Henry Clay's Lasting Economic Legacy

Henry Clay basically invented the playbook that American politicians still use today to get stuff done,

and it all started because Britain was trying to destroy our economy in 1816. After the War of

1812, British companies flooded America with super cheap goods to crush our

new industries. Clay saw this and proposed something genius called the American System.

First, slap tariffs on British imports to protect American businesses.

Sounds simple, right? But southern farmers freaked out because they thought Britain

would retaliate against their exports. So Clay got creative. He said okay, we'll use all that

tariff money to build roads and canals that help farmers get their products to market.