Comment on Winds of Change "The Gift That Keeps On Giving"

#33 from Lifeofthemind at 12:53 am on Jul 06, 2008
George III was the best of a bad family. The English actually liked "Farmer George" and were puzzled by the colonists rebellion. After all he spoke English; a welcome change from the German speakers before him. Did the Brits have a case about the colonists paying for their own protection after the French and Indian Wars? Maybe but they sure did a poor job of making the case. Without an American Revolution the possible course of events such as the French Revolution, Parliamentary Reform in Britain and all subsequent interactions are simply to complicated to make intelligent guesses on.

One of the best bits in Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" is his predicting that if peace is restored with the colonies and they get parliamentary representation proportional to their contributions to the Exchequer (this was long before one man one vote) then in 100 years the capital of the British Empire would move to Philadelphia. Look it up.