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The economic history of the United States is about characteristics of and important developments in the economy of the U.S., from the colonial era to the present. The emphasis is on productivity and economic performance and how the economy was affected by new technologies, the change of size in economic sectors and the effects of legislation and government policy.
Although the Chesapeake magnates did not invent the slave trade, which by the mid-17th century had existed in the Atlantic basin for generations, their decision to import slaves to work on tobacco farms reoriented the economy and culture of the southern mainland English colonies. Once established, slavery remained a dominant component of the ...
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The U.S. economy is heavily dependent on road transport for moving people and goods. Personal transportation is dominated by automobiles, which operate on a network of four million miles (6.4 million km) of public roads, [340] including one of the world's longest highway systems at 57,000 miles (91,700 km). [341]
- October 1, 2022 – September 30, 2023
- 340,332,281 (August 30, 2023)
The United States population had some semi-unique advantages in that they were former British subjects, had high English literacy skills, for that period, including over 80% in New England, had stable institutions, with some minor American modifications, of courts, laws, right to vote, protection of property rights and in many cases personal ...
- The Role of Charter Companies in The English Colonization of The Us
- Fur Trading
- Supportive Industries
- The Self-Government Movement
- The American Revolution
England's success at colonizing what would become the United States was due in large part to its use of charter companies. Charter companies were groups of stockholders (usually merchants and wealthy landowners) who sought personal economic gain and, perhaps, wanted also to advance England's national goals. While the private sector financed the com...
What early colonial prosperity there was resulted from trapping and trading in furs. In addition, fishing was a primary source of wealth in Massachusetts. But throughout the colonies, people lived primarily on small farms and were self-sufficient. In the few small cities and among the larger plantations of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virgin...
Supportive industries developed as the colonies grew. A variety of specialized sawmills and gristmills appeared. Colonists established shipyards to build fishing fleets and, in time, trading vessels. They also built small iron forges. By the 18th century, regional patterns of development had become clear: the New England coloniesrelied on shipbuild...
By 1770, the North American colonies were ready, both economically and politically, to become part of the emerging self-government movement that had dominated English politics since the time of James I (1603-1625). Disputes developed with England over taxation and other matters; Americans hoped for a modification of English taxes and regulations th...
Like the English political turmoil of the 17th and 18th centuries, the American Revolution(1775-1783) was both political and economic, bolstered by an emerging middle class with a rallying cry of "unalienable rights to life, liberty, and property"—a phrase openly borrowed from English philosopher John Locke's Second Treatise on Civil Government (16...
Americans constantly lamented their lack of civil services, protection (or lack thereof) on the frontier and high seas, and poor roads and infrastructure. 3. The Depression of the 1780s was as bad as the Great Depression. Between 1774 and 1789, the American economy (GDP per capita) shrank by close to 30 percent.
Nevertheless, by the time the Act of Union united Scotland and England under one Parliament in 1707, a workable administrative framework for Anglo-American trade was in place, fostering the growth of a dynamic eighteenth-century empire of goods that benefited both Britain and her North American colonies.
