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thirty four years ago. The accounts during the continuance of the partnership were kept in New England currency or "Lawful money of Massachusetts." The letters L.M. were frequently affixed in order to distinguish this currency from sterling money or Nova Scotia currency. In early times the value of the Massachusetts or New England currency was in the proportion £1 sterling = £1. 6. 8., L.M. The New Brunswick dollar or five shillings was equivalent to six shillings L. M. It is a fact worth recording that the Massachusetts currency continued to be used in all ordinary business transactions on the St. John river up to the time of the arrival of the Loyalists in 1783. This is only one instance showing how close were the ties that bound the preloyalist settlers of this province to New England, and it is scarcely a matter of surprise that during the Revolutionary war the Massachusetts Congress found many sympathizers on the River St. John.

While accounts were kept according to the currency of New England, very little money was in circulation and the amount of cash handled by Simonds and White was small enough. For years they supplied the settlers at Maugerville with such things as they needed very often receiving payment in furs and skins, in the securing of which the white inhabitants became such expert hunters and trappers as to arouse the jealousy or the Indians. They also furnished barrel and hogshead staves of white and red oak, boards, shingles, oar rafters, spars, cedar posts and cordwood. Later they were able to furnish farm produce, sheep and cattle; they also were frequently employed in the service of the Company in various ways by Simonds and White. With the Indians the trade was almost entirely one of barter, the staple article being the fur of the Spring beaver. The account books that have been preserved probably do not contain a complete record of all the shipments