There are a few things we're all taught to notice about the Declaration of Independence: the famous preamble, the phrase "all men are created equal," the defiantly large signature of John Hancock. But off to the right of Hancock's name is the cramped signature of a man few Americans have ever heard of. His name was Robert Morris, the nation's founding capitalist and the financier of its revolution.
Read the NPR feature webpage here. Download the podcast of this Morning Edition show here. The WSJ also covered the book:
Mr. Rappleye has a gift for explaining the complicated financial and mercantile world of the late 18th century, the milieu in which Robert Morris grew up, thrived and, eventually, went broke. (He died penniless after a stay in debtors' prison, undone during the 1790s in part by the "earliest American real estate bubble," the author notes.) Mr. Rappleye is equally good at explaining the economic forces that battered the new country after independence; America was burdened by debts, and its central government lacked the powers to deal with the financial problems confronting it. Fame is a fickle mistress, and even many students of the period know little more about Robert Morris than the soubriquet given to him by Washington himself: "the financier of the Revolution." Charles Rappleye has done a marvelous job of explaining why this mostly forgotten Founder deserves our gratitude.
Read that WSJ article here. See also:
The Blessed Life: The Simple Secret of Achieving Guaranteed Financial Results
,
Robert Morris: The Financier and the Finances of the American Revolution, Vol. 1
,
Financiers of the American Revolution: Robert Morris
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