Students will need a color pencil to complete this bar graph.  Green works well.  Point out to students that on this graph, each of the small marks represents $.10 or ten cents.  The figure for 1781 is $.07 or seven cents, so the last bar will be very short. 

What the Chart Shows

   This graph shows the rapid drop in the value of paper money printed during the Revolution.  Since the Continental Congress had no easy way to collect taxes during the Revolution, it resorted to printing paper money in large quantities.  It is a well-understood principle of economics that when too much money is put into circulation, the value of the money falls. 
   (Saying that the value of the money is falling is the same as saying that prices are rising.  The term for rising prices is inflation.)
    The picture shows several examples of the American money printed and used during the Revolution.  These bills claim that they can be exchanged for Spanish Silver Dollars.  Unfortunately, the Continental Congress did not have the silver to make good on the note's promise during the Revolution.  (They did pay later.)

   Students will need a color pencil to complete this bar graph.  Green works well.  Point out to students that each of the small marks on this graph represents 100,000 Pounds Sterling.  The figure for 1778 is 17,694 Pounds Sterling.  As a result, the last bar will be very short.

What the Chart Shows

   This graph shows the rapid drop in exports from the U.S. as the Revolution began.  The British, of course, controlled the seas, and it was simply too risky for Americans to attempt sending out merchant ships in any great numbers. 
   The picture shows a sailing ship at a dock.  Some of the American merchant ships were outfitted with guns and sent out as privateers during the war.  A privateer is a privately owned vessel that is authorized to fight against enemy ships.  The "pay" for the ship owner, captain, and crew consisted of whatever they could capture on the high seas from the enemy.
 
 

   What groups would have been hurt...

   Many groups in both America and in Great Britain would have been hurt by the trends shown on these two pages. 
   As the American paper money fell in value, people holding the money lost that value.  Someone selling four or five horses, for example, might find that months later the money they got in the deal could not buy even one horse. 

   The money paid to a farmer for corn or wheat at harvest time might be worth only a fraction of that value the next spring.

   The drop in exports hit plantations growing tobacco, indigo, and other non-food crops especially hard.  Merchants on both sides of the Atlantic saw their trade disappear.  Port cities like Boston had many tradesmen, such as rope makers and sail makers, whose trade depended on the export trade.