STRAWMAN ACCEPTED FOR VALUE

The real rebellion of the American colonists in 1776, according to Benjamin
Franklin, was against a foreign master who forbade the colonists from issuing their own money and required that taxes be paid in gold. The colonists, not having any gold, had to borrow gold-backed banknotes from the British bankers. The catch
was that the notes were created on the "fractional reserve" system, allowing the
bankers to issue up to ten times as many notes as they actually had in real gold,
essentially creating them out of thin air just as the colonists were doing with their
money. The result was not only to lock the colonists into debt to foreign bankers
but to propel the nation into a crippling depression. The colonists finally rebelled
and reverted to issuing their own currency. Funding a revolution against a major
world power with money they printed themselves, they succeeded in defeating
their foreign oppressors and winning their independence.

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