REVENUE OFFICERS: PROVINCIAL 71

out of Office, as they will find themselves Clear of debt to the Sheriff,
they will then thank you for it; and I can assure you that the most
popular Sheriffs we have had, have been such as have pursued this
method, & been strict & made them punctual, in a Smiling good natured
way.

Keep what Tobacco you can by you of your own till your time expires.
... I must be understood to mean, that no Tobacco can be called your
own, but what is over & above sufficient to satisfy all demands upon you
as Sheriff; and in particular beware that you do not live upon the
produce of the office, before you have compleated it; and so much the
rather as the necessary demands upon the office will the first year take
away a considerable part of the Stock you may have in hand; In so much
that I have known some Sheriffs Who have thought themselves ruined
by the first year, tho' they have at the Expiration of their time upon a
strict & frugal management, found a considerable balance in their favor.

All pains and perils notwithstanding, the qualified incumbent
might expect of his shrievalty £ 200 to £ 300 sterling a year, clear
of all charges. ⁴¹ Its brief tenure enabled the Governor to pass it
around and to bestow it often on men who could not aspire to
other places of profit. Yet, as it was the most sought after offices
in the province, there were always more applicants than places
to be filled. Indeed, as Henry Callister could write in 1761,
" There is not in Maryland a more trite question in most conver-
sations than ' Who will be the next Sheriff?' " ⁴²

4. CURRENCY COMMISSIONERS AND SUPPLY AGENTS.

Auxiliary to this provincial revenue establishment were the
Paper Currency Office or Loan Office, set up in 1733, with its
Commissioners and a clerk, and those Agents appointed to receive
and pay out money under the Supply Acts of 1740, 1746, and
1756.

Maryland's first Currency Law, that of April, 1733, provided
for an issue of £ 90, 000. It was to circulate at twenty-five percent
discount to sterling, under supervision of three Commissioners

⁴¹ An estimate of about 1745 rates the shrievalties at £200 sterling each and
adds, " These are thriving offices, and in time of peace are worth more than £ 200
per ann. com. annis" (Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, Ser. I, vol.
VII [1801], 202). Gov. Sharpe in 1757 valued the sheriff's place of Anne
Arundel County at at least £ 200 sterling a year, and in 1768 he admitted some
shrievalties might be worth £ 300 (Horatio Sharpe to Lord Baltimore, June 30,..
1757; Sharpe to Hugh Hamersley, July 25, 1768, Archives, IX, 35; XIV, 518).

⁴² Henry Callister to John Ridout, March 29, 1761 (Callister Papers, II, 393,
Md. Diocesan Library). Callister was a merchant at Oxford and Townside (the
present Crumpton), on the Eastern Shore.