Adam,



Your best chance for prices on quarried stone may be find some account
books or invoices from quarries or building contractors.  The Winterthur
Library Downs Archives has one of the best-indexed sets of primary
documents that I have had the pleasure of working with.  I have seen copies
of contracts for the building of structures in the Downs Archives.  My
experience in searching newspapers is that they rarely have price
information.



Prices on other things like wheat and price cycles can be found in a number
of published sources.  During the Great Depression the Rockefellers
provided funding for building price series for a number of cities around
the world in an attempt to understand price cycles and depressions.  David
Hackett Fischer’s book *The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of
History* is a wonderful introduction to this subject.  It is very readable
and has 15 appendices that are as readable as the book.  The bibliography
is an excellent research guide to the literature.  It was published in 1996
by Oxford University Press.



Anne Bezanson, Robert D. Gray and Miriam Hussey have written up Price
history of Pennsylvania.  The first of their volumes is titled *Prices in
Colonial Pennsylvania* that was published by the University of Pennsylvania
Press in 1935.  I do not have the title of the volume that extended the
price series into the National period.



Arthur Harrison Cole’s book *Wholesale Commodity Prices in the United
States 1700-1861* has price summaries for a number of cities.  Harvard
University Press published it in 1938 and reprinted by Johnson Reprint
Corporation in 1969.



There are many studies on the cost of living that you can find using a
Google Book search or other sources.



Historical archaeologists need to spend more time reading economic history.



Peace,

George L. Miller






On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 8:31 AM, [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> Hey Adam,
>
>
>
>   I am sure you probably thought about this, but look at town minutes for
> townships established around that period. You could also search for 18th to
> early 19th century advertisements in some of the newspapers at the NYPL. I
> think they have a colonial papers collection there.
>
>
>
> Hope this is helpful.
>
>
>
> Scott Wieczorek, RPA
>
>
>
>
> Sent from Windows Mail
>
>
> From: adam heinrich
> Sent: February 26, 2013 8:25 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: stone costs and the revolutionary war
>
>
> Hi Histarch community,
> I am wondering if there are any resources that might discuss the costs of
> quarried stone during and after the Revolution in regards to the heavy
> rebuilding needed during recovery.  I am particularly interested in the
> NJ-Hudson River region (famous for the brown sandstone), but other later
> 18th century contexts would be interesting.  There is stuff out there for
> consumable goods such as wheat and other foods which was in high demand due
> to supporting the armies and destruction from occupation.
>
> Thank you, Adam Heinrich
>