After the American Revolution, barely educated businessman Timothy Dexter bought up worthless Continental currency. The government honored it, making him rich. His rivals then tried to ruin him with terrible advice: ship bed warmers to the tropical West Indies, wool mittens to the Caribbean, coal to Newcastle. Every scheme backfired. The bed warmers were sold as molasses ladles. Asian merchants bought the mittens for export to Siberia. The coal arrived during a miners' strike and sold at a premium. He later wrote a book with no punctuation, and when critics complained, he added a page of loose commas and periods telling readers to "pepper and salt it as they please."