Economic Distress Finds Its Way To America

When we went to war with Britain, we had one main goal... to achieve independence. A spirited group fighting for our freedom and our right to be self-ruled. A group that wanted and envisioned a place in which we could all enjoy political independence as well as economical prosperity, but instead received economical chaos. Less than 10 years after the end of the war, and our country is already facing economic turmoil. For one thing, the American markets are being flooded with cut-rate goods from British manufacturers who were stocked up with surpluses. Such brutal competition is causing many industries to suffer. The pass 5 years have seen many businesses sink slowly to the bottom, due to the large drop in the number of foreign clients. Under British rule, we were guaranteed clients but now with our separation from the British Empire, we are left to search for foreign customers. And while new commercial outlets have off-set the loss of old old outlets, for those businesses that cannot serve new customers, the impact of losing British customers is great.

In addition to the loss of many customers and the failure of many businesses, independence brought us uncontrollable inflation. The war had encouraged extravagance, speculation, and profiteering with profits as high as 300%. This runaway inflation had been ruinous to many citizens, causing them to go from being wealthy to being destitute.