The patchwork and shifting nature of agriculture in the colonies required some serious logistical ballet. Most local food distribution occurred via coastal maritime traffic; it was the cheapest and most effective means of moving goods among largely coastal colonial population centers. When the revolution arrived in 1775, things got decidedly animated, as the Americans’ colonial overlord controlled the world’s most powerful navy. Many colonial Americans went hungry for six long years. The American Revolution may have been successful in the end, but the economics of the new nation was, in a
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