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The Colonial Economy. By the late 17th century, the English had expanded their settlements along the Atlantic coast. Victory over the Dutch in the 1660s allowed the English to take control of the colony of New Netherland, which they renamed New York.
Dec 31, 2001 · It is titled "The economy of expanding Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries." Chapters in this volume cover topics like transport and trade; European economic institutions and the new world and chartered companies; and Colonial settlement and its labor problems.
A very different economy emerged in the colonies of New England as families migrated to Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, New Haven, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire to escape pressure to conform to the state-sanctioned ceremonies of the Church of England. The colder northern climate prevented the cultivation of staple crops common in ...
- Overview
- American social and cultural development
- The bid for independence (1763–83)
- Earlier disagreements
Seven of the colonies made an effort in 1754 to devise a plan of closer association. Their governors met at Albany to agree upon a treaty with the Iroquois. Benjamin Franklin, who was present, offered a scheme of colonial union which, if adopted, might have prevented or delayed the American Revolution. It called for a congress with power to negotiate with the Indians, control the public lands, maintain military forces, and collect taxes for common objects.
But though the Albany Congress accepted the scheme, the colonies were too jealous of their separate powers to approve it, while the British government feared that it might unduly increase the strength and independence of the provinces. The 13 colonies were separated by geographical distance and difficulties of travel, by differences of temper, religious thought, and custom, and by provincialism of spirit. Even in the crisis of war with the French they cooperated poorly.
Yet they were united by their common English tongue and its rich literature, by their common experience with representative forms of government, by the English common law, and by a basic similarity of outlook. They all believed in democracy in the sense of a rough equality of opportunity and (after John Locke) the possession by every man of the basic human rights of life, liberty, and property. During the 18th century, barriers between the colonies were steadily reduced. Roads were opened, coastal shipping increased, and intercolonial travel became more common. The newspapers and pamphlets of one province were read widely in others. Restless young men migrated freely, as Franklin moved from Boston to Philadelphia, and Alexander Hamilton from the British West Indies to New York. A post office service was established for British America, with Franklin as postmaster, 1753–55. Businessmen made frequent journeys from colony to colony to promote trade, and, if they were members of a fraternal order such as the Masons or of a special religious body such as the Quakers, found warm welcomes from fellow members. Mechanic groups were much the same in Charleston, New York, or Boston; the lawyers and large landholders of the various colonies held the same views.
Seven different colleges and a large number of private academies were established in the colonies before the Revolution. Harvard was founded in 1636, William and Mary in 1693, Yale in 1701, and King’s College (later Columbia) in 1754. The Great Awakening helped bring about the opening of the institutions which grew into Princeton (1746), Brown (1764), and Dartmouth (1769). At first collegiate studies emphasized the classical languages, mathematics, logic, rhetoric, and astronomy, but later science gained a strong foothold. Some large private libraries were collected, those of William Byrd in Virginia and Cotton Mather in Massachusetts being especially noteworthy.
Not all the books were imported, for American printers began reaching up toward a total of 1,000 titles, chiefly British, a year. Franklin was the most versatile American author, publishing essays, satires, scientific papers, and collections of aphorisms. Historical works of importance were written in the first 60 years of the 18th century by Robert Beverley for Virginia, John Lawson (an expert on Indian life) for North Carolina, and Thomas Prince for New England.
Thirteen colonials obtained the high honour of election to the Royal Society in the 60 years preceding the Revolution; among them were Cotton Mather of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, and Alexander Garden of South Carolina. Arguably Mather’s most important work was the melange of history, biography, religion, and science entitled Magnalia Christi Americana. Jonathan Edwards made an important contribution to philosophy in his treatise Freedom of Will (1754). Botanist John Bartram and astronomer David Rittenhouse, both Pennsylvanians, and the mathematician John Winthrop IV of Harvard all did creditable work.
Seven of the colonies made an effort in 1754 to devise a plan of closer association. Their governors met at Albany to agree upon a treaty with the Iroquois. Benjamin Franklin, who was present, offered a scheme of colonial union which, if adopted, might have prevented or delayed the American Revolution. It called for a congress with power to negotiate with the Indians, control the public lands, maintain military forces, and collect taxes for common objects.
But though the Albany Congress accepted the scheme, the colonies were too jealous of their separate powers to approve it, while the British government feared that it might unduly increase the strength and independence of the provinces. The 13 colonies were separated by geographical distance and difficulties of travel, by differences of temper, religious thought, and custom, and by provincialism of spirit. Even in the crisis of war with the French they cooperated poorly.
Yet they were united by their common English tongue and its rich literature, by their common experience with representative forms of government, by the English common law, and by a basic similarity of outlook. They all believed in democracy in the sense of a rough equality of opportunity and (after John Locke) the possession by every man of the basic human rights of life, liberty, and property. During the 18th century, barriers between the colonies were steadily reduced. Roads were opened, coastal shipping increased, and intercolonial travel became more common. The newspapers and pamphlets of one province were read widely in others. Restless young men migrated freely, as Franklin moved from Boston to Philadelphia, and Alexander Hamilton from the British West Indies to New York. A post office service was established for British America, with Franklin as postmaster, 1753–55. Businessmen made frequent journeys from colony to colony to promote trade, and, if they were members of a fraternal order such as the Masons or of a special religious body such as the Quakers, found warm welcomes from fellow members. Mechanic groups were much the same in Charleston, New York, or Boston; the lawyers and large landholders of the various colonies held the same views.
Seven different colleges and a large number of private academies were established in the colonies before the Revolution. Harvard was founded in 1636, William and Mary in 1693, Yale in 1701, and King’s College (later Columbia) in 1754. The Great Awakening helped bring about the opening of the institutions which grew into Princeton (1746), Brown (1764), and Dartmouth (1769). At first collegiate studies emphasized the classical languages, mathematics, logic, rhetoric, and astronomy, but later science gained a strong foothold. Some large private libraries were collected, those of William Byrd in Virginia and Cotton Mather in Massachusetts being especially noteworthy.
Not all the books were imported, for American printers began reaching up toward a total of 1,000 titles, chiefly British, a year. Franklin was the most versatile American author, publishing essays, satires, scientific papers, and collections of aphorisms. Historical works of importance were written in the first 60 years of the 18th century by Robert Beverley for Virginia, John Lawson (an expert on Indian life) for North Carolina, and Thomas Prince for New England.
Thirteen colonials obtained the high honour of election to the Royal Society in the 60 years preceding the Revolution; among them were Cotton Mather of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, and Alexander Garden of South Carolina. Arguably Mather’s most important work was the melange of history, biography, religion, and science entitled Magnalia Christi Americana. Jonathan Edwards made an important contribution to philosophy in his treatise Freedom of Will (1754). Botanist John Bartram and astronomer David Rittenhouse, both Pennsylvanians, and the mathematician John Winthrop IV of Harvard all did creditable work.
Early in 1763 King George III and his ministers proclaimed the triumphant close of the Seven Years’ War and took the first long steps toward another conflict that would shake the British Empire to its foundations. Fifteen days after the signing of the Treaty of Paris, the secretary at war announced in the House of Commons a ministerial plan to rais...
Relations between Britain and the colonies had not been altogether harmonious before 1763; in fact, there had been so many contests that one may think of them as chronic. The colonists had steadily striven to achieve control of their local affairs and had actually reached that goal in Connecticut and Rhode Island before the end of the 17th century. In the other colonies they had encountered resistance by proprietary and royal governors, councillors, judges, and other officials. They had striven to make the elected lower house of the assembly the dominant force in every colony. In these struggles the lower house had gradually seized the initiative with regard to money bills and then with regard to legislative questions in general. It had also invaded the area of executive authority. In all the colonies it was claimed that for domestic affairs the lower house was the counterpart of the British House of Commons, and such was the case in fact, although in British theory the colonial legislatures were merely municipal bodies. To be sure, parliamentary efforts to confine American commerce and manufacturing had not yet created grave grievances, Parliament had not tried to tax the mainland colonists for revenue, and the Americans had not questioned the control of foreign affairs by crown and Parliament.
It may be argued that Britain entered upon its new colonial policy as early as 1759. In that year the tide of war had shifted strongly in favour of Britain (and its colonies), and British officials therefore acted more vigorously in colonial questions. Evidence of a marked change is to be found in the disallowance by the Privy Council of the Virginia Two-Penny Tobacco Act in August 1759, increasing insistence in London that instructions to royal governors had the force of law; orders from London requiring that new laws changing old ones in Virginia, Massachusetts, and South Carolina should not go into effect until approved by the Privy Council; and demands from the imperial capital that judges in New York and New Jersey hold office during the king’s pleasure rather than during good behaviour.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
A Marxist historian and scholar of English history, Hobsbawm saw an economic crisis in the 17th century that was the final break from the feudal economic system that had been in place for centuries to the capitalistic economy of the Industrial Revolution.
- Aisha Ch
Contributors to this early political flux included a less viable economy and a sparse and gender-imbalanced population resulting in both a small pool from which to choose qualified leaders and a lack of community cohesion.
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Nov 30, 2015 · The 17th century occupies a pivotal place in the history of France between the turbulence of the Wars of Religion and the long calm of the Old Regime. On the one hand, it was a period of political, economic, religious, and social crises.
