of paper currency seems to resolve that discrepancy. Prior to this register, the clerks of the Pennsylvania Loan Office recorded each transaction by hand. Indeed, the first money act of 1723 required that the Loan Office "shall, at their own costs and charges, provide good large books of royal or other large paper, and well covered wherin shall be recorded and enrolled all the deeds of mortgages to be taken for bills of credit to be let out upon the loan . in a fair, legible hand." That register is extant and located at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Interestingly, the paper money act of 1729 repeated the requirement for such a register, but without the stipulation that it be kept "in a fair, legible hand." Like the early land patent books, this volume presents important primary data for historians seeking a picture of the socio-economic structure of colonial Philadelphia. This volume records loans of paper currency to 264 different landowners. Each contains the date of mortgage, the name of the borrower, the amount of credit extended, the location of the property being mortgaged, as well as the occupation of each borrower (including yeoman, carpenters, weavers, shopkeepers, blacksmiths, coopers, cordwainers, millers, tailors, merchants, and even a whalebone cutter and a "practitioner of physick" [i.e. medicine]). The completeness of this bound volume is irrefutable. Only £26,000 of paper currency was issued in 1729; this volume accounts for £25,971. In his physical description of the volume, Arbour notes the presence of several cancelled leaves, but aptly explains their excisions as due to clerical errors by the Loan Office scriveners (see Arbour, pp. 43-44). Beyond the importance of this volume to an understanding of the socio-economic climate of colonial Philadelphia, this volume is among the earliest known Franklin imprints. After the aforementioned work on Keimer's edition of Sewell's History in 1728 (Miller 1), Miller cites 11 products from Franklin and Meredith's press issued in 1729. Of those, most were issued after October of that year, following their work on this volume. Furthermore, many of the products of Franklin's press from his first year in business in Philadelphia cited by Miller are known to exist but with no copies extant or surviving as only one or two institutional examples. Indeed, the only imprint from this period that we could locate appearing at auction was in the 1880 Brinley sale, when Franklin's November 1729 pamphlet by John Meredith titled A Short Discourse proving the Jewish Sabbath is Repealed was sold for $90. We could find no other 1729 Franklin imprint appearing at auction. Finally, and perhaps most significantly for the study of Franklin's printing career, this volume of forms comprises the first instance of his work on behalf of the colonial government. "To the documentary record of Franklin's career, the discovery of Franklin and Meredith's 1729 General Loan Office Mortgage register has added a previously unimagined artifact that was an important part of his attempt to become printer to the Assembly . The 1729 mortgage register epitomizes the care Franklin expended on the genesis and execution of his early government commissions. On one level, he was only trying to stay in business - a result devoutly wished for, but by no means assured. Yet on another level, he was orchestrating the first deal of a business relationship that he hoped would enable him to retire some day, and in retirement to contribute something to the world's store of practical philosophy" (Arbour, pp. 31-33). Specifically on this volume, see Arbour, "Benjamin Franklin's First Government Printing" in Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 89.

View Bloomsbury Auctions next auction.

Similar lots up for auction