Colonial Virginia's legislature introduced an inside paper money into its domestic economy that was, at that time, primarily a barter economy without any government or bank-issued inside paper monies in circulation. I decompose Virginia's paper money into its expected real-asset present value, risk discount and transaction premium. The value of Virginia's paper money was determined primarily by its real-asset present value. The transaction premium was small. Positive risk discounts occurred in years when monetary troubles were suspected, namely worries that the government would not redeem the paper money as promised. Counterfeiting, however, was not one of these worries. The legislature had the tools and used them effectively to mitigate the effects of counterfeiting on the value of its paper money. Colonial Virginia's paper money was not a fiat currency, but a barter asset, with just enough transaction premium to make it the preferred medium of exchange for local transactions. It functioned like a zero-coupon bond and traded below face value due to time-discounting, not depreciation.

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弗吉尼亚殖民地的纸币，1755-1774：价值分解和表现

殖民地弗吉尼亚州的立法机构将内部纸币引入其国内经济，当时主要是一种易货经济，没有任何政府或银行发行的内部纸币流通。我将弗吉尼亚的纸币分解为它的预期实物资产现值、风险折扣和交易溢价。弗吉尼亚纸币的价值主要取决于其实际资产的现值。交易溢价很小。正风险折扣发生在怀疑存在货币问题的年份，即担心政府不会兑现承诺的纸币。然而，伪造并不是这些担忧之一。立法机关拥有工具并有效地使用它们来减轻伪造对其纸币价值的影响。弗吉尼亚殖民地' 纸币不是法定货币，而是易货资产，其交易溢价刚好足以使其成为当地交易的首选交换媒介。它的功能类似于零息债券，由于时间贴现而非贬值，其交易价格低于面值。