Husband: Parliament and the crown were not the only oppressors in colonial American society for many ordinary people. They day to day struggled with what they called a lack of money, which was their term for an economic depression. Husband proposed going off the gold standard way back then. He thought that that was part of the problem was that everything was pegged to gold and silver. And he was kind of right.
Astra Taylor interviews William Hogeland on his book Founding Finance: How Debt, Speculation, Foreclosures, Protests, and Crackdowns Made Us a Nation. Hogeland recovers a fascinating crop of mostly-forgotten rebels, the movements they led, and their radical demands that put the landlords and lenders of their day on edge. He also recounts the complex and sometimes deadly machinations that went into suppressing them in order to create a nation that was safe for the owning and investing classes.
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