Ben Franklin said that among the root causes of the American Revolution were the loss of the ability to print their own money and restrictions on gold and silver.
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In The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803? (1813); when questioned why Parliament had lost respect among the people of the Colonies, he answered: “To a concurrence of causes: the restraints lately laid on their trade, by which the bringing of foreign gold and silver into the Colonies was prevented; the prohibition of making paper money among themselves, and then demanding a new and heavy tax by stamps; taking away, at the same time, trials by juries, and refusing to receive and hear their humble petitions”.’ Examination before the Committee of the Whole of the House of Commons Thu, Feb 13, 1766

Quote

The colonies would gladly have borne the little tax on tea and other matters had it not been that England took away from the colonies their money, which created unemployment and dissatisfaction. The inability of colonists to get power to issue their own money permanently out of the hands of George the III and the international bankers was the PRIME reason for the Revolutionary War.

Widely quoted statement on the reasons for the American War of Independence sometimes cited as being from Franklin’s autobiography, but this statement was never in any edition.

Variant:

The colonies would gladly have borne the little tax on tea and other matters had it not been that England and the Rothschild’s Bank took away from the colonies their money which created unemployment, dissatisfaction and debt.

Variants from various small publications from the 1940s:

The refusal of King George to allow the colonies to operate an honest money system, which freed the ordinary man from clutches of the money manipulators was probably the prime cause of the revolution.

The refusal of King George to allow the Colonies to operate on an honest Colonial system, which freed the ordinary man from the clutches of the money manipulators, was probably the prime cause of the revolution.

The refusal of King George to allow the colonies to operate on an honest, colonial money system, which freed the ordinary man from the clutches of the money manipulators, was probably the prime cause of the revolution.

Some of the statement might be derived from those made during his examination by the British Parliament in February 1766, published in “The Examination of Benjamin Franklin” in The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803? (1813); when questioned why Parliament had lost respect among the people of the Colonies, he answered: “To a concurrence of causes: the restraints lately laid on their trade, by which the bringing of foreign gold and silver into the Colonies was prevented; the prohibition of making paper money among themselves, and then demanding a new and heavy tax by stamps; taking away, at the same time, trials by juries, and refusing to receive and hear their humble petitions”.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=93511.0;wap2

Currency Act

The Currency Act is the name of several Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain that regulated paper money issued by the colonies of British America. The Acts sought to protect British merchants and creditors from being paid in depreciated colonial currency.^{[citation needed]} The policy created tension between the colonies and Great Britain, and was cited as a grievance by colonists early in the American Revolution.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency_Act

This is when you may know that your society is doomed

When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing—when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors—when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you—when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice—you may know that your society is doomed. – Ayn Rand; Atlas Shrugged, 1957

Pretty strong words… the last four, in particular.

Ayn Rand knew whereof she spoke. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1905, she became politically conscious while still a child and did not favour the existing concept of constitutional monarchy. So, it would not have been surprising if, when the Russian revolution broke out when she was twelve, she bought into the proselytising of Vladimir Lenin, as so many did at that time.

Instead, she quickly surmised that the Bolsheviks' claim to improve life for the average man was, in reality, a plan to diminish the quality of life for all of the people. In doing so, the Bolsheviks confiscated her father's business and displaced her family. At one point they were nearly starving, but in 1925, she received permission to emigrate to the US. (She later attempted to get her parents and sisters out, but it proved to be too late.)

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-11-24/rand-ian-writing-wall

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