The War Nobody Calls a Banker’s War
Jay’s Treaty, the Debts It Assumed, and the War That Followed
Coming Soon
Jay’s Treaty (1794) as capitulation: the United States assumes pre-Revolutionary private debts owed to British creditors, grants most-favoured-nation status, and accepts arbitration commissions that give British commercial interests standing in American disputes — ratified by exactly the required two-thirds, at a moment when tariffs on British imports funded roughly 90% of the federal budget. Then the War of 1812, which the United States declared, on June 18, 1812. This essay will not argue that the Bank charter’s lapse caused that war — no mainstream historiography of its origins supports it. The documented argument is narrower and it is enough: fighting a war without a national bank was ruinous, and that experience is what produced the Second Bank in 1816.
This essay is forthcoming. It builds on the cognitive scaffolding layers above and the essays that precede it in the series. Check back, or begin with the scaffolding to prepare the ground.
The table is already set. The bread has been warm for a thousand years.