You might not think of New Jersey as cowboy country, but livestock was a big deal. Farmers raised pigs, cattle, and sheep. They’d drive them—on foot—to markets in New York and Philadelphia. Picture a traffic jam, but smellier and with more mooing.
Horses were a specialty too. The colony bred solid workhorses, not fancy show ponies. These were the pickup trucks of their day. Reliable, strong, and worth good money to city folks who needed to haul stuff.
New Jersey Colonial Currency December 31st, 1763 3 Shillings (3s)...
And don’t forget the pigs. They’d let them roam the woods, fattening up on acorns, then round them up for slaughter. It was the original self-service dinner. The land fed them, and the people turned that into cash.
Ships, Wharves, and a Little Smuggling
Because the colony sat on a coast with deep rivers, shipbuilding became a natural gig. Towns like Perth Amboy and Burlington had shipyards cranking out sloops and schooners. These were the SUVs of the seas—built to carry cargo and handle rough waters.
Here’s the fun part: not all that cargo was, uh, strictly legal. New Jerseyans weren’t above a little smuggling. They’d avoid British taxes by trading rum, molasses, and tea on the down-low. Think of it as the original “buy it from a guy down the street” mentality.
Look, nobody’s saying they were saints. But when you’re a small colony sandwiched between big players, you get resourceful. They learned to bend the rules without breaking them completely, and that kept bread on the table.
Benjamin Franklin’s Paper Money - RelicRecord
