currency Archives - Journal of the American Revolution

Posted on November 14, 2024November 18, 2024

Cruel Bedlam: Bankruptcies and the Break with Britain

America will celebrate the Semiquincentennial anniversary of its independence from Great Britain in 2026. The causes of that world-changing event were many and complexly intertwined, so new conjectures unsurprisingly continue to emerge from the archival mists. Because disputed taxes were objectively light, the current consensus stresses a narrative rooted in ideas to explain why many […]

by Robert E. Wright

Posted on November 16, 2020November 15, 2020

The Board of Trade and Plantations, 1688–1761

There were four bodies that directly influenced England’s relationship with her American colonies; they were the King (a body of one), the Privy Council (advisers to the king), Parliament, and the least known, the Board of Trade and Plantations. This article is about the role and responsibilities of the Board leading up to the accession […]

by Bob Ruppert

Posted on September 27, 2016September 17, 2016

The Dollar in Revolutionary America

“Pennies make dollars” is a phrase that has been around a long time and we all know what it means. But, how many pennies does it take to make a dollar? Silly question you may say—it’s one-hundred, of course. That’s the right answer for today’s America, but that would not necessarily be the right answer […]

by Michael Barbieri

Posted on October 7, 2015August 28, 2016

Faking It: British Counterfeiting During the American Revolution

The American Revolution was very much a case of David versus Goliath. A relatively small group of colonists decided that they wanted to break free of the home government, which in this case just happened to be one of the most powerful nations on the globe. Almost overnight the thirteen separate colonies had to form […]

by Stuart Hatfield

Posted on February 23, 2015August 28, 2016

How was the Revolutionary War paid for?

It’s one thing to make speeches about declaring independence, or to assemble militias and discuss battle tactics against the enemy. It’s quite another thing to pay for it all. So how do you pay for a war that no one expected to last eight years? Great Britain possessed world-wide colonies, tremendous wealth, the ability to […]

by John L. Smith, Jr.

Posted on September 23, 2014August 28, 2016

The Currency Act: A Problem and a Solution

During the first half of the eighteenth century, there was a limited amount of specie or “hard money” in the American Colonies. There were three reasons for this: there were no established gold or silver mines; there was restrictive trade with the French and Spanish West Indies, and there were debt payments to the merchants […]

by Bob Ruppert

Posted on March 21, 2014August 28, 2016

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

Posted on March 8, 2013August 28, 2016

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

Tag: currency