After the Paris treaty of 1783, which officially ended hostilities between the newly independent United States and the British Empire, the state of Rhode Island lost its trade routes with the British West Indies, to whom it sold its fish, livestock, clothing and grain. The subsequent trade deficit triggered a currency crisis and the state's farmers struggled to pay their loans. The situation prompted a sudden government change after election in 1786, and when the state's Country Party took office, they managed to print paper money as a mean to sort out the currency crisis, passing a bill which authorized the printing of £100000 worth of currency, thus easing the scarcity but being at odds with the General Assembly's interests.
