Welcome to the History of the Americans podcast episode 142.

I'm your host, Jack Heneman, and I'm recording this episode on February 11th,

2024.

Happy Mardi Gras, everybody, in New Orleans.

We're telling the history of the lands now encompassed by the United States from the beginning without intentional presentism.

Also, if you're new to the podcast, this episode is a sidebar, which is our term for an episode that's off the sequential timeline of the podcast.

Longstanding and attentive listeners, no doubt will roll their eyes when they see the title of this episode.

Is there anything Jack won't do to mention Sir Francis Drake?

Well, probably. But when confronted with a story that involves both Iowa, the state I grew up in, and Francis Drake, I'm powerless to ignore it.

This is that story.

In 1930, the great English economist John Maynard Keynes wrote a fascinating little essay called

The Economic Possibilities of Our Grandchildren, which is generally worth your time,

linking the show notes, etc. He discusses the astonishing economic growth that had prevailed in

Great Britain since the mid-16th century,

and the impact of that growth over the hundred years still to come after 1930.

Some of his observations were remarkable, and others are perhaps interesting as a reflection

of his notions of a just society, none of which are

important to this episode. Cains did, however, include a couple of paragraphs that long-standing

and attentive listeners at least will appreciate. Quote, the modern age opened, I think,

with the accumulation of capital, which began in the 16th century.

I believe, for reasons with which I must not encumber the present argument, that this was

initially due to the rise of prices, and the profits to which that led, which resulted from

...