In the American colonies, there was little money. England did not supply the colonies with coins and did not allow the colonies to make their own coins
Question: In the American colonies, there was little money. England did not supply the colonies with coins and did not allow the colonies to make their own coins, except for the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which received permission for a short period in 1652 to make several kinds of silver coins. England wanted to keep money out of America as a means of controlling trade: America was forced to trade only with England if it did not have the money to buy products from other countries. The result during this pre-revolutionary period was that the colonists used various goods in place of money: beaver pelts, Indian wampum, and tobacco leaves were all commonly used substitutes for money. The colonists also made use of any foreign coins they could obtain. Dutch, Spanish, French, and English coins were all in use in the American colonies.
During the Revolutionary War, funds were needed to finance the world, so each of the individual states and the Continental Congress issued paper money. So much of this paper money was printed that by the end of the war, almost no one would accept it. As a result, trade in goods and the use of foreign coins still flourished during this period.
By the time the Revolutionary War had been won by the American colonists, the monetary system was in a state of total disarray. To remedy this situation, the new Constitution of the United States, approved in 1789, allowed Congress to issue money. The individual states could no longer have their own money supply. A few years later, the Coinage Act of 1792 made the dollar the official currency of the United States and put the country on a bimetallic standard. In this bimetallic system, both gold and silver were legal money, and the rate of exchange of silver to gold was fixed by the government at sixteen to one.
1. The passage mainly discusses ___________.
A. American money from past to present.
B. the English monetary policies in colonialAmerica.
C. the effect of the Revolution on American money.
D. the American monetary system of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
2. The passage indicates that during the colonial period, money was ___________.
A. supplied by England.
B. coined by colonists.
C. scarce.
D. used extensively for trade.
3. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was allowed to make coins ___________.
A. continuously from the inception of the colonies.
B. throughout the seventeenth century.
C. from 1652 until the Revolutionary War.
D. for a short time during one year.
4. The expression “a means of” in paragraph 1 could be best replaced by _________.
A. an example of
B. a method of
C. a result of
D. a punishment for
5. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage as a substitute for money during the colonial period?
A. Wampum
B. Cotton
C. Tobacco
D. Beaver furs
6. The pronoun “it” in paragraph 2 refers to which of the following ___________.
A. The Continental Congress
B. Paper money
C. The War
D. Trade in goods
7. It is implied in the passage that at the end of the Revolutionary War, a paper dollar was worth ___________.
A. exactly one dollar
B. just under one dollar
C. just over one dollar
D. almost nothing
8. The word “remedy” in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to __________.
A. resolve
B. understand
C. renew
D. medicate
9. How was the monetary system arranged in the Constitution?
A. Only the US Congress could issued money.
B. The US officially went on a bimetallic monetary system.
C. Various state governments, including Massachusetts, could issue money.
D. The dollar was made official currency of the US.
10. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true about the bimetallic monetary system?
A. Either gold or silver could be used as official money.
B. Gold could be exchanged for silver at the rate of sixteen to one.
C. The monetary system was based on two matters.
D. It was established in 1792.