A Sow's Arse

"An anonymous [Philadelphia] pamphleteer, styling himself 'Roger Plowman' in a 'letter' to 'Mr. Robert Rich,' began to dig deeper into the economic motives of those who opposed paper money: 'the principal Reason why you are angry with Paper-money, is because People who are in your Debt can raise money to pay you, without surrendering up their Lands for one half of what they are worth.' [James] Logan [a leading Philadelphia conservative politician of the 1720s] had argued that without the rich, the poor would always be poor. 'Roger Plowman' reversed the proposition, suggesting that because of the rich, the poor would remain poor. 'It is an old Saying with us,' he wrote, 'that we must never grease the fat Sow in the Arse, and starve the Pigs.'" (94) --Gary B. Nash, The Urban Crucible: The Northern Seaports and the Origins of the American Revolution

"An Unpromising Drawing To Put a Joke To."
From: New York Public Library Picture Collection Online

In the 18th century before the Revolution, colonies would occasionally circulate fixed amounts of paper money. One of several ways that this could be done would be the exchange of paper money with landowners as a loan with the land serving as collateral. Having paper money made it easier for taxpayers to pay their taxes, debtors to pay their creditors, and generally exchange goods with one another. If you had only large value assets, then paper money could enable you to make small scale transactions for your necessities. But paper money was always accompanied by a fear among wealthy creditors of it becoming depreciated--and being forced to accept depreciated money from their debtors.

On the other hand, if a creditor sued a debtor for collection when paper money was scarce, a debtor's property would be auctioned off or transferred to the creditor at depreciated values. The reason for this was that an auction of debtor assets occurring in a situation of cash scarcity meant that there would be few bidders; and fewer bidders meant that the final bid would be for a lower amount. Consequently, it required more valuable assets to pay off a creditor when money was scarce. This explains Roger Plowman's assertion that without paper money, people would have to surrender "up their lands for one half of what they are worth." A wealthy creditor could get lots of money or valuable assets at bargain basement prices in a money-starved economy. Roger Plowman, of course, knew these facts well. He or his acquaintances must have been the pigs who were starved in order to grease the fat sow's (creditor) arse!

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?

Election Trickery in New York

"On election day [late 1690s], orders were sent to the captains of English ships in the harbor to send their sailors to the polling place so that the Leislerians, who were heavily represented in the laboring class, would believe an impressment was imminent. This ruse proved successful, sending the Leislerian candidates down in defeat." (55) --Gary B. Nash, The Urban Crucible: The Northern Seaports and the Origins of the American Revolution

"New Amsterdam, now called New York"
From: New York Public Library Picture Collection Online

New York politics in the 1690s was dominated by two political factions: the Leislerians and the anti-Leislerians. Although the two did not precisely divide along ethnic and class lines, Leislerians were highly representative of Dutch and laboring class New Yorkers while the anti-Leislerians were generally representative of socially and economically elite English and Dutch New Yorkers. The two parties were formed in reaction to Jacob Leisler, the self-proclaimed governor of New York from 1689 to 1691. Leisler had taken advantage of the change of royal power during the Glorious Revolution in England to seize political control of the New York colony. He remained in this position until 1691 when England sent a new royally appointed governor. Leisler did not relinquish power voluntarily; he was arrested, tried and found guilty of treason by an all-English jury, and executed. His Dutch and laboring class supporters remained politically active after Leisler's death.

The other background detail you need to know in order to understand this quote has to do with English impressments. In the colonial period, when the British navy was in need of new sailors during wartime, impressment gangs would come ashore in American cities and force able-bodied men into naval service. Therefore, able-bodied men had an incentive to steer clear of impressment gangs. In this case, the anti-Leislerians were able to discourage laboring class voters from being in the streets and voting simply by creating the appearance of an impressment. This was quite a trick!

Do you prefer bucks or dollars?

"The middle ground, it is true, had by the late eighteenth century operated to create a common system of exchange and even unit systems of values. Traders in the southern pays d'en haut [roughly, the Great Lakes region] had, for instance, instituted the buck--the hide of a large male white-tailed deer--as the standard unit in whose terms they calculated both the value of other furs and of European manufactures. The buck, in turn, became equated with an American silver dollar." (484) --Richard White, The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815

White-tailed Deer
(From U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service)

A world of explanation: White defines the "middle ground" as the "place in between: in between cultures, peoples, and in between empires and the nonstate world of villages." In other words, the middle ground is not necessarily a geographic place. It was the "place" at which two completely different cultures, Indians and Europeans, could meet, understand each other, and establish trading relationships. As a general idea, this idea of a middle ground could apply to many different instances in history. White has chosen to apply the concept to the Great Lakes Region from the 17th to 19th centuries.

So a buck was a originally a real buckskin, not a paper dollar! Actually, almost anything can serve as money. Buckskins, paper, silver, gold, beads, tobacco, have all been used as money in the past. The major requirement is that when you receive money in exchange for your goods or services, you have confidence that you can turn around and use the money to purchase something you want to buy--in other words, that that person will accept your money.

Slaveholders for Natural Rights

"Consider, for example, the conduct of Richard Henry Lee, the Virginia leader who moved the formal congressional resolution declaring American independence in June 1776. There is no evidence that Virginians had thought it ridiculous for Lee to conduct a public parade in Virginia against the Stamp Act's 'chains of slavery' while literally using his slaves to hold his protest banners." (38)

"Anyone familiar with Samuel Johnson's famous gibe--'How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty from the drivers of negroes?'--will appreciate that many Englishmen and contemporary Americans (Northern and Southern) thought that there was tension between American revolutionary principles and the institution of slavery." (42) --both quotes from George William Van Cleve's A SLAVEHOLDERS' UNION

Samuel Johnson
From: Wikipedia

Van Cleve argues that, despite the ideological advances made against the institution of slavery during the Revolutionary War, slavery was ultimately more strongly entrenched following that war than it was before the war. This was due to the political unity of the slave states around a single issue and the substantial (50%) portion of the new nation's overall wealth that was located in the South. The hypocrisy of Americans around slavery and individual liberty was the main reason that Charles Dickens so greatly disliked the United States. By the time he got to the U.S. in 1843, the nation billing itself as a beacon to the world of equality and liberty had been holding slaves for 60 years.

The Gentlemens' Gunfight

"In Philadelphia, class warfare nearly broke out as genteel men exchanged gunfire with crowds of the "lower sort." The most alarming incident was a 1779 showdown between the Philadelphia militia and a lawyer named James Wilson, who was suspected of wartime profiteering and aiding the British. Upon hearing a rumor that a scheduled march by the Philadelphia militia was actually a plot to arrest Wilson for treason, the lawyer assembled a group of armed gentlemen at his home. When the militia paraded by, someone inside fired a shot into the crowd. A gunfight ensued, and by the time the shooting had ended, several militiamen and a few gentlemen lay dead. (Wilson would survive to become one of the primary architects of the new federal Constitution designed to remove power from the hands of ordinary people such as these.)" --Terry Bouton, TAMING DEMOCRACY: "THE PEOPLE," THE FOUNDERS, AND THE TROUBLED ENDING OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

In addition to his activity at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Wilson also later became a Supreme Court justice. Wilson was one of our Founding Fathers!

A Ruthless Landlord

"...in 1786, when a landlord in Cumberland County [Pennsylvania] had the local constable auction the cow and horse of a tenant farmer named William McKinney, who had fallen 10 [pounds] behind on his rent. McKinney had 'begged' his landlord to 'take hogs or grain in the ground and property of value or notes equal to cash, and spare my milch cow and my plow horse for the sake of my family.' But the landlord had refused, leaving McKinney in 'the utmost distress." Resigned to the sale of his property, McKinney hoped at least to keep court costs to a minimum. 'On the day of the sale the constable came for the property, I desired he would sell them on the premises as it was a public place,' McKinney remembered, 'but he refused to do it and drove them a mile further and sold them there, for which he charged me four shillings.' Having lost even this small concession, things looked bleak.

Then, at the auction site, a miracle seemed to happen. When the constable began the bidding, McKinney's landlord arrived and halted the auction. McKinney recalled that his landlord 'made a proposal before the public that he would buy all for me and return the goods (to me) which stopped the intended buyers from bidding.' It seemed that McKinney's landlord--the man whose lawsuit had brought matters to this disastrous end--had changed his mind and come to save the day for his tenant. Compelled by this emotional scene, the other potential buyers agreed to tender no bids so that the landlord could purchase McKinney's property at a bare minimum.

Not long after the crowd had dispersed, the miracle vanished. Despite the landlord's public promises, he kept the cow and the other possessions for himself. He had rigged the auction to keep others from bidding so he could obtain his tenant's belongings for virtually nothing. The landlord also refused to erase the 10 [pound] debt. The case continued, and on 'the orders of the landlord, the constable came eight or ten days after and sold a horse' of McKinney's." --Terry Bouton, Taming Democracy: "The People," the Founders, and the Troubled Ending of the American Revolution

There was a severe scarcity of money--either paper or specie--in American during the 1780s. Despite the fact that the British government had always ensured a trade deficit with America, such that more gold and silver left America than went into it, such trade ensured that Americans saw at least some money in their economy. After the war, there was very little specie to be had anywhere. Unfortunately, many states' taxes on their citizens were payable only in specie! There wasn't even much paper money in circulation. State governments were pressured by American creditors not to print any paper money because they didn't want their debtors to pay them in inflated money--which is what almost always happened to paper money throughout the war years. Many Americans, especially in the countryside, were therefore reduced to a primitive bartering system--except when it came time to pay creditors and the government. Poor McKinney!

King of the United States

"...Nathaniel Gorham, the president of the Continental Congress, even sounded out Prince Henry of Prussia on becoming king of America." (p179)

"Under [Alexander] Hamilton's plan of government, the president and the Senate would initially be elected, but they would then serve life terms. Thus the one popularly elected branch, the House of Representatives, would be balanced by what would essentially be an elective monarch and House of Lords." (p192)

--both quotes from Woody Holton, UNRULY AMERICANS AND THE ORIGINS OF THE CONSTITUTION

Holton's thesis is that the Framers of the U.S. Constitution were primarily wealthy men who wished to preserve their wealth and social position by creating as undemocratic a federal government as they could get away with. Actually, that statement of his position is a little too cynical for his taste. He writes that, apart from their personal interests, the Framers genuinely believed that government was best administered by wealthy men who had sufficient leisure time to study and understand public policy; such virtuous men in government would reduce the influence of immoral, irresponsible people like debtors or delinquent taxpayers.

The central issue at hand were the taxpayer and private debtor relief measures that the state assemblies took throughout the 1780s. This relief undermined the investment income of many Framers--they had major investments in interest-generating government bonds, mostly from the war. If the state assemblies decided to tax their citizens without relief, then the bond investors received a steady income of bond interest. If the state assemblies decided to give some relief to their beleaguered farmers by, say issuing legal tender paper money (that could be used to pay all debts and taxes), then the wealthy bond investors' income dropped. It was severe tax enforcement by a state assembly that produced popular violence such as Shay's Rebellion in Massachusetts in 1786. Similar rebellions and threats of violences were happening all over the country during the 1780s. Fear of an "excess of democracy" and of losses in wealth motivated the Framers to create a federal government that would not be subject to the whims of the people. So Holton argues. There are, of course, a number of greater complexities surrounding these issues of relief and rebellions, but the statement above gets at the main idea.

I am enjoying this book quite a lot! I would like to read the Federalist Papers again now that I have read Holton's perspective.

Eating a Writ 1780s-Style

"In September 1784 a deputy sheriff tried to hand Hezekiah Maham of South Carolina a writ ordering him to appear in court to answer his creditor's charges. Maham did not simply refuse the writ: he made the deputy eat it, graciously supplying him a beverage to wash it down." --Woody Holton in UNRULY  AMERICANS AND THE ORIGINS OF THE CONSTITUTION

Paper Money, or Jesus Christ

"In what was possibly the most audacious attempt to use the Bible to justify relief legislation, an essay appearing in Massachusetts in September 1786 compared paper money to Jesus Christ.  The author permitted paper currency to speak in its own defense, reminding Americans that it had sacrificed its life for them. Even as its own value melted away, the currency recalled, it had funded the war that secured American independence. Paper money then prophesied that, like Jesus Christ, it would soon return. 'I died for their deliverance from foreign foes,' it declared, 'and will rise again to deliver them from their domestick ones." --Woody Holton in UNRULY AMERICANS AND THE ORIGINS OF THE CONSTITUTION

UNRULY AMERICANS
AND THE ORIGINS OF
THE CONSTITUTION
by Woody Holton

A little context: following the end of the Revolutionary War in the 1780s, Americans were forced to pay high taxes so that Congress and the states could pay interest to government bondholders. These bonds were issued by the federal and state governments during the war when public funds were running short. For example, bonds were often issued as payment to Continental Army soldiers. Because of the financial hardship experienced by many Americans during the recession of the 1780s, many of the bonds found their way into the hands of wealthy investors. Unfortunately, many state taxes had to be paid in specie (gold or silver), which was scarce.

There was also a shortage of paper money. Many Americans advocated for the printing of paper money by state assemblies so that taxes would be easier to pay. But legislators were skeptical of this solution. The problem was that paper money had a poor recent history of depreciating in value very quickly. The Continental Congress had issued so much paper money during the war that by 1780, it was almost worthless. It must be conceded that, even though Congress was almost broke by the end of the war, issuing paper money played a major role in enabling them to pay for it. In a way, Congress issuing paper money (i.e. Continentals) was crucial to winning the war.

Paper money's poor history of value stability made wealthy bondholders skeptical of taxes being paid with it--they didn't want worthless paper money for their bond interest income--they wanted stable-valued gold or silver. But paper money would have made it much easier for Americans to pay the high taxes. Property, especially land, was extremely illiquid. If you were a farmer who had to pay a tax of 10% of your property value, but were not able to pull together this sum by selling livestock, produce, or other assets, then you might have to sell your land (often at a fraction of its real value because no one else had money either) just to pay the tax. Paper money made exchanges of goods, such as livestock or produce, much easier. Therefore, raising a tax sum was more easily done with paper money in circulation. Holton describes how farmers and other "ordinary" Americans pressed their state assemblies to issue paper money. Thus, in reading Holton's book, you come to the above bizarre comparison of paper money to Jesus Christ!