Colonial Economies

Colonial Economies

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Overview

• The Puritans settled in New England while other English colonies took root in Virginia.
• The Middle Atlantic region and the South were settled next.
• Those regions posed the same challenges found in other areas. However, the environments shaped them in different ways.
• These new colonies developed their own unique regional cultures.

Regional Colonial Economies

• Each colony's resources, geography, and climate shaped its economy.
• Among colonial Americans, the most common occupation was farmer, but not all regions were suitable for large-scale agriculture

Triangular Trade

• The colonial economies were part of an system called the triangular trade. This three-legged trade route linked the Americas, Europe, and Africa.
• Traders moved raw materials, goods, and slaves across the Atlantic Ocean between these points.
• Triangular trade helped colonial industry prosper. Traders brought sugar, molasses, coffee, and rice from Caribbean plantations to the colonies.
• They exchanged these commodities for colonial goods like textiles, rum, cash crops, and firearms.
• Traders brought colonial wealth to Britain then took British-produced goods to West Africa. In West Africa, traders exchanged these goods for slaves.

• The slave traders delivered the slaves to the Caribbean and the colonies. The slaves labored on the plantations raising cash crops like sugar. The cycle began again.

Impact of the Triangular Trade

• The triangular trade supported an network of economies. More trade meant more demand for American-made ships.
• Colonial artisans turned cheap, imported raw materials into profitable exports. The booming colonial economy enriched the Crown.
• In return, Britain exported manufactured goods to the Americas.

Capitalism and Free Market Economics

• Adam Smith was an 18th-century Scottish philosopher who studied economic systems. His 1776 book The Wealth of Nations has influenced economic theory to the present day.
• In it, Smith described economic principles like supply and demand. He observed how human feelings affected economic choices.
• Smith promoted a free market economy. He thought an economy without government restrictions could benefit both the buyer and the seller.
• The colonies adopted Smith's free market system. Private ownership of businesses and property benefited the colonial economy.

Indentured Servants and Slaves

• The first Virginia planters used indentured servants to grow their tobacco.

• In 1676, Nathaniel Bacon led a violent uprising of unemployed indentured servants. Bacon’s rebels set fire to Jamestown.
• Militias put down Bacon's Rebellion but, afterward, planters distrusted indentured servants.
• Slaves were a labor force the planters could more easily control. Soon the southern economies depended on slave labor.

• Many planters were British gentlemen who dreamed of living like European nobles.
• Planters used their wealth and influence to gain political positions, wielding power over decisions important to the South's economy.

Women in the Southern Economy

• Protestant laborers outnumbered the Catholics in Maryland.
• Calvert's sons responded with the 1649 Maryland Toleration Act.
• England needed to guard Carolina's cash crops from the Spanish in Florida.
• He brought in people who had been released from English debtors' prisons to settle the new colony.
• Its first city, Savannah, would become an important port in the colony.
• Despite their differences, the colonies would work together for a great cause during the American Revolution.