I once read somewhere, don’t know how true it is, the “Tea Party” was not really a simple symbolic act, it was a large amount of Tea thrown into the harbor and represented serious amount of money lost.
In a similar vein, it isn’t widely known but Tobacco helped finance the fledgling economy, one of the few exports that couldn’t be undercut by perfidious Albion. Tobacco, then, deserves a nod towards our ultimate history and place of freedom as a people.
Coffee took off in America was another result of the unpleasantness. Lewis & Clark took 50 pounds of green beans with them on their expedition. Not enough to last very long between the two officers. They weren’t sharing it with the party too often. They wanted their Whiskey ration, I expect.
I’ve heard estimates of between $800K and $1million in modern currency
England had other sources of cotton?