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Conceived in Liberty Companion · Volume IV, chapter 67 · 19 May 1777

Their own price for tea

In a country store a crowd of women in caps and aprons holds out bags and baskets round a counter where two soldiers weigh tea from an open chest and stack a few coins, watched by a pale woman behind the counter.
Wappingers Creek, New York, May 1777. About two dozen women and two soldiers crowd into Peter Messier’s store, weigh out his tea, and leave whatever they call a fair price on the counter. Rothbard offers Messier as a case of price controls enforced by neighbors, soldiers and committees, who came back to search his house and beat his servants. Chapter 67 of Conceived in Liberty.

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Adapted from Murray N. Rothbard, Conceived in Liberty (Mises Institute, 2011), CC BY 3.0.

The story, from several sources

This account blends Rothbard’s chapter with the other sources listed below and has not yet been separated into Rothbard’s own account and the fuller story. Read Rothbard’s chapter 67 for his account.

Peter Messier was a New York City merchant with Loyalist leanings who fled the war and bought a stone house and 420 acres on Wappingers Creek, near Poughkeepsie, in May 1777. He opened a small store in the house and set his own price on tea. His neighbors set another. On Monday, May 19, about two dozen women came in with two soldiers, weighed out a very large amount of tea and left what they thought fair, a good deal less than he asked. Messier’s wife kept the counter that day. On the 20th a soldier seized Messier by the throat when he demanded payment before weighing. On the 22nd a crowd of fourteen men and twenty women broke in, searched every room in the committee’s name, smashed his wine casks and beat him and his servants. Rothbard tells it as one case of the zeal with which local officials and committees enforced price controls in the years of paper money. The provincial congress itself disapproved of the seizures. In a free country, it said, no man ought to be divested of his property, but by his own consent or the law of the land.

Where the record differs from Rothbard

Errata notes. Rothbard’s text and his account above are left as he wrote them. Every erratum.

Conceived in Liberty, p. 1490
Rothbard says Messier, ‘a tea merchant from New York’, had his home invaded in May 1777 ‘by a party led by two soldiers’ who took tea at a price they called fair.
The evidence The first visit, on Monday 19 May 1777, was at his new store in his house on Wappingers Creek, Dutchess County, near Poughkeepsie: about two dozen women with two militiamen (Smith counts 22 women and three Continental soldiers), with Mrs. Mesier keeping the shop. The throat-grab came on the 20th and the break-in and beating of Mesier and his servants on the 22nd. Read in summaries of the Wappingers Historical Society and Barbara Clark Smith; his deposition of 23 May 1777 was not opened.
Source the sources named in the evidence column

Sources

  1. Murray N. Rothbard, Conceived in Liberty (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, 2011 single-volume ed.), vol. IV, ch. 67, ‘Inflationary Finance and Price Controls’, pp. 1487-1497, esp. p. 1490. CC BY 3.0. Rothbard
  2. Wappingers Historical Society, ‘Mesier Family’ (accessed 2026-10-02, through a fetch summary): the tea visits of 19, 20 and 22 May 1777, the groups’ sizes, the militiaman seizing Mesier by the throat, the break-in and the beating of Mesier and his servants. The page was read as a summary, not in full. Secondary source
  3. Wappingers Historical Society, ‘History of the Mesier Homestead’ (accessed 2026-10-02): a small stone house of 1741 enlarged by Nicholas Brower; Peter Mesier, a New York City merchant with Loyalist sympathies, bought it with 420 acres in May 1777 and opened a small store. Secondary source
  4. The Liberty Trail, ‘Mesier Homestead and Museum’ (accessed 2026-10-02): built about 1741 along Wappingers Creek; Mesier opened a small store in the house; over three days in May 1777 tensions rose to attacks on the house, its property and its servants. Secondary source
  5. Barbara Clark Smith, ‘Food Rioters and the American Revolution’ (accessed 2026-10-02 on libcom.org, through a fetch summary and search results): crowds ‘mostly women’ at Peter Messier’s shop outside Poughkeepsie, the seizures at their own price, the beating of his servants, the Committee, and the provincial congress’s disapproval (‘In a free country, no man ought to be divested of his property, but by his own consent or the law of the land’); the same article counts 22 women and three Continental soldiers on the first visit and cites Messier’s deposition of 23 May 1777 in the Minutes of the Committee for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies. Secondary source
  6. Era registry entry revolutionary-war-1776-1778 and place entry mesier-store-wappingers-1777 (data/cil/registry/), dress, arms and the shop; their own sources are listed in their notes. Secondary source