| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 104.5

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 104.5 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Richard Buel, Jr. In Irons: Britain's Naval Supremacy and the American Revolutionary Economy. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1998. Pp. xi, 397. $35.00.

Unlike the flourishing cottage industry that examines Revolutionary War generals and battles, discussion of the American economy during the War for Independence has remained a murky backwater, and understandably so. British customs records, so helpful in analyzing the colonial economy, tell us little about North American trade during the war years. Battles, blockades, occupation forces, and inflation disrupted normal patterns and seemingly threw the economy into near chaos. Richard Buel, Jr., sheds new light on this turbulent era in a book that has significant strengths and shortcomings. 1

The broad outlines of the story Buel tells are convincing. His tale is one of economic decline and recovery. The war disrupted the economy in 1775. Then conditions worsened each year until 1779, for several reasons: the effectiveness of the British navy, British occupation of the major ports, a shortage of manpower to harvest the crops, much reduced trade with Europe and the West Indies, and a flood of paper money. Recovery began in 1780 and gathered strength in 1781. Underlying this recovery were the influx of specie from France, booming trade with St. Eustatia and Cuba, the decision to repudiate the inflated currency, the establishment of the Bank of North America, and victories that reaffirmed American control over the mainland. Recovery slowed, however, in 1782 because of poor harvests and a tightening British blockade. . . .

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