On a small, but important point: 1781 is not post-revolutionary.  What we
see here is war-time inflation.  But note also the dates in the original
posting: January/February 1781 in Virginia was a crisis time with a major
British invasion to contend with.  State resources were stretched thin by
demands from the Continentals, the State, and the counties for manpower,
provisions, and other supplies.  If some of these valuations seem high,
it might not just be inflation; there may also be a bit of market forces
going on: supply-demand -- if the government needs scarce goods, then
they pay top dollar to get them.  Certainly bounties for soldiers kept
rising through the war.

David Kiracofe
College of Charleston

 On Thu, 17 Jan 2002 14:13:19 -0500 (EST) [log in to unmask] wrote:

> <<And £555 sure sounds like a lot of "necessaries" - unless I'm
> mis-interpreting the meaning of "pounds", or Virginia was
> experiencing some
> serious wartime inflation at this point.>>
>
>
> There seems to have been an inflationary reaction after the Revolutionary
> War.
>
> An ancestor of mine, Thomas Joyce, died in Charlotte County in 1781.
> He also
> owned land in North Carolina.  His estate in Charlotte County VA was
> evaluated at 37,100 lbs 10 shils. sterling.  One of the appraisals in
> North
> Carolina (Guilford County) was evaluated at 33,450 lbs.12 shils. 6 pense
> sterling.  These evaluations included 19 slaves; but that doesn't
> account for
> the appraisal value.  I assumed that I miscopied the amount,  but
> twice . . .
> . . ?  And the evaluations coming from two different places?  Checked it
> again, and found that it was copied correctly.
>
> Then I remembered reading the Revolutionary War Pension of Nicholas
> Taliaferro some years ago.  He commented on the inflation immediately
> after
> the war, recalling when he was making his way back to Virginia from South
> Carolina, he had to pay 40 lbs. St. for a bushel of wheat.
>
> Someone could do an interesting study of post-Revolutionary War
> inflation.
>
> An interesting aside . . . .  I also found a letter with envelope
> addressed
> to Nicholas Taliaferro in the files of the Virginia Historical Society in
> Richmond.  The address was:
>
> Nic'las Talilaferro
> Tottem-Down-Hill
> Rappahannock River
>
> He recieved this letter around the 1800 time period  -  don't recall the
> exact date.  His home in Culpeper was named Tottem-Down-Hill.  He
> produced
> his crop or skill at the top of the hill, then toted it down.
>
>
> Joyce Browning
> Fairfax County, Virginia
>
> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
> at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html



David Kiracofe

To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html