Hello and welcome to a history of the United States.

Episode 154. It's a post-war depression, stupid.

Last time out, we set the stage for the critical period by introducing the Articles of Confederation

and exploring how they were likely to cause problems for the fledgling United States.

Today, we need to start to turn to the wider situation

facing the United States that will transform the debate around the Articles of Confederation

from semantics into national crisis, and there's only one place for it to start. It's the

economy, stupid. Post-war depressions are a

phenomena that are very easy to observe. There is an article in volume 13, number five, of the

American Economic Review by Willard L. Thorpe about post-war depressions that actually opens

with this quote from John Adams. Quote,

I am old enough to remember the war of 1745 and its end, the war of 1755 and its close,

the war of 1775 and its termination, the war of 1812 and its pacification. Every one of these wars has been followed by a general

distress, embarrassments of commerce, destruction of manufacturers, and the fall of the price of produce

and lands. It's not just American wars. The Napoleonic Wars and the Franco-Prussian War would have had the same effect in Europe in the 18th century to see nothing of the effect of a world war.

Throughout his article, Thorpe explains the basic mechanics of how and why a post-war depression happens, quite simply.

When a conflict breaks out, the economy reorganises

to handle it. Firstly, there is a massive new consumer, the state, which requires war materials.

Second, business is adjust to produce war materials. Thirdly, there is a reduction in the number of workers

as the state needs combatants. Historically, this has resulted in new forces being pulled

into the labour market, namely large numbers of women. Women's entry into the labour market

is most frequently discussed around World War I,

...