Unintended Consequences of Trade Distortions and Price Controls: A National Tragedy provides a Teaching Moment
Abstract
The tragedy at Valley Forge during George Washington’s military encampment in the winter of 1777-1778 provides a vivid lesson in economics. Trade disruptions and price controls - mistaken policies of the nascent republic, consistent with the political philosophy of the times - were contributing factors to death of nearly two thousand soldiers camped at Valley Forge. In this paper, we employ a fundamental supply and demand analysis, and then we illustrate a price ceiling and subsequent shortage. The glitter of British entertainments in Philadelphian society and the harshness of the Continental soldiers’ meager existence twenty miles away provide a sharp contrast and sparks the imagination for any student of economics.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
By making research freely available, we help support the greater global exchange of knowledge. There are no article submission or processing charges. Each journal volume is preserved via the Walker Library's three level preservation methods including local and cloud storage. The author(s) retains/retain the copyright to the work, but grants the Journal the right to publish, display, and distribute the work in print and electronic format. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. For more information on this license go to https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0.
