Of course, you can cherry pick centuries to make any point you want, and it is highly suspect to lump together chunks of time that have all kinds of ups and downs within them and lose all historical texture. The 1770s tell a very different tale. Britain imposed ferocious deflation on the North American colonies after the debt build-up of the Seven Years War, triggering a depression that caused penury across the plantations of Virginia and the Eastern seaboard. It poisoned feelings on the eve of the Revolution.