Currency Act than what was taxed out of circulation, the currency depreciated in relation to the British pound sterling. The resultant inflation was harmful to merchants in Great Britain, who were forced to accept the depreciated currency from colonists for payment of debts. The Act limited the future issue of bills of credit to certain circumstances. It allowed the existing bills to be used as legal tender for public debts (i.e. paying taxes), but disallowed their use for private debts (e.g. for paying merchants). The Currency Act 1764 (4 Geo. III c. 34) extended the 1751 Act to all of the British
World currency World currency In the foreign exchange market and international finance, a world currency, supranational currency, or global currency is a currency that is transacted internationally, with no set borders. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the use of silver Spanish dollars or "pieces of eight" spread from the Spanish territories in the Americas westwards to Asia and eastwards to Europe, forming the first worldwide currency. Spain's political supremacy on the world stage, the importance of Spanish commercial routes across the Atlantic and the Pacific, and the coin's quality and purity of silver helped it become internationally accepted for over two