How did the American Revolutionary War get funded?
GulfRasta
Posts: 150 ✭✭✭
I have a confession. Well I don't know if you can call it a confession. Maybe revelation is a better term.
The bulk of the hard currency used to fund the American Revolutionary War effort came from Spanish silver and gold. Minted in the New World in places like Mexico City, the metal was taken from the natives and indigenous peoples in conditions that likely didn't treat them fairly.
My 3rd great grandfather was one of the managers of the mint in Mexico City at that time. He was a hero of the American Revolution, and a nobleman of other distinction. He was also a slave trader and otherwise nasty person. He was divorced in the 19th century.
Don Miguel Eslava was ordered by Don Bernardo de Galvez to mint Reales and Escudos and deliver them to Oliver Pollock. Oliver Pollock took these and many other coins he collected and delivered them to the founding fathers.
" In Havana, Saavedra collected the needed five hundred thousand pesos and sent it on the frigate without delay
Five days later, another French ship arrived at Havana to pick up the original one million pesos that came from México. Gálvez, Saavedra, and the other Spanish officials decided not to enter into a discussion about the money already delivered to deGrasse and sent the entire million. Total one million six hundred thousand contributed to the colonists' cause.
It was Galvez's strategy, Saavedra's actions, and the money from México and Cuba provided by Spain, which funded the battle of Yorktown, making victory possible and independence assured.
deGrasse was quick to acknowledge that the victory at Yorktown was only possible thanks to the money that came from Spain.
I will close with a quote from George Washington from a letter to Gouverneur Morris, before Spain joined the war:
"If the Spaniards would but join their Fleets to those of France & commence hostilities, my doubts would all subside – without it, I fear the British Navy has it too much in its power to counteract the schemes of France." "
https://www.dailypress.com/virginiagazette/opinion/va-vg-edit-steinkamp-0701-20170701-story.html
Did this silver start the USA?
Comments
DeGrasse. He his an ancestor of Neil DeGrasse Tyson.