CHAPTER X THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLONIES If the seventeenth century was the time of colonial settlementmaking, the eighteenth was primarily one of colonial growth and expansion, and in no direction was development more in evidence than in economic life and interests. The extent of this growth is revealed in the census reports. Incomplete and inaccurate though they were, they set forth the broad outlines of the story. The following tabulation gives the approximate figures: By themselves statistics are not especially illuminating, but when they are interpreted in terms of life they take on vivid significance. This extraordinary increase meant thousands of new farms and plantations, hundreds of fishing boats, thousands of ships. It meant the occupation of hitherto virgin territory, the substitution of herds of cattle and flocks of sheep for deer and wolves, and of the settled farmer for the Indian; it meant new villages, new towns, new churches, and new schools. In the older sections it meant the disappearance of the frontier, and the introduction of a modified form of European civilization. It lays bare the very foundations of colonial history, for without this growth there would have been little to record. For the first sixty or seventy years after the founding of Jamestown, the economic life of all the colonies was primarily agricultural, although commercial development began early. The volume of trade increased steadily, and long before 1765 it had become one of the great interests in British America. In tracing out the various steps in the economic evolution of the colonies, it is somewhat easier to begin with those at the south, with their relatively simpler interests, and then take up the more highly diversified activities in the middle and northern groups. SOUTH CAROLINA In South Carolina the early settlers found profit, or at least sought for it, in raising Indian corn, hogs, and cattle. It was not long before they began to appreciate the value of their timber resources, and to their farm produce they soon added the products and by-products of the forests: lumber, tar, and turpentine. These commodities could be turned into money in various ways. With fair regularity the Charleston dealers found an opportunity to furnish provisions for coasting vessels plying up and down the seaboard, or between the continent and the West Indies. Less frequently, but often enough to deserve mention, they did the same thing for pirate vessels, then altogether too common in Atlantic and West Indian waters. In the West Indies they found a dependable market for their salt beef and pork, corn, and also for their tar and lumber. The South Carolinians owned practically no ships, so their exports were carried largely in English vessels. These in turn brought to the colony imports from England. South Carolina did not become prosperous until rice culture was introduced. It was first grown there about 1690, and the experimenters soon realized that the low lands along the coast were peculiarly favorable for the successful development of the crop. It became profitable almost from the start, so much so that the planters sometimes trebled their capital every three years. In 1700 the colony exported a few hundred barrels of the new grain, and from that time on the trade enjoyed a typical and durable boom. The table gives the figures for the increase, in round numbers. It should be noted that between 1740 and 1750 the size of the barrel was enlarged so there was an increase in the quantity exported, in spite of the marked decrease in the number of barrels. The larger barrel was used from that time on. Again, as with the census reports, it is necessary to consider these figures in the light of what they meant to the colony, in more plantations, more laborers, and especially more profits for the planters. As their incomes increased, they bought more and more heavily of English manufactured goods, so the growing rice trade added to the volume of business in various parts of the empire. Moreover, after 1742, South Carolina found another valuable money crop in indigo, and in 1772 the colony exported over a million pounds. Perhaps the most obvious result of the profitable rice and indigo trade was the growth of Charleston, the only flourishing commercial city of the South. Here the wealthy planters had their town houses, well furnished according to English standards, and well stocked with European wine. By 1750, Charleston had lost its primitive frontier aspects, and had become a center of aristocracy and culture. In 1705, the British government had tried the experiment of adding rice to the list of enumerated commodities. This attempt to restrict the market to England nearly ruined the trade, so the limitation was soon removed. That left the planters free to sell their product to the ports of Southern Europe, where they found a regular market until the Revolution. THE TOBACCO COLONIES The economic interests of North Carolina and Maryland were so much like those of Virginia that the three formed really a single unit. They were all agricultural colonies, and they were all interested primarily in tobacco. In 1649 Virginia alone exported a million and a half pounds, while in 1753, she exported nearly fifty-four million pounds. Tobacco was one of the enumerated commodities, so practically all of this trade went to England or to English colonies. This meant that the three tobacco colonies were bound somewhat closer to England than were any of the others. The tobacco was carried mostly in English ships, and these in turn brought back the English manufactured goods which the planters bought. The figures regarding this trade seem almost too big to believe. As early as 1692, in less than six months, one hundred thirty-six ships entered English ports from Virginia and Maryland, and in 1706, one fleet of nearly three hundred vessels entered, from the tobacco colonies alone. The whole economic life of Virginia was bound up more or less directly with this trade, and the prosperity of the planters depended on the price of tobacco in England. This varied, from year to year, as did the charges for shipping, so the planter could never tell just what his crop would bring. What he did was to run an account with an English merchant. The planter bought his supplies, generally on credit, from the merchant, and then sent his tobacco crop over when it matured. So the Virginians were practically always in debt. In the eighteenth century, as the settlements moved into the back country, farmers in both Virginia and Maryland began to raise wheat. After 1740, Baltimore grew steadily in wealth and in population, with a prosperity based largely upon the export of wheat. This crop had one distinct advantage over tobacco. It was not enumerated, so it could be shipped anywhere. In all the southern colonies there was considerable domestic manufacturing on the plantations. Coarse cotton and woolen cloth was produced for the slaves, but none was made for export. THE MIDDLE COLONIES The economic life in the middle colonies was far more varied and diversified than was that in the plantation colonies to the south. There were two groups to be considered here, one, including Pennsylvania, Delaware, and West Jersey, with a commercial center at Philadelphia, and the other including New York, East Jersey, and Western Connecticut, with its center at New York. The agricultural products of the Pennsylvania group included grain and live stock, especially hogs and cattle; these furnished much of the material for the export trade going out from Philadelphia. To the West Indies, the merchants of Philadelphia sent grain, flour, salt meat, and lumber. They had agents in all parts of the world, and Philadelphia ships were known in all the "seven seas." Few of their exports went to England. Therefore, the business interests of the middle colonies tied the merchants closely to the West Indies, and to their other markets. Even though most of their imports came from England, as did those of nearly all the colonies, there was little, if any, sense of economic dependence on the northern country. By the middle of the eighteenth century Philadelphia, with a population of fifty thousand, had become the largest city of the English colonies. Between 1727 and 1766, the records show a total of about sixteen hundred fifty ships under Philadelphia registry, of which seven hundred thirty-seven were built in Philadelphia. It is not surprising that the Quakers of the early Revolutionary period had a reputation for sound business judgment, and that Quaker simplicity became synonymous with the simplicity of wealth and elegance. These spiritual successors of William Penn were undoubtedly prosperous, and they knew how to spend their money. Although a Boston Yankee by birth and early training, Benjamin Franklin was in a way typical of the city which he helped to make famous. If the Philadelphians revealed any one trait, it was a tendency to deal astutely with the world, to concern themselves very slightly with abstract matters, and to take full advantage of those physical comforts which their commercial keenness made possible for them. The atmosphere of Philadelphia was not the kind to produce martyrs. The Colonial period was one of comparatively little manufacturing in Pennsylvania. The farmers' wives made homespun, and there was a good deal of iron worked up, but all was for domestic consumption, not for export. The development in this field was destined to come later. The economic interests of New York were similar to those of Philadelphia. Furs perhaps bulked larger in the total export trade than they did in Philadelphia. The other exports were much the same, consisting of the usual grain, flour, and salt meat. Most of these commodities went to West Indian markets; New York had as little interest in selling goods to England as did her neighbor to the south. The two groups of middle colonies had developed a flourishing trade of their own, which left them with a feeling of indifference to England. Membership in the empire they considered valuable, of course, but there was nothing indispensable about it. NEW ENGLAND In New England there was another economic group, with welldefined activities and interests. The New Englanders raised the same agricultural and dairy products which have been referred to in Pennsylvania and New York. In addition to farming, the New Englanders, especially along the coast, found another resource in fishing. Their boats ranged all the way from Cape Cod to the Grand Banks, while their whaling vessels could be found almost anywhere on the high seas. New England commerce was interesting and extensive. To the West Indies the merchants sent flour, meal, salt meat, salt fish, and |