PRICES: Higher, Ever Higher

In Philadelphia, the price of beef has exploded—up 114 percent in only three months, from £3 10 shillings to £7 10 shillings in Pennsylvania currency per barrel. New Yorkers are buying refined sugar at exactly double the cost of three months ago (1 shilling 3 pence, v. 2 shillings 6 pence per pound). And tavern keepers throughout the Colonies are bitterly protesting the intoxicated prices of West Indian rum, now running as much as 110 percent higher than last whiter. Even the humble pin is no longer humble in cost. A woman...

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