Washington Irving's libelous insinuation that Director-General Kieft gave grants to his friends to rake and scrape every shell-bed from the Delaware to Cape Cod, it remains undeniable that the wampum financial system became frightfully inflated.
In 1690 there must have been almost a wampum panic, for the Council issued a Proclamation: "Whereas with Great Concern we have observed both Now and for a Long Time past the Depreciation and Corruption of the loose seawant, where-by occasion is given for repeated Complaints from the Inhabitants that they can not go with such seawant to the Market, nor yet procure for themselves any Commodity, not even a White Loaf, we ordain that no loose seawant shall be a Legal Tender except the same be strung on one string: that six white or three black shall pass for one stiver; and of base seawant, shall pass eight white and four black for one stiver."
The Old and New Hudson County Court Houses, Jersey City
