Thank you George.  

I have found a large amount of economic history discussing the inflation and costs of food stuffs, and your suggested references will be great places to follow up.

Greatly appreciated,
Adam

> Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2013 16:33:36 -0500
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: stone costs and the revolutionary war
> To: [log in to unmask]
> 
> 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
> >