Two hundred fifty years ago, the Continental Congress dispatched an enterprising Connecticut merchant named Silas Deane on a covert mission to France. His orders were simple: secure gunpowder.
It was a longstanding need. For decades, Parliament had kept colonial industry under its boot. The Iron Act of 1750 compelled the colonies to ship their raw iron to Britain and prohibited the construction of furnaces and forges that would have made America industrially self-sufficient. When war severed the lifeline to British supply, there was a single working powder mill in all 13 colonies.
Upon assuming command of the Continental Army, General George Washington discovered there were only 90 barrels of gunpowder available, enough for about 10 minutes of firing. An eyewitness reported that Washington was so horrified he did not utter a word for half an hour. Thus, in February of 1776, Massachusetts delegate John Adams introduced resolutions directing every colony to “forthwith erect Powder Mills.” Adams leveraged the admittedly limited power of the fledgling Continental Congress to make that happen, sensing no contradiction between the liberty the colonies espoused and a proactive government engaging in order to defend it.
What the Founders did to secure gunpowder ought to humble anyone who believes American intervention on behalf of strategic industry is a modern invention. It also happens to be a surprisingly prescient playbook.
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