The historical context of Benjamin Franklin’s essay “The Way to Wealth” offers contemporary readers meaningful insight into the lives of Franklin’s pre-Revolutionary War audience. The citizens of the 13 British colonies in North America, from 1733 to 1758, once a year, had access to Franklin’s most famous of tracts: Poor Richard’s Almanack. The essay “The Way to Wealth” is just one of many that appeared in Franklin’s annual publication, presented to readers amongst recipes, household tips, and the calendar. During this time in history, almanacs were the most popular secular reading material, and Franklin used his almanac as a way to disseminate important advice and guidance to the North American colonists, all of which contributed the foundation of contemporary American culture as we know it today.

In “The Way to Wealth,” readers will observe ideas that reflect Franklin as a man of the Enlightenment. Franklin valued free thinking and reason, as well as basic moral virtues, which are all Enlightenment modes of interacting with knowledge and experience. All of these values are identifiable in Poor Richard’s aphorisms that preach common sense and logic. As well, Franklin’s subtle critiques of the British government present in his writing foreshadow the pre-Revolutionary War sentiment that eventually led Franklin to join the other Founding Fathers in creating the Declaration of Independence.