The Magick Money Man: Robert Morris and the Price of American Independence

Robert Morris, Jr. was America's richest man in 1776. The stroke of his pen sent waves of currencies bounding over oceans, lapping every shore, spilling in and out of vaults, enriching merchants, planters, friends, family-and above all Robert Morris himself. His money bought and sold gold, silver, tea, tobacco, grain, iron ore, timber, cotton, silks and satin, silverware, china, foodstuffs, fine wines, furniture, cannons, cannon balls, rifles, slaves, and land-millions of acres of land. His most important investment, however, was an investment to ensure America's political end economic independence. In financing George Washington's Continental Army in the American War of Independence. Morris proved himself a daring American patriot as well as a daring American capitalist, risking his life with fifty-five other intrepid Founding Fathers who signed the Declaration of Independence-a treasonous act in British America, punishable by death. Morris then risked his business, his fleet of 250+ ships, his three palatial homes, and his personal fortune to purchase and smuggle military supplies for and pay the troops in Washington's army and free America's thirteen colonies from British rule. One of only two signers of America's three founding documents (the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and Constitution of the United States) Robert Morris rose from abject poverty to the pinnacle of success, wealth, and political and economic power among the greatest leaders of the land. Inventor of modern capitalism, he serves as a model for every young American to this day.