While Donald Trump famously does not drink, alcohol has always played a role in American life, usually ancillary but occasionally central. He could take a lesson from an early instance where it played a central role and how it was handled by our greatest president.
During and after the Revolutionary War, America’s economy was a wreck as the prices of products it exported—fish, lumber, tobacco, and cotton—collapsed with the removal of the British market. It’s estimated that between 1774 and 1790, the economy declined by 41 per cent.
The country ended the war heavily in debt. The federal government owed $54 million, and the states together owed an additional $21 million. During the war, both tried to print their way out of their difficulties. It didn’t work.
