The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

CLARENCE B. CARSONTHEFOUNDINGOFTHEAMERICANREPUBLIC6The MercantileImpasseWHAT PROVOKED the American coloniststo resist British acts, torebel against restrictions placedupon them, and eventually to declareand effect their independence?To put the· matter in moreconventional terms: What causedthe American· revolution?Men who have spent years studyingthe questions propound differentanswers. Some hold thatthe British mercantile system providedthe provocation to revolt.Others have held that the Americancolonists benefited from mercantilismand that, this being so,mercantilism was hardly at theroot of the difficulty. Anotherthesis that has been argued, mostpersuasively by Lawrence HenryGipson, is that the American colonieshad attained a level of maturitythat made them no longerdependent upon Britain and nolonger desirous of the connection.Some historians have gone so faras to charge that American debtorswith the desire to rid themselvesof pressing British creditorsstirred up resistance andbrought off a revolution. Thoselooking for a class struggle explanationof the conflict have tried tomake the revolt against Britain apart of an internal struggle be-Dr. Carson lives in Florida. He is a noted lecturerand author, his latest book entitledThrottling the Railroads.42