At Valley Forge, during George Washington’s military encampment of six to ten thousand soldiers, nearly two thousand men died. Trade disruptions and price controls were the mistaken policies of the nascent republic, consistent with the political philosophy of the times, and were contributing factors to these deaths. Prior to the Revolutionary War, leaders in British America such as George Washington and Benjamin Franklin called for boycotts against the importation of British textiles and other goods, consistent with the philosophy of Mercantilism. The resulting short supply caused rising prices to which the provisional congress then reacted with price controls. Keeping the prices at the lower pre-boycott levels exacerbated the shortages. With limited textiles available, it is easy to guess that wealthy socialites in the port city of Philadelphia would receive this limited supply, rather than the impoverished revolutionaries from the rural “lower classes”. Many of Washington’s rag-tag army died of exposure for lack of uniforms, blankets and tents.
Today, Venezuela is suffering widespread shortages as a result of universal price controls, amongst other things. Iran has a gas shortage. Factions of the political environment in the USA today espouse Mercantilism under its new name: Economic Nationalism. Price controls also remain vastly misunderstood and over used. For example, shortages of generic chemotherapy drugs are becoming severe. The glitter of British entertainments in colonial Philadelphian society and the harshness of the Continental soldiers’ meager existence twenty miles away provide a sharp contrast and yet this sad history contains lessons that remain unlearned.