when imposed by parliament,
including legal papers and glass windows. The difference was the
necessity or war and the source of the tax laws--the people's own elected
representatives.

Taxes, alone, however have never financed a major war. As in the French
and Indian War, Virginia issued paper money and floated state loans.
Between 1776-1780 the state debt reached L26,000,000 and in the following
two years nearly doubled. By 1779 loans and taxes were not enough and the
assembly levied taxes on commodities as well as currency. Taxpayers had
to make payments in grain, hemp, or tobacco rather than inflated paper
money alone. Inflation set in. By 1780 coffee, when you could get it,
sold for $20 per pound, shoes were $60 per pair, and better grades of
cloth were bringing $200 a yard. The exchange rate of Virginia money to
hard coins (specie) was 10-1 in 1778, 60-1 in early 1780, and then
spiraled upwards to 150-1 in April 1780, 350-1 in July, and was going out
of sight as Cornwallis' army ravaged the state. It never reached the
ratio of 1,000-1 as did the Continental Congress currency, but the phrase
"not worth a Continental" might equally have applied to Virginia money.
Few of those who served Virginia and the new nation, whether as officers,
footsoldiers, governors, judges, or clerks, did so without suffering
substantial financial losses. In many cases they were never reimbursed
even for actual expenses.[40] Unfortunately there were many who reaped
profits by exploiting the situation.

[40] For a good description of the economic impact of the war on
one dedicated Virginian, read Emory Evans' Thomas Nelson of
Yorktown: Virginia Revolutionary (University Press,
Charlottesville, 1975), 65-123.

There also were thousands who moved across the mountains to new lands in
the Valley, southwestern Virginia, and Kentucky. In fact, Virginia had to
head off an attempt by North Carolinians, headed by Richard Henderson, to
detach Kentucky from Virginia. The state had to watch attempts by other
states to claim Virginia lands in the Ohio country. To forestall these
attempts Virginia took two steps. In 1776 the Assembly divided Fincastle
County into three counties--Kentucky, Montgomery, and Washington and
established local governments there; and she agreed to ratify the new
Articles of Confederation only upon the condition that all other states
agree to give up their claims to the Ohio country and that all new stat