Business of Innovation

CHAPTER TWO

THE MIRACLE OF SYSTEMS

SPARSE SNOWFLAKES COASTED ON THE sharp wind of a December 16 evening. The familiar seaport odor hung in the air, commingled with the wood smoke of a thousand fireplaces, night soil, and garbage. The waterfront was a hard place, and it was cold. But the men who crowded Boston’s Congress Street were not cold. They were heated, loud, and single-minded. These passionate but responsible men would not be swayed from their purpose. A full-blown protest was under way, and the fire showed no sign of burning out soon.

Taxes were as polarizing a topic in 1773 as they are today—more so, even—but in Colonial America, no avenues remained for peaceful disagreement. The citizens of Boston represented the extremes of colonial ...