Why did Hamilton believe that wealthy Americans were necessary to secure the nations economic future?

Answer 1

The "United" States had just received its independence via the Treaty of Paris signing on September 3, 1783 with follow-up ratifications through mid-1784. The states were in debt. The nation was in debt to the states because of needs for the war. The nation was in debt to other nations for millions of dollars of borrowed loans. The military didn't get paid...the officers didn't get paid. States were laying tariffs for goods coming in from other states. States were beginning to explore relationships on their own with other countries for commerce advantages, etc. In summary, it was a mess and definitely we were a group of states, not a united States.

When Hamilton became Secretary of the Treasury, he knew that the wealthy would find ways to build further wealth. He came up with an economic program...for many decades called the Hamilton Economic System...that gave incentives to the wealthy to help the united States develop respect with other nations by assuming all the states and national debt. It gave the wealthy increased confidence in getting paid on existing loans and gave them a decent return on their investment.

As a result, the wealthy now were interested in the national government succeeding. This worked so well from 1790 to 1793 that the U.S. bonds were trading at the highest premium above par of all nations bonds. Hamilton created the full faith and credit of the United States out of a dismal situation.

Many of the leaders of the day fought Hamilton on his ideas and maligned them every day. Some of those comments still are used to characterize Alexander Hamilton although he was America's genius that UNITED the States and created the economic system that led us to superpower status decade by decade from then.

Answer 2

why did alexander hamilyion believe the wealthy needed power in there goverment