A Well-Dressed Cow

"Most [Boston] pamphleteers of the 1730s and early 1740s beamed their arguments at the middle and upper elements of society, focusing on the sufferings of those with fixed incomes, such as teachers, clergymen, and widows. These people were undoubtedly pinched by the adverse wage-price trends, and one of their kind may have been the wit who sent a cow draped in silks and laces meandering through the streets in 1735 to dramatize the high cost of meat." (72) --Gary B. Nash, The Urban Crucible: The Northern Seaports and the Origins of the American Revolution

"Cow"
From: New York Public Library Picture Collection Online

In the 1730s and 1740s, Boston continued to experience price inflation. Massachusetts's participation in Queen Anne's War in the first decade of the century caused severe economic disruption. The colony went into debt in paying for the war. To finance the debt, Massachusetts issued paper money. The colonial theory of paper money dictated that if paper money was issued, then it needed to be collected back through taxes in a timely manner. The timeliness of collection would preserve the value of the money. But if collection were delayed, the money would begin to lose value. Taxpayers had to have confidence that if they accepted paper money as payment for goods they were selling or labor they were performing, they could turn around and use it to pay their taxes. But Massachusetts dug itself into too deep of a debt hole during the war. We all know how taxpayers respond when asked to pay high taxes in a short period of time. Colonial officials knew this too, so they spread out the tax collection over a number of years; but this extension devalued the paper money and added extra interest costs for financing the debt.

Unfortunately, prices were inflated at a faster rate than laborers' wages. While Boston's population continued to grow, the agricultural production of its hinterland was beginning to reach capacity due to its poor soil. This had a depressing effect on the city's economy. There was no shortage of labor as population rose and production stagnated--thus the low laborer wages. Price inflation therefore impacted the laboring classes more severely than well-to-do people. An increasingly larger percentage of their income was taken up in purchasing basic necessities, such as meat. The rising price of meat unfortunately must have made it a luxury item for laboring class people. If so, why not protest this unwelcome change by dressing the meat with other luxury items such as silk and lace?