The Founding Father Who Got Rich in the Revolution

About this episode

The episode explores Robert Morris's role in financing the American Revolution and his subsequent rise and fall in wealth.

Two-hundred-and-fifty years ago George Washington was fighting the Revolutionary War against the British, but Robert Morris doing something just as vital. He was raising money for the fighting and buying the gunpowder, tents, food and uniforms Washington's army needed.  Morris had been a merchant before the revolution, so didn't see why he shouldn't personally profit from his work supplying the colonists' struggle. He emerged from the war as a rich man and owned huge tracts of land. But the turbulent final years of the 18th Century saw Morris go first into substantial debt and then fall into utter ruin.      Write to us at  businesshistory@pushkin.fm See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Topics covered

• American Revolution
• finance
• entrepreneurship
• historical figures
• debt
• wealth

Keywords

• Robert Morris
• George Washington
• Revolutionary War
• finance
• debt
• wealth
• American history

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Pushkin Industries

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