A Permanent Engine of Corruption
The American Revolution was a war of secession from the British empire and its corrupt economic system of “mercantilism.” A set of policies that benefited politically connected businesses at the expense of their customers, British mercantilism involved protectionist trade policy that eliminated foreign competition and raised prices, government grants of monopoly to politically connected businesses, bailouts and subsidies to the same, heavy taxes and public debt, and the treatment of its subjects in the Colonies as tax slaves and cannon fodder for its imperialistic ventures. All of this was financed by the British central bank, the Bank of England.
As soon as the Revolution was over, the “nationalists” in American politics, known as the Federalists, sought to impose this very system on Americans. They were led by Philadelphia businessman Robert Morris, a native of Liverpool, England, who became very wealthy as what we would today call a defense contractor during the Revolution, with the help of his political frontman, young Alexander Hamilton. Morris was the first “superintendent of finance,” which would later be called the secretary of the treasury. Some believe he was the wealthiest man in America at the time.
The apparent thinking of the Morris/Hamilton Federalists was that it was a bad thing to be on the paying end of a mercantilist empire, even worth fighting a bloody revolution to escape. But it was a good thing to be on the money-making, tax-collecting, and wealth-creating end of an empire.
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