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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Acts of the North Carolina General Assembly, 1745
North Carolina. General Assembly
April 08, 1745 - April 20, 1745
Volume 25, Pages 234-235

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LAWS OF NORTH CAROLINA--1745.

CHAPTER I.
An Act for Laying a Tax for Sinking the Now Current Bills of Credit.

Whereas, there is a deficiency in the fund for sinking the now Current Bills of Credit to supply the defect whereof, We pray His Most Sacred Majesty that it may be Enacted— And Be it Enacted by His Excelly the Governor Council and General Assembly and by the Authority of the same that the sum of One Shilling Proclamation Money be annually Levied on every Taxable Person within this Province and be collected by the Sheriffs of the respective Counties for and During the space of Eight years and no longer to commence from the first day of May next after the ratification of this Act and shall be paid in Gold Silver or Bills Equivolent or Inspectors Notes for the several Commodities as rated by an Act intitled an Act for Granting an Aid to His Majesty to defray the Expenses of Transporting the several Troops Enlisted in His Majestys Service in this Colony and to ascertain the method of paying all taxes & Levies in Commodities and for other purposes therein mentioned and shall be collected and paid at the several and Respective Wraehouses in each County in such manner and at such times as all other Taxes are or ought by Law to be paid. And that all persons neglecting to pay the said Tax at the times by law limited shall be liable to such Distress to be made by the Sheriff as for nonpayment of other Taxes.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the Sheriff of every County shall on or before the first day of March yearly sell at Publick Vendue (after having put up notice in writing twenty days before such sale at the Court House Warehouses Chapples and other Publick Places in the said County of the time and place of such sale,) all the Commodities paid in to the Ware Houses of the County whereof he is Sheriff to the Highest Bidder, for Bills Silver or Gold and if Silver or Gold shall be paid to any Sheriff for such Commodities then he shall exchange the same for Bill Money according to the value for all which trouble he shall be allowed six pr cent and may deduct the same accordingly. And the said Sheriff at the next meeting of the Assembly shall return his said list of Taxables so received as also account upon oath and pay down to the Assembly all such sums of money as he shall have received by virtue of this act under the penalty of two hundred pounds Proclamation Money for every default which said Penalty shall be recovered by action of Debt Bill plaint or Information in the Supreme Court of this Province by any Person who shall sue for the same wherein no essoign protection injunction or wager of Law shall be allowed or admitted of, the one moiety to him or them that shall sue for the same the other to be applyed to the General Assembly of this Province for the use the tax by this Act is intended. And the said Assembly shall cause the said Bills so paid in to be annually Burnt and Distroyed so that the whole Currency may be sunk within the said Eight years.

And whereas, it would be a great hardship and inconvenience to the Possessors of the present Bills of Credit should not the same be payable in all taxes and officers fees, Therefore be it Enacted by the Authority aforesaid, that the now Bills of Credit shall be received in payment of all Taxes at the rate of Seven Shillings & Six Pence for one shilling Proclamation money

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and in officers fees (as directed in the before recited act for granting an Aid to His Majesty to defray the Expenses of Transporting the several Troops Enlisted in His Majestys service in this Colony and to ascertain the method of paying all Taxes and Levies in Commodities and for other purposes therein mentioned) for Eight years and no longer.

And be it further enacted, that if any person shall counterfeit forge alter or diface any of the now publick Bills of Credit or shall utter, pass or dispose of any Counterfeit or Forged Bills knowing the same to be so every such Person shall for the first offence stand in the Pillory for the space of two hours and have his ears nailed to the same and cut off, and for the second offence shall be guilty of Felony without benefit of Clergy.

And whereas there are divers considerable sums of Loan Money due and unpaid and the power of the Treasurers to make Distress is already Expired,

Therefore be it enacted that the several and respective County Treasurers shall and are hereby impowered and authorized at any time thereafter to make distress of all Goods and Chattles of persons who are indebted for any Loan Money or for want of such Goods and Chattels to seize and dispose of the mortgaged lands in order to discharge such sum or sums due and in arrear on such mortgages the expiration of any law to the contrary notwithstanding.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the several and respective county Treasurers shall pay to the General Assembly all the Bills of Credit now in their hands or which hereafter shall be by them respectively received which shall be burnt and destroyed as they are paid in and also all Bills now paid into the Committee of Accounts by the said County Treasurers shall be likewise burnt and Destroyed and an account kept by the Clerk of the Assembly of such Bills so Destroyed.

And be it further enacted that the moneys which may arise in virtue of this Act more than is sufficient to answer the purposes for which the same is laid shall be applyed by the Governor Council and General Assembly of this Province and in no other manner for and towards erecting free schools at such places as they shall think proper.

Ratified 20th day of April 1745.

GAB. JOHNSTON
NATH. RICE
SAM'L SWANN Speaker