Category: Economics

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The First Efforts to Limit the African Slave Trade Arise in the American Revolution: Part 1 of 3, The New England Colonies

The American Revolution changed the way Americans viewed one of the world’s great tragedies: the African slave trade. The long march to end the slave trade and then slavery itself had to start somewhere, and a strong argument can be made that it started with the thirteen American colonies gaining independence from Great Britain, then […]

by Christian McBurney
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This Week on Dispatches: Ken Shumate on the Sugar Act of 1733

On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews Marine Corps veteran, software developer, and JAR contributor Ken Shumate on the history and significance of the Sugar, or Molasses, Act of 1733. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published by the Journal of the American Revolution. Dispatches is a free podcast that puts a voice […]

by Editors
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Hylton v. U.S. and Alexander Hamilton’s Defense of Congressional Taxing Authority

In 1796 Daniel Hylton, a wealthy Virginian farmer, brought a suit before the United States Supreme Court arguing that a federal tax on carriages violated a constitutional distinction between direct and indirect taxation. While the Constitution granted Congress unlimited authority to pass indirect taxes on imported goods, the framers insisted that direct taxes on property […]

by Nathan Hotes and Frank W. Garmon Jr.
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“The Right of Making Such a Law, Has Never Been Questioned:” Reasons Against the Renewal of the Sugar Act, Part 3 of 3

Remonstrance Against the Renewal Rhode Island merchants, prompted by the January letter from Boston merchants, requested that Governor Hopkins call a special meeting of the General Assembly. The merchants needed little prompting; they had already drafted preliminary essays explaining the economic problems caused by the Sugar Act. In fact, newspapers had for months been full […]

by Ken Shumate
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“America will suffer for a time only . . . But the Loss to Great Britain will be irretrievable”: Reasons Against the Renewal of the Sugar Act, Part 1 of 3

In early 1764, four British colonies in North America protested the enforcement and planned renewal of the about-to-expire Sugar Act of 1733 (also known as the Molasses Act of 1733)—an act that levied duties on foreign sugar, rum and molasses. Each protest was a statement of reasons against the renewal. These protests—lodged before passage of […]

by Ken Shumate
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Revolutionary Revenge on Hudson Bay, 1782

French naval officer La Pérouse (Jean Francois de Galaup, Comte de la Pérouse) was one of many who actively supported the American Patriots in their war for independence from Britain. La Pérouse’s assignments included patrolling the North Atlantic where he directed the capture of numerous British merchant vessels.[1] His early 1781 outbound voyage from France […]

by Merv O. Ahrens
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This Week on Dispatches: Tom Shachtman on Paying for and Profiting from the American Revolution

On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews author and JAR contributor Tom Shachtman on how wealthy Americans paid for and profited from the American Revolution, chronicled in his latest book, Founding Fortunes. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published by the Journal of the American Revolution. Dispatches is a free podcast that puts […]

by Editors
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Tapping America’s Wealth to Fund the Revolution: Two Good Ideas that Went Awry

“Unless some great and capital change suddenly takes place,” Gen. George Washington wrote from Valley Forge on December 23, 1777,[1] to Henry Laurens, the recently-appointed president of the Continental Congress, “the Army must inevitably be reduced to one or the other of these three things. Starve—dissolve—or disperse, in order to obtain subsistence.” A week later, […]

by Tom Shachtman
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Hamilton Versus Wall Street: The Core Principles of the American System of Economics

Hamilton Versus Wall Street: The Core Principles of the American System of Economics by Nancy Bradeen Spannaus (Bloomington: iUniverse, 2019) “The purpose of this book,” Ms. Spannaus declares, “is simple: to establish once and for all that the first U.S. Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton, was the founder of an American System of Economics which provided the […]

by Geoff Smock
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The Exception to “No Taxation Without Representation”

“I know not why we should blush to confess that molasses was an essential ingredient in American independence.”— John Adams[1] A one penny per gallon import duty on molasses was the only important exception to the American demand for “no taxation without representation.” The duty was a tax, levied by Parliament in 1766, and collected […]

by Ken Shumate
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How Robert Morris’s “Magick” Money Saved the American Revolution

The year 1780 ended badly, and the new year boded worse for America’s War of Independence. Maj. Gen. Benedict Arnold’s treason and defection to the British army had left Gen. George Washington’s officer corps in disarray, demoralized. Officers of all ranks eyed each other suspiciously, questioning each other’s decisions, while distrust of officers provoked mutinies […]

by Harlow Giles Unger
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The Molasses Act: A Brief History

The Molasses Act of 1733 levied a duty of six pence per gallon on foreign molasses imported into British colonies in North America. The duty was not intended to raise revenue, but to be a prohibition against the importation of molasses from foreign sugar plantations. It was at first a nullity, a dead letter, but […]

by Ken Shumate
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The Worth of a Continental

The American army during the Revolution consisted of three basic varieties of units—militia, state troops, and the Continental Army. Beginning with the earliest communities, militia served as a short-term local defense force raised by towns. The men who responded to the call on April 19, 1775, and laid siege to the British in Boston came […]

by Michael Barbieri
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From Pounds to Dollars

In all times and places, people have engaged in trade, and the American Colonies during the time of the Revolution are no exception.  Although some trade was conducted as barter, particularly for commodities such as tobacco or beaver pelts, it was common for people to use coins (of nearly any country – Spanish dollars were […]

by Lars D. H. Hedbor