New ECON/History Resource - MRU's "Inflation in the American Revolution"

I have a short list of new resources I've been waiting to post about - but keeping pushing them back in the "queue". Want to focus on a few of them while I am travelling a lot this month, starting with this one on a new inflation lesson from Marginal Revolution University.

Jay LeBlanc

10/2/20263 min read

I'm going to keep this one pretty simple - introduce the lesson and a few features, then let you explore for yourself. I like lessons like this that combine several possible entry points for different areas of the social studies world. For an economics classroom, you could go into much more detail about the impact of currency depreciation on the larger economy. For American history classes, you could spend less time on the economics and more on the impact it had on supplying Washington's army. And for a general social studies or current events class, it could point out that issues around inflation and debt/interest rates are "nothing new under the sun".

The main lesson plan is depicted as focusing on the rapid devaluation of Continental currency that occurred during the Revolutionary War, using historical price data and estimated conversion rates. One thing they point out (which I rarely see mentioned to students used to set monetary exchange rates available at a moment's notice on the Internet) is that prices would have varied with the successes and failures of each military campaign!

I was thinking of that in particular because another of the new resources I plan to post soon is about the 10 days at the end of 1776 and beginning of 1777 immediately after Washington's crossing of the Delaware on Christmas night - not exactly a time when colonists and businesspersons observing the flow of war would have been confident in the long-term value of Continentals!

Lesson Samples:

As usual, I'm not going into too much detail about the lesson - I want you to go to Marginal Revolution University and look over the activities and links for yourself. I will, however, provide a few screenshots below to "whet your appetite" and convince you it is worth taking a look at.

Let's start with a look at the introduction to the lesson - IF you are using the whole thing I would agree that higher-level HS economics or even AP Macro would be appropriate.

However, as I mentioned earlier you might want to consider just using the first piece of the lesson if you are in a regular-ed ECON class or particularly to integrate into a HS American History class. You might use the first portion screenshotted below, then compare it to a similar activity later in the war...

Depending on how much (or how little) detail you want to get into with a history class, you could follow up with a variety of primary and secondary sources - Marginal Revolution University has provided extensive supporting documentation of their sources and other links.

Links for the lesson and website:

Before I list the relevant links below for this lesson and a few other MRU resources, I want to include one other screenshot. MRU on their Facebook page is offering a small incentive to access this lesson in the form of Continental currency for use in your classroom . . .

Then here are the links to the resources mentioned above:

Marginal Revolution University general website - https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/fashion-outlets-of-chicago-begin-charging-for-parking-at-suburban-mall/3900563/

Facebook post from MRU about their new lesson, "Free Inflation Class Exercise: Revolutionary War Fiat Currency", Sep 2026, https://www.facebook.com/mrevuniversity/posts/teachers-get-our-new-free-class-exercise-on-inflation-in-the-revolutionary-war-u/1919513779386759/

Registration page for Continental currency offer pictured above - http://mru.org/continental

"Class Exercise: Inflation in the American Revolution" (lesson plan link), https://mru.org/teacher-resources/active-learning/class-exercise-inflation-american-revolution