In western Pennsylvania, Hamilton made the local guy who was the biggest distiller and also just the biggest businessman of the area, made him the tax collector. So he got a cut of the taxes that he collected from his poorer neighbors. And then it was a sort of double boon to the big producers, because they also were the tax collectors often, right? The big distilleries. Incredibly. I mean, yes, I mean, it's not incredible, of course. It's like, oh, yeah, right. You see this, all of your hopes from when you were young in this almost parody of corruption," she says.
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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