Brooke Hunter

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Brooke Hunter | Wheat, War, and the American Economy during the Age of Revolution | The William and Mary Quarterly, 62.3 | The History Cooperative

Wheat, War, and the American Economy during the Age of Revolution

WHEN war broke out in Europe in 1793 over the French Revolution, Americans devised a simple plan: stay neutral and trade. "Our object is to feed and theirs to fight," pronounced Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, adding, "we have only to pray their souldiers may eat a great deal." Recent history proved that warring European empires made American foodstuffs precious and that good policy dictated that European powers suspend their restrictive commercial policies and open their ports to American commerce. Stephen Hollingsworth spoke for most residents of the mid-Atlantic region, America's grain and flour production center, when he wrote, "If blood must be let, I hope it may be confined to their own quarter of the globe, and let America be industrious and aid the heated nations with provision as much as in us lays." The region's farmers, millers, and traders expected this new war to increase profits because past experiences had proved that, when it came to feeding armies, "necessity knows no law." Though many regretted the war as "friends of humanity," most celebrated it in "the interest of the United States."¹	1
Unlike in most parts of America, the mid-Atlantic region's economy was thriving even before war broke out in 1793. The grain trade furnishes evidence that the 1780s were not the economic abyss historians have often described. The average annual volume of wheat and flour exports increased 50 percent between 1768–72 and 1790–92. Traders not only exported larger quantities but also earned higher profits as the value of wheat and flour exports more than doubled in this period. Overall, higher wheat and flour prices abroad during the 1780s created better terms of trade for Americans. The rising income from the grain trade helped to offset American dependence on foreign imports and improved the balance of trade. By 1790 flour had overtaken tobacco as the nation's chief export, leading Tench Coxe to declare flour as the most valuable "article of American commerce."² Though cotton would quickly replace flour as America's top export commodity, wheat and flour together served as a cornerstone of America's newly independent transatlantic commerce.	2
In 1793 the United States stood to profit from Europe's latest imperial war in two ways: by provisioning wheat, flour, and other foodstuffs to Europe's massive armies and dislocated civilians and by offering neutral shipping services for the warring nations. The former activity represented a continuation and expansion of patterns established in previous wars, whereas the latter role was a new one for Americans since winning their independence. Historians have focused mostly on the novel experience of shipping—and its profitability for American traders—during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.³ As a result scholarship of the era has set sail, measuring trade volumes and values and charting the waves of transatlantic commerce. This trend has only increased in the wake of the popularity of Atlantic world studies. Only by returning to shore and getting back to business as usual, however, can scholars fully understand the connection between war and American economic development during the age of revolution.	3
Changing international markets played an important part in this story, but such forces should not be given too much weight. Individual actions and events at home were just as important and influential. Recovery in the 1780s meant that mid-Atlantic grain farmers, millers, and traders were well positioned to seize the opportunities created by the outbreak of another war in Europe. The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars accelerated economic developments already underway, including the adoption of new milling technologies and regional specialization. Though these innovations were specific to the mid-Atlantic region, they held larger significance because flour was the major staple of the American economy.	. . .

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