❧ THESE FUXED COLONIES · MDCCLXXVI ❧

Paper that paid for a war.
Fixed into worthlessness.

Just Filed On the Continental Bills of Credit, and Their Improvement Into Worthlessness Wanting any power to tax, the Congress paid for its war with paper promises. These served well enough, until Congress, hard pressed, rewrote the terms of its own notes; whereupon the Publick ceased to believe them, and a paper dollar came to fetch a penny of silver, and then less. Read the case →

Read the Grievances Lodge One ❧

❧ A Record of Grievances

The Congress · Publick Credit

On the Continental Bills of Credit, and Their Improvement Into Worthlessness

The fix: As the emissions multiplied and the promised redemption grew doubtful, the Congress undertook to set the matter right. In March of 1780 it resolved to call in the old bills and exchange them at the rate of forty paper dollars for one, which was in effect a public confession that its notes were worth about a fortieth of their face, and a rewriting of the terms upon which the Publick had accepted them.

★★★★★ GraveRead the case →

Crown Policy · The Frontier

Britain won the continent, then forbade anyone from living on it

The fix: On 7 October 1763 the Crown issued the Royal Proclamation, drawing a boundary along the Appalachians and declaring the entire interior a protected Indian Reserve closed to colonial settlement, purchase, or survey — the stated aim being to stabilise the frontier after Pontiac's Rebellion and avoid the ruinous expense of further Native wars.

★★★★★ CatastrophicRead the case → Parliament · Commerce & Taxation

Parliament made tea cheaper and received a riot in return

The fix: Parliament passed the Tea Act of 10 May 1773, granting the East India Company — sitting on some seventeen million pounds of unsold tea — the right to ship directly to hand-picked colonial consignees, bypassing London auctions and colonial wholesalers, while retaining the three-pence Townshend duty as quiet proof of its taxing authority.

★★★★★ CatastrophicRead the case → Parliament · Law & Order

Parliament fixes one unruly harbour; receives one revolution

The fix: Parliament passed the Boston Port Act, the Massachusetts Government Act, the Administration of Justice Act, and the Quartering Act — collectively designed to strangle Boston's economy, abolish elected Massachusetts self-governance, shield Crown officers from local juries, and billet troops at will, until obedience was restored.

★★★★★ CatastrophicRead the case →

What Wasn’t Broken

We start with the thing that was working fine — boring, dependable, doing its job.

The "Fix"

Then the improvement: bold, expensive, announced with confidence. Usually unrequested.

The Result

And the receipts — what it cost, what broke, and the citations to prove it.

Paper that paid for a war.Fixed into worthlessness.